CultureLink is a well-established mid-sized settlement organization that celebrated its 20^th anniversary last year. It started in the late 80’s with the Host program but formally became incorporated in 1992. It is a not for profit registered charity and is run by Members of board who are volunteers and very interested in helping the community. Furthermore, the Executive Director and the staff at CultureLink work endlessly to bring help to new immigrants to settle down in the community.

Francisco Vidal, manager of youth host program at CultureLink tells Generation Next that the Host program was invented here that made Culture Link pretty important, “Host program is a one-on-one settlement service where we recruit tons of Canadian host volunteers. We pair them up with newcomers in a one-on-one basis or a family setting so they can meet for at least 2 hours for a period of 6 months and that way the newcomer has a person who can provide a lot of support. When you move to a new country you have no one or no family, and that one person becomes your host. It is a great way to help newcomers settle.”

Torontonians can participate in this endeavor by becoming volunteers if they have lived in Toronto for 3 years, are permanent residents or citizens and they have lived in the demographical location where the immigrants are settling down.

Mr. Vidal says that CultureLink really grew from the Host program and now has several other programs running effectively. These programs include the Host program, job search program, the newcomer settlement program which is basically settlement assistance for refugee claimants or immigrants in terms of immigration applications, legal procedures, housing, shelter, food, social assistance, anything you can think of that you would need once you have settled here in Canada.

Also, they have the library settlement partnership, which is a great way of making their services available over the weekend. Mr. Vidal explains that a lot of immigrants work 9-5 but ‘they need services from our part, so we have put three different settlement workers in three libraries so they can go and access our services over the weekends as we are open only from Monday to Friday. Through our library partnership it’s easier for people to have access to us.’

Along with this they have Roma center, which caters to the needs of refugee claimants from the Roma people, especially coming from Eastern Europe, Czech Republic, Hungary and some places in the former Yugoslavia.

Their newcomer senior center that has started this year, is geared towards helping seniors who are either landed immigrants or citizens and never had the chance to have language instructions (LINC classes). Sometimes they are very marginalized and live in isolation. With this program they try to empower them to build their own community, by providing all the resources for group activities to share their knowledge.

In newcomer youth center, they serve youth between the ages of 14-24 regardless of their residency status. You don’t need to have permanent residence status or a refugee claim. There are many people who have overstayed their visa and its mandatory for them to go to school. In the schools in TDSB and Catholic school board, they can have access to services inside the school but outside of school CultureLink tries to complement the services for a lot of kids who don’t qualify for various reasons for different services.

Their SEP program covers 23 high schools within TDSB in Southwest quadrant of Toronto. 16 counselors who rotate within the 23 schools help one-on-one with the parents who don’t speak English on how to navigate the system, how to support their kids in terms of services for homework, etc.

CultureLink has also taken the initiative to be environmentally friendly and promote this awareness within the newcomers as well.

They formed a partnership last year between the Toronto cyclist union and CultureLink, “we decided to take the root of leading Green Settlement, it’s basically blending environmental public education and take newcomers into environment initiatives and so our first initiative is to promote cycling from our home, among newcomers, especially those newcomers who come from countries with a well established cycling culture, like China, India, Pakistan, Philippines. We try to reverse the trend of abandoning cycling as a sustainable transportation habit. So, with the aim of reducing CO2 in Toronto, we are funded by the LIVE GREEN community investment from the city of Toronto.”

According to their annual report, CultureLink has helped 14,050 clients through its settlement programs that are designed to help newcomers settle, to contribute to the economy, social and political life.

They also have a partnership with other agencies to accommodate the needs of LGBTQ new comers and refugees, “We have a partnership between Access Alliance and 519 Community center called Among Friends where we try to train other settlement providers on how to create safe spaces for the queer community in Toronto.”

Author: Saniya Zahid