A Newmarket-based non-profit organization received a $200,000 grant from the provincial government to provide enhanced training and coaching opportunities for its leadership team.
The Social Enterprise for Canada was the recipient of an Ontario Trillium Foundation Resilient Communities Fund grant to strengthen leadership, build organizational effectiveness, improve cybersecurity, and engage staff to better serve the community.
“The funding was primarily to invest in our leadership team and strengthen the capacity of our team,” said Darcy MacCallum, chief executive officer of Social Enterprise for Canada at a ceremony at the Newmarket Welcome Centre Immigrant Services on June 21. “The services of our front-line staff become stronger when they have effective leadership guiding them, listening to them and hearing their ideas so we can make adjustments as needed to our clients.”
The social enterprise develops and manages social services for families, youth, children, and newcomers. Staff help immigrants transition in Canada, providing pathways to career accreditation while assisting them with child care, language translation, and interpretation services.
Azar Mohammadghorbanian is an immigrant from Iran. She has lived in Canada for nine years and attends English-as-a-second-language classes at the Welcome Centre with other immigrants from around the world. She has been attending classes for two years.
“I am retired,” she said. “I want to learn to speak English to communicate with everyone and communicate with my neighbours.”
The organization works with the York Catholic District School Board, the Housing Help Centre, the Canadian Mental Health Association, Achev, the Food Network of York Region, York Regional Police, Service Canada, Carefirst Seniors and Community Services, and the Newmarket Public Library.
“We are the manager of the Newmarket Welcome Centre Immigrant Services, which is a collaborative hub with other organizations,” said MacCallum. “Our primary service within this space is foreign credential recognition. When immigrants come to Canada, and they are internationally trained, we help them navigate the pathway to get their credentials here in Canada that will be commensurate with their country of origin.”
The organization provides accreditation qualification information services and manages three EarlyON Child & Family Centres, supervised parenting time programs, and a multilingual central communication centre.
Mohammadghorbanian moved to Canada after her daughter invited her to live with her, as she was living alone in Iran. She had a presentation in her class about the City of Ottawa after visiting it twice.
“There is a lot of sightseeing,” said Mohammadghorbanian. “Parliament, National War Memorial, National Gallery of Canada and national food. Beaver Tail is so delicious.”
The organization had more than 20,000 people visit the Newmarket Welcome Centre, held 24 information and orientation sessions, had more than 14,000 students attend language classes and about 2,000 clients attend appointments with associate partners.
The multilingual central communication centre had 27,257 calls answered, 1,741 interpretations in more than 14 languages, and about 47,833 at the EarlyON centre.
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