Toronto North Local Immigration Partnership

Partnership Building & Community

Engagement

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DISCLAIMER

This document reports the presentations and discussions at the “Talk About 2018 Forum” held

on February 27th, 2018. The contents of this document (opinions, findings and conclusions) do

not reflect the views of the planning group members of the Talk About forum that are Toronto

North Local Immigration Partnership, Working Women Community Centre, Toronto Public

Health and For U Telecare Family Service. The planning group members do not guarantee the

accuracy of the contents of this document.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Toronto North LIP greatly appreciates the tremendous contributions of the planning committee

members as follows:

1. Ameera Hosein, Health Access Thorncliffe Park

2. Christe Okonkwo-MacKenzie, Toronto Public Health

3. Suyeon Jin, For U Telecare Family Services

4. Zarine Dordi, Working Women Community Centre

Thanks to Fardowsa Dirie, Community Development Assistant at Working Women

Community Centre for taking notes and preparing the first draft of this report.

For any information and questions; please contact:

Tahir Khan E-mail: tahir@torontonorthlip.ca

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Table of Contents

I. Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 4

II. The Panel Session ................................................................................................................................. 5

1. Partnership Building and Community Engagement ........................................................... 5

2. Successful Partnerships on the Ground; TNO’s SEPT Project ....................................... 6

3. Evidence Based Planning: Prime on Data Sources and Uses ......................................... 7

III. Questions and Answers Session ...................................................................................................... 8

IV. Break-out Session: Group Discussion ............................................................................................ 10

Group I: Measuring Collaborative Success ................................................................................ 10

Group II: Referral Systems and Follow-ups ................................................................................ 10

Group III: Crafting Work Plans for Collaborative Initiatives ................................................... 11

Group IV: Sharing Promising Practices and Toolkits .............................................................. 12

V. Annexes .............................................................................................................................................. 13

Annex 1. Agenda of the Day .................................................................................................................. 13

Annex 2. Biographies of Panelists .......................................................................................................... 14

Annex 3. Break-out Session Questionnaire ........................................................................................... 15

Annex 4. Panel Presentations ................................................................................................................ 17

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I. Introduction

Toronto North Local Immigration Partnership (TNLIP) and its partners (For U Telecare Family Services (FUTFS), Health Access Thorncliffe Park (HATP), Toronto Public Health (TPH) and Working Women Community Centre (WWCC) organized the “Talk About” forum in February 2018 that facilitated a discussion among managers and frontline workers of agencies serving newcomers to exchange experiences, promising practices and lessons learned and document them. The first “Talk About” forum was conducted in March 2017 and given its success, the participants requested conducting the forum again in 2018. Based on discussions from last year “Talk About” forum, there was emphasis that it’s imperative for organizations to partner and work together to avoid duplication and provide complementary services that are responsive to the needs of newcomer population.

Goal:

To document promising practices and lessons learned around building successful inter-sectoral

partnerships; with the aim of creating more efficient and sustainable service delivery models for

the newcomer population.

Objectives:

Knowledge exchange around promising practices in creating meaningful partnership.

Sharing of resources, toolkits and best practices for data collection and documentation of

promising practices with newcomer populations.

Measuring collaborative success.

Create an opportunity for networking and potential future partnerships.

The forum was targeted at managers and frontline workers of agencies serving newcomers.

Around 50 participants attended the 2018 forum.

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II. The Panel Session

The panel session included three presentations as follows:

1. Partnership Building and Community Engagement

By: Lorna McCue

Highlights from Presentation:

Community engagement is a process by which people are enabled to become actively and

genuinely involved in:

• defining the issues of concern to them

• making decisions about factors that affect their lives

• formulating and implementing policies

• planning, developing and delivering services, and

• taking action to activate change

It’s a powerful vehicle for bringing about environmental and behavioral changes that will improve

the health of the community and its members. It’s connected with democracy and social justice.

It often involves partnerships and coalitions that help mobilize resources and influence systems,

change relationships among partners, and serve as catalysts for changing policies, programs,

and practices”.

Organizations engage with clients, other organizations (partners), community members and

people who are under-represented through a continuum. The community engagement

continuum is as follows:

Inform: Provide detailed information and promote awareness

Consult: Obtain input and feedback on alternatives to inform decision-making

Involve: work directly with community members throughout the process to ensure that their

concerns and aspirations are consistently understood and considered

Collaborate: People working together toward a mutual goal

Empower: Community members initiate activities and make final decisions

The continuum does not proceed in discrete levels; some community engagement processes

may only involve one level, while others could include two or three levels at different times or in

different events at the same time.

