Five years ago, Elaine Burton-Saindon took over the position as Coordinator for the Pembina Valley Local Immigration Partnership (PVLIP). At that time, three core priorities were identified that local newcomers really wanted PVLIP to focus on: What is a welcoming and inclusive community? How do we communicate with cultures? And, how are newcomers impacted by their transition? The last question focuses on a mental health priority.
Burton-Saindon said these three areas of focus propelled forward an action plan with the goal of creating a resource called "Connecting Cultures and Communities Guide and Toolkit" for anyone in the community to understand these needs better.
"And so, the dream was to create a toolkit or a guide that would make it easy for community members, or employers, or newcomers to understand those components. And as a result, we were able to secure a grant through Heritage Canada through the Anti Racism Action Program, which would enable us to address this in a document and include a video series that would bring the answers to these questions to our communities."
She explained this resource was based on research and feedback from local people, businesses and organizations to be used in the workplace, organization or for communities and individuals looking to better understand the needs of newcomers.
"In the beginning, it's much more of an overview of some of the content related to what is a welcoming inclusive community with tips and ideas on how to do that. It includes five videos for workplace education as well as communication through cultures, as well as for newcomers and as they settle."
While there are specific sections geared towards employers and newcomers this guide is meant for everybody.
"Then we have a middle section, which explains a little bit more about the nature of what it means to be welcoming inclusive, because sometimes those are great words, but you don't know how to break that down. And we're specifically talking, in our work, about the newcomer demographic. So, anyone who's moved from or is born from a foreign land and is living in our area, is who we are trying to connect with."
All of the components of the action plan and through the questions from those interviewed, drove them to deeper questions which are featured in the next section of the guide.
"What are microaggressions? How do I know I'm being offensive, without realizing it? And how do we pay attention to maybe the things that we say or do that might inadvertently offend someone? And we've all been there. Nothing to do with culture. We've all found a way how we've been hurt or offended with the words that we hear, but maybe this is another way to look at it from a different lens. We also recognize that when we talk about people adjusting to new culture, it's not just a workplace, it's also the language. It might be their home country is going through a turmoil, so they have family there and they're worried and there's all these layers to the stress that newcomers can hold on to."
The final section has further resources to recognize the work already done by others on this topic aside from the local research reflected in the guide. Hard and digital copies are available in both French and English at no cost
There is a survey attached to the toolkit to collect feedback over the next year to evaluate the project and gather other ideas to cover in the future projects.