Partners in Settlement and Integration began under SaskAbilities as a way to help immigrants overcome barriers as they joined our community. Announced at the Festival of Cultures, on January 1 the organization will become its own independent entity, changing to the East Central Newcomer Welcome Centre.
Edith Montesclaros, executive director of the East Central Newcomer Welcome Centre, says that for their clients, the services on offer will be the same, and they will work with the same team. The funding will remain the same as well.
“It’s completely the same team, and we’re providing services to the same group of people, newcomers and immigrants in East Central Saskatchewan.”
They will not be going to the same physical location, as the offices are moving from Smith Street to a new location at 132 Broadway which is currently being renovated.
There will also be a new service for young newcomers in the region. Two new staff members will focus on students under 18 years of age through a settlement workers in school program, and Montesclaros expects them to start in February.
“Newcomer students have different issues from their parents. They have to adapt to their new schools, new friends, they were uprooted. They started school in their own countries and were used to that, so now they’re coming to face new challenges as a student in the schools here. Plus the language barrier, there’s more.”
The agency is going independent due to a shift in focus for SaskAbilities. With the organization focusing more on disabilities, Partners in Settlement and Integration did not fit into the evolving SaskAbilities as well.
“Because of the change, we have to be a complete separate entity.”
Their services, however, remain in high demand in the Yorkton area. Montesclaros notes that the foreign worker program is seeing more people come to the area who are also bringing their families with them. Montesclaros notes that Yorkton is also seeing a large amount of immigration from within Canada, especially from Alberta, as well as immigration from larger centres as people want to move to a smaller town. Montesclaros notes that with immigration in Canada the federal government is focused on bringing people to smaller and rural communities, and they hope that this region sees a lot of immigration as a result of these initiatives.