Barriers to community engagement include apathy, cynicism, time, resources, competition, and

inclusion.

Benefits of Partnerships

In almost any kind of community initiative, finding other groups and organizations with similar

interests, that are willing to work with your group is strategically advantageous for a number of

reasons:

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Synergy: The synergy created from working collaboratively will result in greater

accomplishments than each group working on its own could ever hope to achieve. If you work

separately, it will fragment the efforts and the resources, possibly leading to less

accomplishment.

Community Awareness: Increased participation leads to increased community awareness.

Share resources: The sharing of resources and expertise can make daunting tasks more

manageable.

Overcome Obstacles: Obstacles faced by one group may be overcome by another group.

Effective Representation: A partnership, coalition or network has more strength than a single

organization when presenting a case because a broader section of the community is

represented.

Avoid Duplication: Working together can help ensure efforts and services aren’t being

duplicated, and that there is an appropriate distribution of resources.

For full presentation, see Annex-4

2. Successful Partnerships on the Ground; TNO’s SEPT Project

By: Ahmed Hussein

Highlights from presentation:

The Settlement Education Partnership Toronto (SEPT) is a partnership programme between

TNO – The Neighbourhood Organization and Toronto District School Board. The program

involves five (previously seven) organizations that work with school boards to offer settlement

services at schools. The program helps establish linkages between newcomers, schools,

settlement service providers and the community overall.

SEPT Goals:

To foster student and family engagement by supporting the settlement of newcomer

students and their families

To increase awareness & linkages between newcomer families, schools and community

To enhance information sharing & collaboration between newcomer families, school and

settlement services

SEPT Services:

Through SEPT, School Settlement Workers (SWISs) provide services to individuals &

families to:

Understand & successfully transition into the education system

Accelerate the settlement process

SEPT Achievements:

Developed strong relations with school boards

Newcomers accessed services at their local schools

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Enhanced newcomer issues with in school boards

Enhanced newcomers access to settlement services

SEPT Lessons Learned:

The importance of MOU

Developing stakeholders table

Regular info sharing

For full presentation, please see Annex-4.

3. Evidence Based Planning: Prime on Data Sources and Uses

Focus on New Immigrants

By: Harvey Low

Highlights from the Presentation:

Harvey Low presented data sources related to immigration and settlement and their use for

successful partnerships and community engagement.

Recent Immigrant Definition: Recent immigrant refer to a person who obtained a landed

immigrant or permanent resident status five years prior to the census year (Statistics Canada).

The main sources of immigration data in Toronto are as follows: 1. Census Data (2016) (www.statcan.gc.ca) 2. Toronto Neighbourhood Profiles (https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/data-research-

maps/neighbourhoods-communities/neighbourhood-profiles/) 3. Toronto Demographics (www.toronto.ca/demographics and www.toronoto.ca/wellbeing) 4. Census Backgrounders (summaries of census data) (www.web.toronto.ca/city-

government/data-research-maps/city-stats-in-detail/) 5. Toronto Social Atlas (www.web.toronto.ca/city-government/data-research-

maps/neighbourhoods-communities/toronto-social-atlas/) 6. Finding services – youth (www.toronto.ca/youth) 7. Custom analysis social reports for researches (www.web.toronto.ca/city-

government/data-research-maps/research-reports/social-reports/) 8. Community Data Program (www.communitydata.ca)

Some immigration figures and statistics:

Languages spoken in Toronto outside of English and French are mainly Mandarin and

Cantonese followed by Tagalog, Tamil and Spanish.

Of all Torontonians, 135,490 or 5.0% (1 in 20) do not speak English.

40% of all immigrants settled in Ontario in 2016.

Top 5 countries of origin are Philippines, China, India, Iran and Pakistan. United States is eighth in the rank as country of origin in 2016.

Unemployment rate was higher among refugees (17%), secondary applicants (16.3%) and sponsored immigrants (13.2%) compared to principal applicants in 2011-2016.

Please see Annex-4 for full presentation.

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III. Questions and Answers Session

The answers include both responses from the panelists and comments from participants.

1. How can we avoid or reduce competition between agencies that offer the same

services?

Competition is a problem in non-profit sector. The funding is based on numbers and agencies

are required to meet certain targets and not the impact of services provided. Non-profit leaders

involved have to look at the bigger picture and collaborate with partners. They need to work side

by side and keep balance between collaboration and competition.

