Jewish Immigrant Aid Services of Canada

President and Executive Director’s Report

Presented to the Annual Membership Meeting

 Montreal, 5 December, 2004

2003/2004 has been another significant year in our transition. Much could be said about the challenges the organization has faced during the year, but we will focus on the highlights of our activities. 

Activities

Our daily activities include carrying a large caseload of open cases  (134) handled by the National Office, and responding to enquiries from individual clients and service providers (852).  We traveled to communities across Canada, and participated in the workings of various NGOs including CCR (Canadian Council for Refugees), SAHs (Sponsorship Agreement Holders), UNHCR (United Nations High Commission on Refugees) AJFCA (Association of Jewish Family and Child Agencies), the World Jewish Russian Congress and others.  While traveling to communities, we met with both service providers and Federations. 

We continued our role as a “clearing house”, receiving and processing information on immigration and settlement issues, trends and policies, and then disseminating it to the service providers and other affiliates across the country.

Advocacy Taskforce

The Advocacy Taskforce, chaired by Mira Thow, has been working on such issues as delays in processing of  “Family Class 4” cases ( parents and grandparents), the challenges of “skilled worker “ immigration to Canada under the current Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA), acculturation to Canadian norms and standards for prospective immigrants and refugees as part of pre-migration counseling overseas. JIAS is currently working with CIJA and CJC on these matters.  The Taskforce is preparing for an upcoming meeting with Minister Sgro.

Overseas Visits

Earlier this year Mila Voihanski visited Visa Posts responsible for processing cases from the FSU.  She met with Immigration Section Program Managers in Moscow, Kiev, London, Vienna and Warsaw. She also met with the Director of Quebec Immigration Service in Europe.   Discussions included advocacy for some very special cases, for example a five-year-old orphan joining her aunt and uncle in Canada.   In addition to meeting with the Canadian Government, there were meetings with HIAS directors in Vienna, Moscow and Kiev, the Moscow Bureau for Human Rights and World Jewish Relief in London.    The on-going relationship with Visa Posts has proven to be vital to our ability to advocate on behalf of clients.  These visits are particularly invaluable in advocating for special cases. A full report is available in our office.

By-Laws 

JIAS Canada’s amended By-Laws were approved by Industry Canada in February 2004.   Once again we want to extend our thanks to Bonnie Osoff-Bultz and Shlomo Mayman for the hours of work they invested in updating and amending the By-laws on behalf of the Board.  

JIAS Heritage Cookbook

We have recently launched a project commemorating our 9^th decade of service - a Heritage JIAS Cookbook   The book will include an informative, interesting, anecdotal narrative of the history of JIAS from its founding to the present day.  It will feature mouth-watering recipes, which will be collected from across the country from former and recent Jewish immigrants to Canada symbolizing the various waves of Jewish immigration to Canada from around the world since JIAS first opened its doors in 1922.  Each recipe will be accompanied by a story about the donor including, for example, what life was like in his/her country of origin.  The Committee, which already consists of 25 dedicated volunteers, has now divided into subcommittees, which will perform such tasks as “gathering recipes and stories” “interviewing potential recipe donors”,  “testing and tasting” and fundraising for the project.  At a later stage Committees will be formed to select recipes, to work on layout and design, and to market the book.  We are hoping to complete the project by Channukah 2006, but realize that it will take a lot of work, and we are looking for more dedicated volunteers from across the country to help us accomplish this deadline. 

Newsletter 

The JIAS Canada electronic newsletter highlights activities in various communities, news in the field of immigration and settlement, accomplishments of clients and other matters related to JIAS and its partners. Our newsletter has been praised for its diversity and interest.   It is produced quarterly with the help of a very committed volunteer Joanne Brodkin.  We welcome articles and news from the community.

Scholarships

This year we handed out 26 Scholarships to students across the country.  Of those, two were John Hirsch Scholarships for the Arts, one for an artist and one for a musician.  We once again received a generous donation from Michael Herling for a scholarship in his and his late wife’s name.  All those receiving the scholarships are in full-time post secondary education for the academic year 2004/2005.

Working Group

As a result of the recommendation of our funder, UIAFC, we have created a “Working Group” comprised of all the Executive Directors of JFS Agencies, JIAS Toronto and JIAS Montreal to ensure that all our partners are involved in our activities and provide input into our service priorities. The Group meets regularly by teleconference to discuss such issues as Government resettlement funding, training needs, standards of service, etc.   Priorities for the Working Group will be discussed at the Canadian AJFCA meeting in Montreal on December 5^th and 6^th.

National Loan Program.  

We have taken over the collection of our loans from the Toronto Jewish Free Loan Cassa, and engaged someone to carry out the program internally.  

She has dedicated a great deal of time to locating those who have not met their commitments in the last six years.  It is our objective to reactivate all cases under six years, as these clients are still legally liable.  Ten percent of those cases have already been reactivated.   The monthly payments have increased by over 100%.     

It is a very challenging task, as many clients have not been approached for quite some time, and a number have moved since they were last contacted.

Agency Strategic Review

For the past several years the “business of the operations” of JIAS Canada has overshadowed its policy and advocacy work.   Faced with a 40% reduction of the UIAFC funding of our operations and other challenges, the Board made a decision, in May 2004, to strike a Planning and Priorities Committee, chaired by Linda Steingarten, to conduct a Strategic Review of the organization.  The objective of the review was re-evaluating the work of the organization, assessing its mission and articulating its future vision and direction.

Following an open tender process, the Planning and Priorities Committee engaged an independent consultant Joan Blight of Strategic Philanthropy to help facilitate this process. Joan will produce a report with an overview of the feedback obtained in the interviews of 50 various stakeholders, as well as the data analysis.   Following in-depth consideration by the Board, input will be sought from the funders and service partners. This feedback will be taken into account prior to developing a vision for the future of JIAS Canada and a proposed plan of action. The final report is expected early in 2005.

This weekend is a pivotal point in the process of the Strategic Review and we have a lot of work ahead of us.  All together we will undertake a major, in-depth “renovation process” in order to bring about necessary change and step up to the challenge of redesigning our future while maintaining the integrity of our Agency.

We want to take this opportunity to thank the Board and Executive for hours of hard work, dedication and commitment. We also want to thank our service delivery partners throughout the country for providing the highest level of service to our clients.

Special thanks to the Audit Committee chaired by Fred Florence. Our sincere appreciation and thanks to Barbara Held for her tireless work and commitment. And, of course, a very special thanks to all our volunteers who help us rise to our challenges.  We look forward to working with all of you this next year to bring JIAS Canada to the next level.

Leslie Wilder                                                 Mila Voihanski President                                                       Executive Director