Annual General Meeting

AMSSA held our 2009 AGM on September 25th at the Museum of Vancouver. The AGM gave AMSSA’s Board, staff, member agencies, funders and stakeholders a chance to celebrate and connect over good food and lively conversation.

The keynote address was given by filmmaker Monika Delmos, who spoke about her experiences filming Everybody's Children, a documentary following two unaccompanied refugee minors in Toronto. Monika kindly brought dvd copies of her film to give away and they went quickly. For those of you who did not manage to grab a copy at the meeting, Monika's wonderful film is now available to be viewed in full online here.

The last item on the agenda was the annual awards ceremony. Central Vancouver Island Multicultural Society took home the 2009 AMSSA Riasat Ali Khan Diversity Award. Executive Director Hilde Schlosar and Board President Dr. Richard Zurbrigg accepted the award on behalf of the organization. Terre Flower, Diversity Program Manager of CVIMS was given the AMSSA Service Recognition Staff Award for her wonderful work promoting diversity in her community and beyond. Mavis De Girolamo was presented with the final award of the day, the AMSSA Service Recognition Volunteer Award. Ms. De Girolamo thanked AMSSA for the award and expressed gratitude to everyone who works on behalf of newcomers and supporting diversity in Canada. Congratulations to all award winners!

AMSSA Board of Directors for 2009-2010

AMSSA would like to thank departing Board member Shawn Bellamy, who served on the AMSSA Board for two years. AMSSA welcomes new Board members Granville Johnson and William Zhang.

2010 Multifaith Calendars!

This year’s theme is ‘Cherishing Earth's Bounty ’. With the growing population and diversity in Canada, it is important to have a stronger knowledge and understanding of other cultures and religious occasions. This is a great opportunity to further your commitment in diversity to staff, clients and friends. The Multifaith Calendar can also act as a fundraising tool for your organization. We offer discounts on large orders.

Please go to http://www.amssa.org/calendar/index.htm or email AMSSA's Calendar Coordinator Irada at amssastore@amssa.org for more details.

Safe Harbour BC

The City of Burnaby won the first ever Safe Harbour Champion Award on Tuesday November 3, 2009. The Affiliation of Multicultural Services and Societies Agencies of BC and the Safe Harbour: Respect for All program presented the award to the City of Burnaby in recognition of their outstanding work as a diversity champion.

The Safe Harbour Champion Award was presented on Respect for All Day at the inaugural Safe Harbour Champion’s Breakfast. The Breakfast was held to celebrate Canada's increasing cultural diversity and to recognize business leaders who have strengthened their business through embracing multiculturalism. Breakfast attendees included members of the business community, government representatives and community leaders.

Organizing partners for the Breakfast event included: the Burnaby Board of Trade, Burnaby Family Life, as well as the South Burnaby Neighborhood House. Speakers included Mr. George Moen, the President of Blenz, The Canadian Coffee Company, Inspector John de Haas, Inspector in Command of the Diversity & Aboriginal Policing Section of the Vancouver Police Department, as well as representatives from Safe Harbour participants Lougheed Town Centre and the Pacific Community Resources Society.

Congratulations to the City of Burnaby and to our other award finalists TD Canada Trust Kelowna, Pacific Community Resources Society, The Medicine Shoppe South Vancouver Location, and the Vancouver Island Musicfest.

Photos from the Breakfast event can be viewed on the Safe Harbour blog: http://safeharbourblog.wordpress.com

National Safe Harbour: Respect for All

Update on National Expansion

Alberta
Safe Harbour is reaching into rural towns and villages throughout Alberta. The Central Alberta Refugee Effort (C.A.R.E.) has introduced Safe Harbour to business owners, non-profits, libraries, and elected officials in Innisfail, Blackfalds, Olds & District, Rocky Mountain House, Three Hills, Trochu, Caroline, Carbon, Acme and Linden, bringing the total number of Safe Harbour communities in Alberta to fifteen.

A sample of new Safe Harbour-certified locations in Central Alberta include: Career Assistance Network, Central AB AIDS Network Society, Blackfalds Neighborhood Place, Innisfail RV & Storage Ltd., Rocky Mountain House Public Library, Mountaineer Publishing Company, Red Deer Crisis Centre, CanWest Travel in Red Deer and Lacombe, and 7 locations of Kneehill Family Resource Programs. The Canadian Tire store in Fort McMurray recently came on board and AMSSA has contacted other Canadian Tire store managers in Alberta to introduce them to the Safe Harbour program after learning of their new marketing strategy to connect with newcomers.

Manitoba
AMSSA is working with the Manitoba Interfaith Immigration Council Inc. and Community Organizers to recruit Safe Harbour locations in six communities across the province. The program has been introduced to Safeway, Ten Thousand Villages, the Canadian Red Cross, the City of Winnipeg, and the Winnipeg Citizen Equity Committee. The United Way has also shown great interest in participating in the training in up to 100 of their offices. We are thrilled by the response!

Newfoundland
AMSSA is proud to announce partnerships with the Association for New Canadians as a Lead Organization for Newfoundland and the NL Native Friendship Centre and Planned Parenthood: NL Sexual Health Centre are our newest Community Organizers in St. John’s.

Respect for All – Pass It On
Our network of Friends of Safe Harbour is growing across the country. They each receive a monthly Respect for All E-Newsletter and are encouraged to wear blue Respect for All wristbands on the first Tuesday of every month, Respect for All Day. We encourage anyone interested in supporting Safe Harbour to subscribe here:
http://www.safeharbour.ca/alberta/stories.cfm

AMSSA Introduces a New Settlement Research Website

On October 14, 2009, AMSSA officially launched the AMSSA Research Connections (ARC) website.  ARC was funded by Metropolis BC, and features a database of MBC Research Papers from 1996 to present. It was designed to make finding research papers on issues in BC migration and settlement as easy and efficient as possible.

The site features research exploring nine themes:

Users can browse research by theme, or can perform an advanced search allowing them to look for papers based on theme, geographic region, population group, keyword, author name, or any combination of these parameters.  Brief summaries of each paper allow users to quickly scan for the research that best meets their needs and the full papers can be downloaded in PDF format.

The site also features a multimedia page featuring the videos from our AMSSA Research Connections (ARC) E-Symposia held earlier this year, links to other useful research-related sites, and BC’s only comprehensive glossary of immigration and settlement terms and acronyms.

Check out the new site at www.amssa.org/arc!

AMSSA Newcomers Children's Advocate Program

AMSSA’s Newcomer Children’s Advocate program has been busy developing a website on newcomer children’s issues with the generous support from the United Way of the Lower Mainland.  The website will support frontline workers, service providers, policy makers, and educators by providing current resources, research, professional development, links, and curriculum.  A variety of topics will be explored including the issues, risk factors, strategies and best practices influencing the successful development of newcomer children aged 0-12. Please look out for our launch early in the new year.

We are also working on a monthly bulletin that will examine various issues related to newcomer children including the unique needs, risks, and best practices when working with newcomer children.  It will explore the topics such as language acquisition, refugees, settlement, ESL, children of temporary workers, early childhood education, intergenerational conflicts, identity, multiculturalism, learning styles, and family dynamics.  We will be sharing information from researchers, front line workers, experts, educators and organizations who are working to help newcomer children succeed.

AMSSA's Program Director Tim Welsh will be going on Adoption Leave in December. Tim will be away from December 4th through to the beginning of April. During that time, Jennifer Basu will be Acting Program Director and Alexandra Charlton will be Acting Sectoral Support Coordinator.

Congratulations Tim. The AMSSA team wish you all the best with your new addition!

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