NEW PROGRAM INITIATIVES AND WORK FOR NEWCOMERS TO TORONTO

by Janis Roth, Executive Director, JIAS Toronto

Women's Initiatives

JIAS Toronto has received a grant from the Jewish Women's Venture Philanthropy Fund (JWVPF) to implement a Woman to Woman Work Mentoring project.  The JWVPF was launched by UJA Federation and consists of a group of women active in, and supportive of, the community, who want to improve and enhance the lives of women.

The goal of the Woman to Woman Work Mentoring project is to facilitate Canadian work experience for Jewish women newcomers.  Despite their higher education, experience and language skills, new immigrants, as we all know, face tremendous barriers to employment.  This project aims to ease the struggle by creating work-focused support connections for the immigrant.

Briefly stated, the project involves matching a small group of immigrant women with Canadian women, providing them with work related educational workshops and then providing the immigrant women with an opportunity to volunteer in their Canadian mentor's workplace to gain hands-on experience.  The immigrant women have been matched, where possible, according to their professional and career interests.  At the time of writing, the group has met once and the beginnings of support circles for work have emerged.  Mentors are lending their experiences with, for example, resumes that "work" and the newcomers are sharing their talents and hopes.  Networking is starting to take place to fill the huge gap of the work relationships left behind.  There is the excitement of opportunity in the air, the possibility of "leveling the work playing field" for immigrant women!

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Working with Teens

A second major initiative involves newcomer youth.  JIAS Toronto applied for and received a Newcomer Grant from United Way to help reach out to and connect with teens.  The program ensures a welcoming component and the creation of a buddy system between the immigrant teen and his/her Canadian peers.  In addition, each participant is eligible for community service hours (a high school requirement in Toronto).  Ultimately, we are planning for both groups of teens to help educate and sensitize the community to the immigrant experience through a "road show" program aimed at elementary schools and other community audiences.