Abbotsford Local Immigration Partnership Council

Minutes

Abbotsford Local Immigration Partnership Council

January 12, 2017 · 2pm to 4pm

Present / Regrets
Balbir Gill
Camila Boisvert
Danielle Nazarewich
Dave Loewen
Gugan Sidhu
John Potts
Lia Bishop
Nicola Mooney
Varinder Dhesi
Sue Federspiel / Allan Asaph
Ajay Kaushal
Dave Sidhu
Ghizlaine Laghzaoui
Hillary Russell – Alternate Balbir Gill
Ruth Meehan
Scot Friskey
Stephen Piper – Alternate Nicola Mooney
Tina Stewart

Meeting Opening and Introductions

Approvals

Agenda approved

November 3rd Minutes approved

Follow Up

-  TOR Updates have been approved since last meeting via e-mail. TOR is uploaded on the website.

-  Reminder to members – Update any information about ALIP to its new name ex. Websites, or documents.

-  Actions taken in response to public incidences of racism

Question was posed to the council: What is our role in responding to public incidences of racism? Table discussed this, no decisions were made, and two action items came out of the discussion.

Action Item: Gather diversity and inclusion statements from each organization

Action Item: Discuss with ACS leadership team, how incidences of discrimination should be addressed by ACS.

NEW BUSINESS

Implementing Priorities for 2017-2020

Federal Government has approved funding for ALIP for the next three years.

Table discussed how to implement the top five priorities outlined at prior meeting.

·  Media and Communications Working Group

-Invite press to a meeting

-Build relationship with Abby News

-Dave Loewen has been chosen as the Abbotsford leader for Canada 150. He can promote ALIP through

-An ad hoc committee could work on a media and communications plan for the next year or three.

- Columnist Ken Herar could write a story on ALIP as well.

-A press release sharing the direction of ALIP for the next 3 years should be shared with membership

-Members would like a write up sharing ALIP’s accomplishments thus far.

-A question was raised whether we need to revisit the original research regarding settlement in Abbotsford. Perhaps the 3 focus areas are not relevant any more.

·  Membership Working Group

-Need to revisit group structure to better utilize the people resources and time

-Revisit the time of meetings to ensure engaged members can attend and give them priority

-A ad hoc membership working group can be created for 6-8 weeks to revisit membership, create a list of possible organizations to invite to the council.

·  Immigrant Advisory Working Group

-Members would like a presentation of different models other LIPS have followed when adding an Immigrant Advisory Working Group to their LIP

-A group could get together to research, present and pull together an Immigrant Advisory Working Group. It should be transparent and diverse. It is very critical to get it right.

·  Networking Series/Employer Forums

-Collaborate with other WGS to host events or forums

·  Updating Resources/Research

Working Group Updates

·  Labour Market Integration

-Employer forum to be hosted by end of March. Aim is to bring together local employers and bridge them with Canada Jobs Grants

-Looking for more members

·  Social Integration

-Working on an art and social justice project with teacher and students at Robert Bateman Secondary

-3 more handouts are being worked on. 1. Why Immigrants Matter 2. Responding to Discrimination

-Applied for Canada 150 funding and received not the entire proposed amount but half of it.

-ALIP may need to create a public ethics statement

·  Research Policy and Practice

-Lia has been working on

Set Next Meetings

-  Should we have 5 meetings a year or 4?

-  Proposed months for 4 meetings a year: January, March, June, Nov

-  Proposed months for 5 meetings a year: Januar, March, June, Sept, Nov

- 

Roundtable Updates

Danielle

-2016 National LIP Conference Report will be sent out by project management team to council members
-28 of 40 refugees have arrived in Abbotsford in the last 6 weeks.

Balbir

-New to BC programs are starting in the Clearbrook library, One library Champions cycle has been completed successfully in Abbotsford.

Camilla

-A brochure on healthcare for refugees is being developed and will be translated in multiple languages.

-Collective impact group looking at mental wellness social connectedness is a part of this, looking to change the language and stigma around mental wellness with young people. Using mindfulness work

-Focus group age 24-55 (highest age group affected by mental health). Working with BC healthy Communities

OTHER BUSINESS

Presentation: Geography of Canada Research, by John Belec, PhD Associate Professor, Geography and the Environment

W’s John Belec shared research he gathered of communities in Abbotsford. T

Discussion ensued on:

Social Geographers – Focus on ethnicity and how society plays out in urban spaces. Do people organize themselves in concentrations? Things that influence where people live: socioeconomic class, age, lifestyle, ethnicity etc.

Mission and Abbotsford have 35 census tracks (small, relatively permanent statistical subdivisions of a county or equivalent entity that are updated by local participants prior to each decennial censusas part of theCensusBureau's Participant Statistical Areas Program.)

Based on the 10 identified visible minority categories in Canada, data was collected from each census track to view the percentage of minorities living in each census track.

A significant finding was that in Canada there are 43 polarized neighbourhoods (census tracks), 22 in Toronto, 20 in Vancouver, and 1 in Abbotsford. A census track in Abbotsford has 80.4% population of one single visible minority.

Roundtable Updates Continued

Nicola

Graduate program in migration and citizenship is in final stages of approval.

Sue Federspiel

Next Meetings

Thursday, March 9 2017, 2-4pm