2. Does TNO participate in Settlement services? For Harvey; does the city collect any

labour market information by neighborhood? Like, where is the hiring happening, what

kind of occupations are being created and etc?

Some of the labour force data is presented in the “Evidence Based Planning: Prime on Data

Sources and Uses; Focus on New Immigrants” presentation today. This includes unemployment

and employment rates and where people work. The city relies on Census data which is

available for each neighbourhood. You can get this data from the web and City will help you if

you are looking for data for a particular area. This data depends on the sampling sizes in each

neighbourhood. The other source is Labour Force Survey which collects data at city level and

may not provide you with information at neighbourhood level. The City Employment Survey is

another source which is a place of work survey which captures types of employment data.

Less than 50% of newcomers access settlement services according to IRCC data. It depends

on how we do the outreach and promote the settlement services. Settlement services in schools

and libraries is one of the many avenues for newcomers to access settlement services. When

newcomers register their children at schools or libraries, they are also introduced to settlement

services. The other challenge is that newcomer does not understand the settlement services

and how it will help them in their settlement experience.

The needs of immigrants and refugees may differ. Immigrants may have the language skills and

their prime need maybe employment but refugees maybe looking for improving their language

as refugees may not have the same language skills as immigrants. which needs to be

considered. Luckily, there are language programs available and Employment Ontario

employment services are for everyone regardless of immigration status. Despite huge language

and employment programs, there are still limitations e.g. childcare for those who attend

language classes, wait lists, and etc.

The Community Data Program is a good program for evidence based planning and programing

for agencies. There’s a feed charged to join this program.

3. Most data is distributed from IRCC to service providers as top down. But I also see a

gap that people needs aren’t being met. We need to report to the government on what

the locals needs are and not only the service utilization?

We have many challenges with data. One of the challenges of the IRCC landing data is

capturing where people finally land. IRCC data has always operated top down. There is no real

mechanism to take all that data that service providers manage to national level government.

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The data that agencies collect, the issues that agencies respond to, and what you see on the

ground are not collected in a systematic way.

4. Why IRCC data system is not capturing data from shelter system?

The City collects data from shelters and send it to the national database. This is a separate

jurisdiction and needs permission to use their data which is a problem. We really need to

capture data on immigrants and refugees in the shelter systems but privacy of those living in

shelters is also important.

There’s need for coordination between IRCC, MCI and settlement agencies for collection of data

on the needs and issues of refugees coming from US and living in shelter.

5. Agencies need to survive by having continuous funding which causes competition with

other agencies. What do you recommend to reduce competition and instead focus on

filling the need gaps of the communities?

Competition does happen between agencies. Agencies may create alliances and partnerships

which helps collaboratively address the same problem in the community.

The collaboration could be found in metrics and data as well. Agencies needs to focus on social

research and find deep trends in data to inform their collaboration and partnerships.

Agencies are usually looking out for conventional funders but there are more funders e.g.

private funders through public – private partnerships. Agencies may collectively set back and

evaluate what they are doing and what programs are really needed in the community.

The issues is that funding is number driven and not impact driven. This causes competition for

clients and numbers and undermines collaboration. There are good signs that more and more

organizations are collaborating in Toronto now and focusing on measuring the impact of

services provided.

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IV. Break-out Session: Group Discussion

Group I: Measuring Collaborative Success

Measuring success is key to successful partnerships and collaboration. Meanwhile, participants

in the 2017 “Talk About Forum” showed interest in the ways success is being measured by

asking questions from panelists. Therefore, this theme was included in the list of themes for

roundtable discussion.

1. Define Collaborative success in the context of working with newcomers from

organization and funder’s perspective?

Organization Perspective:

Making partnerships with different organizations for collaborative projects

Building relationships and networks among agencies to achieve a common goal and

reduce duplications

Sharing information and resources with clients and receiving and acting upon feedback

from the community for effective representation of clients and their needs

Funders’ Perspective:

Changing policies for cost-effectiveness e.g. sharing spaces and clients with other

agencies

Collecting information on community needs and designing programmes accordingly

Conduct workshops for clients to educate them and engage them as volunteers to build

relationships with the community

2. How do you measure collaborative success as in tools/strategies and reports?

Follow ups with and receiving feedback from clients

Documenting/comparing data collected through questionnaires, surveys, focus groups,

word of mouth etc.

