INNOVATIVE APPROACHES TO IMPROVE SERVICE DELIVERY MODELS
Learning Journeys projects are taking a deep dive into the challenges most often faced by immigrant women: meaningful experiences towards their career goals, access to quality, affordable childcare, and finding connection and a sense of belonging. Led by the Immigrant Women’s Advisory Committee, these projects are testing innovative ideas and re-defining the roles that immigrant women can play in our communities and workspaces.
Mentorship project
The Learning Journeys Mentorship Project is leading a participatory research initiative to identify the most effective elements of mentorship models in providing immigrant women with meaningful information and experiences.
CHALLENGE
"Effective mentorship needs new design; we are learning about what immigrant women have to offer (as mentors) and this should be our focus. We can more easily share and learn from people who have our experience. When a white woman who has been in Canada a long time comes into the room, I think I could never be like her.” - Immigrant Women's Advisory Committee member.
The current settlement-related programs underestimate the capacity of immigrant and refugee women. If most immigrant women are remarkably resilient, too many of them don’t have access to relevant information and meaningful professional opportunities. Learning Journeys research identifies the importance of immigrant and refugee women taking charge of their professional and personal goals and visions.
SOLUTION
The mentorship project team work collaboratively with other immigrant women groups and individuals in order to help inform the settlement sector about ways service providers, funders, employers and other stakeholders can:
Re-think traditional practice and shift their focus from clients' needs to clients' strengths, prior knowledge, skills, and resilience.
Adopt a more culturally appropriate and holistic approach that incorporates ideas such as wellness, wholeness, harmony, connections, belonging, growth, development, and quality of life.
APPROACH
Most of our efforts pertaining to this project involve:
Capturing learnings and key insights about immigrant women’s access to and experiences with mentorship, and engaging them in the research process.
Surveying immigrant women through existing PIRS program for their experiences and ideas about mentorship
Engaging immigrant women through social media to ask for their own definition of mentorship
Surveying organizations that have mentorship programs to assess challenges and opportunities and to identify innovative and culturally appropriate mentorship initiatives.
Childcare for Immigrant Women Campaign
The Learning Journeys Childcare for Immigrant Women group is launching a social media campaign to highlight the importance of affordable, quality childcare so that immigrant women can obtain the training and Canadian experiences they need to utilize their skills, support their families and contribute to Canadian society. They are gathering the voices of immigrant women and joining forces with the amazing $10aDay Childcare Campaign in its calls to action for the BC Government to implement quality, affordable, universal child care.
CHALLENGE
"Among many immigrant families, women spend most of the time taking care of kids and household chores, even though they used to have professional responsibilities in their home countries. The change of focus from career to family can bring frustration, stress and a sense of failure." - Immigrant Women's Advisory Committee member. "Some clients "disappear" after having a baby because of traditional roles and expectations that they will stay at home and look after their family. There is nothing built into our programs to help this" - Career Pathways Coach.
Learning Journeys research identified childcare as a recurrent issue for immigrant women throughout their settlement journey. Lack of accessible, affordable, quality childcare prevents them from obtaining the training and Canadian professional experiences they need to utilize their talents, support their families, and contribute in meaningful ways to Canadian society.
SOLUTION
Work with immigrant women to advocate for accessible, affordable, quality childcare for immigrant women by creating a campaign to increase awareness about the need for this support and taking action towards implementation of a quality, affordable and universal childcare system in BC. The project aims to reach 25 immigrant women through social media who are willing to advocate for childcare by sharing their strengths and telling their stories.
The learnings and insights gained from this campaign will help to inform the settlement sector about ways service providers, funders, employers and other stakeholders can work collaboratively with immigrant women to better understand the needs and goals of immigrant women in care-giving roles, and effectively engage the strengths and skills of immigrant women.
APPROACH
Engage immigrant women in sharing on social media the significance of having quality, accessible childcare
Collaborate with key partners and leverage opportunities to bring immigrant women’s voices to the call for quality, affordable childcare in BC
Capture learnings and key insights about the needs and goals of immigrant women in care-giving roles, and engaging them in roles of advocacy and collaboration.
Are you an immigrant woman interested in promoting affordable and quality childcare for all? Your opinion and experience matter to us. Join our campaign! Please help us know your needs and spread the word by connecting with us.
What would you be doing if you had access to affordable and quality childcare?
Let's talk about
The Learning Journeys Let’s Talk About group is leading a participatory research initiative to explore effective ways to support immigrant women in their most challenging issues. Guided by the Immigrant Women’s Advisory Committee and co-led by one of it’s members, the group is gathering information about the key elements of groups that are needed in order to provide safe, relevant and accessible support, as well as ideas on how the experiences and skills of immigrant women can strengthen the process.
CHALLENGE
Many immigrant women don’t have opportunities to connect with other women and talk about difficult issues they are struggling with. While some informal support programs exist, often they are in structured settings where topics are set for them, other learning objectives take precedence over sharing, and/or participants don’t perceive the level of trust required to share more difficult issues. Connecting to other women sharing similar struggles and finding solutions together is key to women’s sense of well-being, confidence and ways forward in their lives in Canada.
SOLUTION
In collaboration with The Immigrant Women’s Advisory Committee, The Let’s Talk About project co-designs and leads informal peer-support groups where immigrant women can participate safely and openly in challenging conversations and share issues that are important to them without any taboos and fear of judgment.
The learnings and insights gained from this project will help to inform the settlement sector about ways service providers, funders, employers and other stakeholders can work collaboratively with immigrant women to better understand models for strength-based programs that support the needs and goals of immigrant women while effectively engaging their experience, strengths and skills.
APPROACH
Identify interest and topics of importance from IWAC participants
Design, run and get feedback on an online peer support session, Self-care and growth in the time of Covid, including leadership from Immigrant Women’s Advisory Committee member
Explore the best ways to offer training to immigrant women interested in leading online support groups independently.
Engage immigrant women through social media to collect feedback on issues that matter to them
Generate key learnings and insights about engaging immigrant women as collaborators in designing and leading informal support groups
