Regardless of shifting policies around immigration intake and accompanying funding mechanisms, the Prairie Gateway Settlement Services (formerly the Humboldt Regional Newcomer Center), has carried on in a rock steady fashion over the last year in providing quality service to new settlers in the area. As part of its reporting at the Annual General Meeting on September 15 in its new offices at 606 9th St. in Humboldt, the number is showing the highest new to region clients in the organization's history.
As part of her Executive Director’s message, Janine Hart noted that the Settlement Workers in Schools Department “sees continual growth and registration and participation in our partnering school divisions requiring the support of staff and daily interactions.”
Attached to the PGSS’s efforts are Connecting Grids and its outreach initiatives. Helmed by Eilish McAnally, Connecting Grids participated in the Emotional Common Ground Territory Screening and Sharing Circle, which demonstrated powerful community-wide impact, and the completion of a gender-based analysis plus project along with the train the trainer manual.
In explaining “what is settlement”, Hart acknowledged that families arrived often experiencing traumatic wounds and stories of war, political unrest, loss, separation from loved ones, all of which comes as baggage with families to be managed. She notes that the initial welcome can significantly influence whether clients feel safe or retraumatized. Those key moments of first contact are always gentle respectful and consistent, offering a safe space in which to unpack and begin a settlement process.
The evening proceeded with additional acknowledgements of programming and the staff’s work and dedication toward the well-being of their clients. Employment programs, child and youth services, Student Workers in Schools, are just a few of those critical programs
The evening also included an overview of the current financial assets as undertaken by HSA, whose representative said that all funds and assets are well accounted for, and the financial review received a green light.
Among the noticeable changes that came about in the past year were two of note: one a change of name and branding; the other a change of location.
Hart spoke about both of these, starting with the relocation
“So, we moved here in April and the primary reasons really were that we were growing as an organization and the staff needed private office space,” Hart explained. “We needed a collective kind of area where we could do our programming in-house. We could invite other agencies in-house and clients could have private meeting space. That was the main reason.”
A secondary reason, she explained, was that they were to be providing support space for staff from the Tisdale and Melfort region. With the growth of the organization and the continued demand for space, in concert with the demand for services, the need for an adaptive space was key. There is also a key mental health component for staff members.
“Your staff's mental well-being is a priority when you're leading a growing organization, and to have access as a collective to the gym space as well, it just builds a kind of belonging in a space. We have other people coming in and using the space as a collective. We have the senior ladies that come through and it just adds a feeling of well-being for my team as well.”
The name shift has coming as a concerted branding maneuver that better reflects the nature of the ongoing organization, Hart explained in her Executive Director’s Message,
“We have listened to our stakeholders and moved to a mew marketing name which reflects where and who we are in this space. We are the Gateway to all newcomers, not only those residing in the city of Humboldt but to those throughout the region.”
“We decided on changing the names as we moved office location so that we're not only serving the city of Humboldt and surrounding region, we are central to the province and we're that gateway for services, whether that's for settlement services or whether that's a gateway to access other mainstream organizations and services that all of our clients need,” Hart revealed in a discussion following the meeting.
Hart says that the increase in clients is not about immigrants coming into Canada at this point; it’s about migration of those who are already here.
“We're seeing people move from other provinces into our province, and so, they may already be permanent residents. They may have already gone through the process of immigration. We're serving a lot of new clients that are new to our region but may already be permanent residents.
We're also seeing temporary foreign workers that are moving in from other regions, whether that's in the province of Saskatchewan or indeed out of the province. They may be moving from Alberta, from out east as temporary foreign workers and have been hired into positions to fill labour shortage gaps in our region and are already on that pathway to becoming permanent residents.”
With a new name and with a new space, Prairie Gateway Settlement Services continues to partner with community agencies to provided unique programs and drops, not only for newcomers, but the broader community as well. Watch up for upcoming announcements on events.