The program director of Eastman Immigrant Services (EIS) looks back on their year of serving hundreds of new families and newcomers in the community.
Program director Gwen Reimer says in 2023, they welcomed around 700 newcomers to their office and helped them with settlement needs.
One of many families’ needs is the Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) program.
HIPPY helps newcomer parents prepare their three- to five-year-olds for the Canadian school system. HIPPY Home Visitors visit newcomer families to help guide them through the curriculum and different activities. The curriculum consists of pre-literacy, pre-math, social, emotional and physical skills.
“HIPPY empowering mothers means empowering children, families, and the community,” Reimer says.
In 2023, they received approval to run the program, and Reimer says they helped 20 families.
Another program they ran was the Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB), which is a way to evaluate a person’s language level. Their program doubled in size, and they were approved to offer CLB level two to seven classes.
“That was exciting for us. We saw the need, and we were able to get that for our organization,” she says.
However, they’re dealing with limited space for the English classes. She says they are looking at different possibilities for the location of the classes.
Another highlight was the increase in their employment program. This allowed them to hire their second facilitator, which Reimer says was exciting.
They wrapped up their 2023 with the Red and White Christmas Party which had 330 attendees.
“Just a great evening of fun, and we had a magic show, a singer who sang Christmas songs as well as music from the 60s. We had a Santa parade and just some fantastic cultural food,” she says.
With files from Adi Loewen.
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