In 1997, when CIC began to develop the SWIS program in ...



SWIS News and Notes

SWIS News and Notes is the newsletter of the Settlement Workers in Schools program, a partnership of the Settlement Sector, School Boards and Citizenship and Immigration Canada. This newsletter promotes communication between the steering/operations committees of the eight SWIS projects and shares information about newcomer students and their families.

Started in 1991

The Ottawa MLO Program - The Model for SWIS

In 1997, when CIC began to develop the SWIS program in Toronto and was looking for advice on how to deliver settlement services in schools, they looked to the Multicultural Liaison Officers (MLO) program in Ottawa for help.

The MLO program began in 1991 as a partnership between the Ottawa Community Immigrant Services Organization (OCISO), the Ottawa School Board (now Ottawa Carlton District School Board) and the United Way. During the development phase of the Toronto SWIS pilot, Lucila Spigelblatt, the Ottawa SWIS project-MLO program director, was contracted by CIC as a consultant to the Toronto planning group.

The MLO program receives additional funding from the Ottawa Carlton District School Board School and the United Way. As a result, in addition to the SWIS services, the MLO program has a broader mandate to deliver long term integration support to all immigrants, facilitate the involvement of all immigrant parents in their children’s education, promote positive race relations among students and provide cross cultural sensitization to school staff. In 1995, the program was expanded to Ottawa schools in the conseil des ecole publiques de l’est de l’Ontario and in 2001 to Ottawa schools in the conseil scolaire de district catholique de l’est ontarien.

There are a total of 18 MLOs (9.5 fte funded by CIC), 14 in the English speaking schools and 4 MLOs in the French speaking schools.

Ottawa: Changing Newcomer Demographics

Over the last three years, China has been the source country of almost one third of all newcomers to the Ottawa region. The data is based on what newcomers listed as their intended destination prior in Canada.

Unfortunately, the data does not measure how many newcomers actually made Ottawa their home.

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SWIS News and Notes

Peter Dorfman, Provincial Coordinator, Settlement Workers in Schools program, 416 534 7319, fax 416 534 1464, pdorfman@cicswis.ca

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The Ottawa MLO Team

From left to right:

Mohamed Mousa, Asef Fekrat, Ming Wang, Wali Farah, Saida Al-sharmani, Hotense Mvuemba, Abdirizak Warsame, Dahir Waberi, Huong Thai, Oubah Omer, Kathleen Gotts, Abdi Omar, Sophie Kwok.

Missing:

Maryse Bermingham, Christiana Jean-Pierre, Susan Al-riffai, Ahmed Shabel, Ahmed Ismail, Saadia Nuh, Haleh Zamanpur

Newcomers to Ottawa

Source Country 1999 (CIC data)

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