Detalles del evento

On behalf of the Mennonite New Life Centre and our Newcomer
Advocacy Committee, we would like to invite you to participate in our
community forum “Refusing to settle for less: Newcomer policy
recommendations to overcome poverty”. This forum will be held on Saturday
March 27th from 9:30 am to 4:30 pm in our meeting space at 1774 Queen
Street East. We expect to attract an audience of 100-150 people, drawn from
newcomer communities, the community service sector, organized labour,
business, and government.
The Mennonite New Life Centre is a vibrant, multi-cultural settlement
agency for newcomers, with a vision for a city and province where people
from diverse cultural and religious backgrounds participate fully in the
social, economic and political life of Toronto and Ontario. Our programs bring
together community engagement and community services, working together
with newcomers to reduce insecurity and enable integration, strengthen
voices and increase social equality. Our Newcomer Advocacy Committee is a
vehicle for engaging newcomers in civic participation. This Committee has
led the design and organization of our March 27 Forum.
One of the key purposes of the forum is to present public policy
recommendations arising from a participatory action research project on
access to fair and meaningful employment for newcomers. From June to
August 2009, the Mennonite New Life Centre conducted a series of seven
focus groups, engaging newcomers from diverse cultural and professional
backgrounds in collective analysis of employment barriers and the
formulation of policy recommendations to improve access to the labour
market. During the forum, we hope to engage a wide variety of stakeholders in dialogue regarding newcomer employment challenges and policy proposals,
and to identify new ways of working together so that newcomers might
contribute their skills and their ideas to this country.
Your participation is key to the success of this forum. We look forward
to hearing your experiences, ideas and proposals for improving access to fair
and meaningful employment for newcomers and building strong and inclusive
communities where immigrants and refugees participate fully in civic life.
Your experience in this area will help us to identify the proposals and
strategies with the greatest potential for success.