Measuring the clients’ needs that are not met

Using visuals, story-telling and social media to evaluate the success

Visibility in the community

3. What are the challenges/barriers in measuring collaborative success?

Scarcity and short-term funding and resources

No follow-ups on referrals

Lack of commitment of agencies or communities

Lack of motivation, communication, trust and time commitment among agencies

Weak representation of agencies in collaborative projects

Collaborative projects are not evaluated, followed-up or success measured

Group II: Referral Systems and Follow-ups

This theme was identified in the breakout session in the 2017 Talk About forum. Participants identified the need for intra and inter sectoral linkages.

1. What do you recommend to be a successful system of referral and follow up for

newcomer clients?

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A system built on needs assessment

Build connections with several organizations

Referrals needs to be both internal and external

Do follow-ups of clients referred and track them through a database

Establish a common online system of referral used by all agencies

A system to keep clients connected with both agencies sending or receiving referrals

2. How can we establish relationship with non-conventional service providers for follow

up?

Build Connections with community leaders

Invite non-conventional community partners to learn about agencies and their services

Make partnerships with and sign MoUs with non-conventional service providers

3. What are some of the challenges and barriers facing you during referrals and follow

ups?

Privacy of clients’ information during referral

Lack of a common system of referral and common resources

Lack of proper communication channels for referrals between sender and receiver

agencies

There’s no proper research and information about effective referrals

Language, terminology and cultural barriers in referral

Group III: Crafting Work Plans for Collaborative Initiatives

Crafting collaborative work plans is one of the elements of successful partnerships. Participatory planning, establishing the buy-in among partners, having measurable collaborative results and shared accountability in collaborative work plans will make the partnership successful.

1. How do you identify potential partners for collaborative initiatives?

Based on clients’ needs; if both agencies have identified similar clients’ needs

While looking for additional resources and the potential partner have mentioned

resources for a collaborative impact

Potential partners have similar or complimentary goals/objectives

If the potential partner agency has capacity for implementation of the collaborative

impact

If potential partner agency is serving the same location/neighbourhood

The services, gaps identified and intended benefits are similar

Potential partners provide the same quality programs (something more than numbers)

Speak with frontline staff for identifying partners

Regular evaluation of partnerships for changing needs, expansion and others

2. Please share some of the successful partnerships models and the experience of

crafting work plans for them?

Employment: For example; settlement worker collaborates with employment agencies to

help clients get jobs, follows up with employers and service providers on a regular basis,

checking employer needs and offering employer incentives through employment service

providers;

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Referral of clients, follow ups and tracking

A system for sharing clients information

3. What are some of the barriers and challenges in developing work plans for collaborative initiatives?

Donor – driven funding programs: Difficulty getting funds for specific needs identified by

agencies

Reaching out to other sectors e.g. academic institutions

Differing coverage areas

Competition thinking of agencies

Number driven achievements and results

No compliance with partnership agreements by signatory agencies

Lack of smooth channels of communication/meetings

Lack of accountability

Group IV: Sharing Promising Practices and Toolkits

A partnership or collaboration is only complete if the lessons learned and toolkits developed are

shared across the sector. Exchanging promising practices and toolkits help in improving

newcomer services.

1. How do you share your organization's successes/promising practices/toolkits with other stakeholders?

Different reports

At LIP meetings

Social media channels (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, others) and newsletters

Conferences/forums/events etc.

2. What are effective ways of profiling promising practices and/or toolkits (e.g. with funders, with community stakeholders, etc.)?

Lunch and learn events

Newcomer council meetings and events

Conferences/forums

Weekly e-blasts and newsletters

Outreach activities and story-telling

3. What role can the TNLIP play in sharing/disseminating promising practices and/or toolkits?

TNLIP weekly newsflash and E-blasts

Develop a website to share promising practices

Create opportunities for sharing at TNLIP forums

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V. Annexes

Annex 1. Agenda of the Day

Sessions Time Topic Presenter/Facilitator

Op

en

ing

Sess

ion

9:00- 9:30am Networking & Breakfast

9:30 - 9:40am Welcome & Introductions Moderators

9:40 - 9:45am Goals & Objectives,

Housekeeping TNLIP

Pan

el S

ess

ion

9:50 -10:05am Partnership Building &

Community Engagement

Lorna McCue Executive Director, Ontario Healthy

Communities Coalition

10:05-10:20am Successful Partnerships on the

Ground

Ahmed Hussein Executive Director, TNO - The Neighborhood Organization

10:20 – 10:35am Evidence Based Planning:

