Toronto, ON – Last week the Government of Canada announced a special immigration program, the Canada-Ukraine authorization for emergency travel, that will allow Ukrainian refugees to live and work in Canada for up to three years.
As Canada prepares to open up its borders to Ukrainian refugees due to the disturbing aggressive actions of the Russian government against the sovereign nation of Ukraine, it is imperative that all levels of government and industry stakeholders work together to remove barriers for those settling in Canada, including successfully achieving employment.
As one of Toronto’s largest community agencies, and an acclaimed leader in the social services sector, WoodGreen Community Services is eager and ready to support all levels of government during this difficult period. WoodGreen is an incredibly diverse organization, composed of people from many places around the world. Some of these places have experienced, or continue to experience, devastation from conflict. We extend our support to anyone who has been, or continues to be, impacted by conflict around the globe.
For decades, our organization has been helping immigrants settle in Toronto and start their new lives. On average, WoodGreen’s newcomer programs and services help over 7,000 immigrants and their families settle into their new lives in Canada each year, offering a variety of newcomer services. Two of our primary settlement programs, our provincially-funded Adult and Youth Settlement Programs, in addition to our Occupation Specific Language Training services, are particularly impactful for our unemployed and underemployed communities.
WoodGreen offers comprehensive wrap-around service models for newcomers. By its very nature, settlement is a complex process, one which impacts a variety of social determinants of health, the conditions in which people are born, live, work and/or age, and the broader economic, social, and political forces that shape the conditions of their daily life, including employment. WoodGreen’s interprofessional primary care (IPC) teams, which are teams with collaborative and coordinated care between settlement and primary health care providers, have successfully developed a complete approach to settlement care in Toronto by providing wrap-around services which target the multifaceted needs of our newcomer clients.
Newcomer settlement is a holistic process and multiple agencies must be at the table to support newcomers from Ukraine.
We want to make clear that WoodGreen Community Services is ready and well-equipped to support all levels of government as a collective partner and resource, to help newcomers from Ukraine successfully settle in Toronto. Together, let’s help the people of Ukraine.
ABOUT WOODGREEN COMMUNITY SERVICES (woodgreen.org): WoodGreen is one of the largest social service agencies in Toronto, serving 37,000 people each year. We offer over 75 programs and services tackling the social determinants that affect the health and well-being of individuals in our community.
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For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact: Jen Mayville, Marketing & Communications Manager; [email protected]; (437) 226-8091 (cell)