You might know us as the organizers of the annual Multicultural festival. We thought it might be helpful and informative for you to know more about what we do at the Multicultural Centre.
Thousands of culturally, linguistically, and religiously diverse immigrants and refugees in the process of settlement use our services each year. They include, but are not limited to, seniors, youth, children, parents, the unemployed, women suffering abuse…
Our most frequently provided service is information and referral. Clients, educational institutions, government, businesses and other community members ask questions about everything from adoption to work placement. Some of these questions are easily answered, some require a great deal of time spent with a client, some require us to go out into the community to educate and inform. We also accomplish some of this work via our website.
Time spent with clients involves case management. We provide translation and interpretation, advocacy, referral to appropriate community programs, and we network with other community resources to ensure that the needs of our clients are being met. We also provide crisis intervention and initial counselling that might lead to more long-term therapeutic counselling provided by the organizations we partner with.
A big part of what we have been doing over the last few years focuses on Career Planning and Employment Readiness. We offer 3-day Job Search Workshops and we provide one-to-one assistance with things such as: basic job search, resumes, cover letters, becoming self-employed, university and post-secondary school information, skills training, evaluating and recognizing foreign training and education credentials.
So, how do we spend our time?To help deliver our many services we work in partnership with many organizations, including: Regional Municipality of Waterloo, Waterloo County Separate School Board, Waterloo Region District School Board, Wilfrid Laurier University, K-W Counselling, Catholic Family Counselling, Working for Work, Centre for Community Based Research, St. Mary’s Hospital, Renison College.
Some examples of how these partnerships have worked:We partnered with Catholic Family Counselling in working with a Grade 7/8 class to explore non-violent alternatives to anti-racism. They ended up putting together an anti-racism video for other youth their age. A facilitator guide/manual is being put together to be distributed throughout the school system.
We partnered with Conestoga College to offer the Language Interpreter Program at the college. Our centre was contracted to teach the course and we have worked in partnership with the International Languages program to ensure the needs of students and the college are being met.
We are also presently working on a project entitled Engaging Immigrant youth in Volunteerism. It is funded by Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration and our project partner is the Centre for Community Based Research. Our major contribution is community engagement and the Centre’s major contribution is the research component of the project.
MandateBreaking down the barriers to full participation of new Canadians in the Kitchener Waterloo community and surrounding areas.
Philosophy"The Multicultural Centre exists for the purpose of fostering the diversity which exists in this community and of facilitating the full participation of all residents in the life of the community."
Goals