Prime on Data Use and Sources

Harvey Low Manager, Social Research and Info

Management City of Toronto

10:35-11:20am Questions & Answers Presenters

11:20-11:30am Break

Bre

ak

Ou

t 11:30am -

12:15pm Break out Into Groups

12:15 - 12:45pm Presentations of the Groups &

Discussion Group Reps

Clo

sin

g

12:45-1:00pm Wrap Up & Evaluations Christe Okonkwo-MacKenzie

1:00-2:00pm Networking and Lunch

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Annex 2. Biographies of Panelists

Harvey Low

With a degree in Urban & Regional Planning, Harvey Low has over 30 years of experience as

an urban planner with a focus on social research. Harvey has split his career in municipal

government between the Planning Division and Community Services. As the Manager of the

City Social Research Unit, he is responsible for the coordination, acquisition, and reporting of

Census data. He has also worked on a number of initiatives that focus on the improving the

wellbeing of residents, including the creation of the City's 2-1-1 call centre, the City's Strong

Neighbourhood Strategy, and Poverty Reduction as examples.

Lorna McCue

Lorna has over 25 years of experience in developing and managing not-for-profit, community-

based organizations and services. As Executive Director of OHCC, she leads a team of staff

and consultants in providing consulting and facilitation services to diverse community

organizations and networks. Lorna has particular strengths in the areas of community

development, community engagement, partnership development, meeting and workshop

facilitation, strategic planning and organizational governance.

Ahmed Hussein

Ahmad has been the Executive Director of TNO - The Neighbourhood Organization (formerly:

Thorncliffe Neighbourhood Office) one of the largest settlement services agency in Toronto

since February 2014. Before undertaking this position, he held various management positions in

the organization for the last 18 years. He has years of sector experience at the senior executive

level and played a significant role in inputting settlement and immigrations forums including

OCASI, IRCC, Canadian Council of Refugees. Ahmed has been part of the evolution of the

settlement and community based sector and engaged in transforming the sector to respond to

the changes to the immigration selection process and services delivered upon arrival.

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Annex 3. Break-out Session Questionnaire

Table 1: Measuring Collaborative Success

Measuring success is key to successful partnerships and collaboration. Meanwhile, participants in the last “Talk About Forum “showed interest in the ways how measure success by asking questions from panelists.

1. Define collaborative success in the context of working with newcomers from organizational and funder perspectives? (While reporting to funders)

2. How do you measure collaborative success? (tools, strategies, reporting etc.)

3. What are the challenges /barriers in measuring collaborative success?

Table 2: Referral Systems & Follow ups

This theme was identified in the breakout session in the last Talk About forum. Participants identified the need for intra and inter sectoral linkages.

1. What do you recommend to be a successful system of referral and follow up for newcomer

clients?

2. How can we establish relationships with non-conventional service providers (private consultants, faith groups, ethnic community groups etc.) for referral and follow ups?

3. What are some of the challenges and barriers facing you during referrals and follow ups?

Table 3: Crafting Work plans for collaborative initiatives

Crafting collaborative work plans is one of the elements of successful partnerships. Participatory planning, establishing the buy-in among partners, having measurable collaborative results and shared accountability in collaborative work plans will make the partnership successful.

1 How do you identify potential partners for collaborative initiatives?

2 Please share some of the successful partnerships models and the experience of crafting work plans for them?

3 What are some of the barriers and challenges in developing work plans for collaborative initiatives?

Table 4: Sharing promising practices and toolkits

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A partnership or collaboration is only complete if the lessons learned and toolkits developed are shared across the sector. Exchanging promising practices and toolkits help in improving newcomer services.

1 How do you share your organization's successes/promising practices/toolkits with other stakeholders?

2 What are effective ways of profiling promising practices and/or toolkits (e.g. with funders, with community stakeholders, etc.)?

3 What role can the TNLIP play in sharing/disseminating promising practices and/or toolkits?"

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Annex 4. Panel Presentations

A. Partnership Building and Community Engagement

By: Lorna McCue; Executive Director, Ontario Healthy Communities Coalition

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B. Successful Partnerships on the Ground – TNO’s Settlement Education

Partnership (SEPT)

By: Ahmed Hussein; Executive Director, TNO – The Neighbourhood Organization

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C. Evidence Based Planning: Prime on Data Use and Sources

By: Harvey Low; Manager, Social Research and Info Management City of Toronto

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