in Chatsworth, Grey Highlands, Southgate, West Grey
October 02, 2024
BY JOHN BUTLER — Grey and Bruce are better places because of newcomers says Suneet Kukreja, Manager of Settlement and Language Services for the YMCA of Owen Sound Grey Bruce. And newcomers eventually contribute to the economy and work force as a result of the support they receive from their new communities, she maintains.
A window into the relationship between newcomers and communities will be opened during a free panel discussion entitled “Stories of Immigration: Showcasing Cultural Diversity”, hosted by the Probus Club in cooperation with the Kimberley Community Association and the Grey Highlands Public Library. This celebratory and exploratory event, to which the public is invited, will be held on Wednesday October 9 at 2:00 pm at the Kimberley Hall, 235309 Grey Rd 13 in the village of Kimberley (doors open at 1:30 pm.)
The panel will be moderated by Shelley Bell-White, an experienced settlement worker in schools with the local YMCA’s Settlement and Language Services Program, and will include the perspectives of three other panellists — women who have successfully integrated with assistance from the YMCA and other local resources:
Kereem, originally from Jamaica, who has been in Canada for five years;
Summayya — originally from Syria — who came here five years ago;
Galyna, from Ukraine, who has been here for three years.
Suneet is delighted that her senior staffer Shelley is part of this panel. “Shelly has worked extensively in our school programs, she knows the other panellists very well, and she is someone who brings her heart as well as her mind to our work.”
The YMCA’s Settlement and Language Services Program was established in 2020, with funding from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, a department of the Government of Canada. No money from the municipal tax base in Grey or Bruce goes to fund the program. From its original complement of three staff, it currently comprises thirteen staff who provide service in 17 municipalities in Grey and Bruce, and in 48 schools in the counties. As well, it relies on the commitment of twelve volunteers, and it welcomes more — anyone interested in volunteering can contact the program via an email to Suneet at settlement@osgb.ymca.ca (skill in a language other the English is not a requirement for volunteers.)
The Y’s Settlement and Language Services Program serves permanent residents (also called landed immigrants) without Canadian citizenship; people who have received an approval-in-principle letter for their application for permanent residence; refugees; other people deemed by the Government of Canada to need protection; and temporary workers or students who have obtained initial approval for an application for permanent residence.
Its programs include:
Suneet describes the Community Connections program as a stellar example of community cooperation. In partnership with community agencies such as libraries, the program provides monthly opportunities for newcomers to experience Canadian life and culture. Visits to museums, trips to the beach, opportunities to go fishing Canada-style, fire safety lessons in partnership with fire departments, and opportunities to witness Indigenous culture and ceremonies through partnership with First Nations (particularly during Indigenous History Month) have all been part of this program. These activities have helped newcomers to establish enduring friendships with other Canadians, says Suneet. Community Connections, along with the Y’s workplace and school-based programs, are all part of the supportive network strategy embraced by this YMCA service — a realization that the Y doesn’t work alone — it needs and feeds collaboration. Suneet cites participation of newcomer families in school tours, so they can learn how school system works, as an example of the fruits of interagency collaboration.
She also points to the success of the Y’s English language classes, also known as its LINC program — Language Instruction for Newcomers. Offered Monday to Friday in the afternoon and evening, this program currently serves 130 learners.
In light of a recent national YMCA study showing that six in ten Canadians surveyed have little or no sense of community, Suneet points out the her program’s services play a vital role in community-building across Grey and Bruce. These connections help newcomers to foster a sense of community, predicated on helping each other to become full participants in Canadian society. And these services also help newcomers to become part of the “mainstream” community, bringing to it their own unique strengths and contributions.
Suneet points out that the geography of Grey and Bruce, with much of their populations scattered across a large swath of territory in little towns and rural areas, poses difficulties for newcomers seeking employment in rural areas and leaves them at risk of social isolation. It also poses challenges of access to her program’s services — difficulties that are only overcome through inter-agency collaboration. She offers unstinting praise to libraries across Grey and Bruce, health facilities like the Dundalk Erskine campus of the South East Grey Community Health Centre, and other partners for making working space available to her staff as they travel beyond their Owen Sound headquarters to provide service. It also has a sub-office in Hanover. And given the lack of much public transportation services in the counties, her program subsidizes taxi costs and bus passes for its clients. Suneet points out too that it is important to appreciate the degree to which newcomers are willing to band together to help each other — through shared transportation to events and resources for instance — and her program works hard to support newcomer-to-newcomer support networks.
Suneet knows that some Canadians perceive services provided to newcomers as a kind of expensive frill, providing resources not available to Canadians who are not newcomers. She hopes, however, that all Canadians will see newcomers as people who spur Canada’s economic growth and as a source of skilled and often scarce human resources — a valued part of economic productivity in our country’s aging population base. Statistics show that newcomers often create new businesses and the jobs that go with these businesses, and the purchasing power of newcomers bolsters all sectors of our economy. She also points out that newcomers add to the cultural vibrancy of Canada — to the nation’s cuisine, its arts, and all other areas of cultural achievement. The Y’s programs, then, can be seen as an investment allowing newcomers to more quickly and fully enrich our culture and economy. Says Suneet, “Newcomers are ready to work. They’re ready to contribute. We help them to do it.”
While Suneet is reluctant to use herself as an example, her own experience in Canada highlights how newcomers contribute. With a background in biochemistry and science teaching, she arrived in Canada with her husband and daughter from Punjab in India in 2015. In addition to her work with the YMCA she teaches math and chemistry part-time at Georgian College. Her husband is a lawyer and her daughter is now enrolled in university here. Suneet is also an elected member of Owen Sound’s Municipal Council.
Suneet welcomes you to join Shelley, Kereem, Summayya and Galyna to learn much more about immigration and the newcomer experience at the Probus panel discussion in Kimberley on Wednesday, October 9.
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