The following are the project updates provided at the Steering & Evaluation Committee meeting on November 18, 2020.

Leamington & Chatham Expansion
Ongoing training is being provided to the staff at South Essex Community Council and Adult Language and Learning in Leamington and Chatham-Kent respectively. Both teams are now familiar with the K2 Pathway to Settlement System and will be going through a short series of mock assessments before the remote WE Value Settlement Assessments are deployed.
Meanwhile, community engagement efforts are ongoing as we seek to ensure that service providers, both funded and not funded by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), are set up to receive client referrals through the Partner Portal.

WE Value Partnership, continuation
At a very high level, the WE Value team has been discussing the possibility of a 6-month extension with our funder, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the resulting border closures, we have not been able to capture the fulsome data results initially projected and included as project deliverables. It is expected that a 6-month extension would support the team in capturing more baseline data from clients, and conducting further follow-ups with clients assessed before and after the onset of the pandemic.
It is important to note that this has not yet been confirmed by the funder, and as more news becomes available, we will be sure to update the Steering & Evaluation Committee.

Immigrant Services Calgary & Gateway MOU
Over the last several months, the WE Value team has been meeting with the Gateway team, an initiative of Immigrant Services Calgary (ISC). Gateway is being recognized and funded by IRCC to standardize the assessment of newcomers to the Calgary region.
Gateway will become the single point of entry into the settlement system in Calgary, which requires the access or development of a standardized client management system and settlement assessment. Most recently, both the YMCA of Southwestern Ontario and Immigrant Services Calgary have signed a joint Memorandum of Understanding and Beta Customer Agreement, that will allow for ISC and Gateway to explore the feasibility of customization and potential use of the K2 Pathway to Settlement System in Calgary as part of this standardization.

 

The following is the event conducted in partnership with Munro Strategic Perspective

Scenario Planning with Melinda Munro, Munro Strategic Perspective
We are excited to have a conversation and working meeting with the WE Value Steering & Evaluation Committee about the potential futures of the WE Value Partnership. As our funding is set to end on March 31st, and the settlement world evolving to meet the demands of clients through the COVID pandemic, we want to ensure that the future of this great work is sustainable in a variety of economic, funding and immigration scenarios.
It is important to note that we are working to show our funder and our stakeholders that the WE Value Partnership, WE Value Settlement Assessment and K2 Pathway to Settlement System all have the capacity to adapt to new environments and realities as determined by the funder, and by the needs and capacities our newcomers have in communities in Windsor-Essex and beyond.
We encourage our Steering & Evaluation Committee to come with their “creative caps” on and ready to use. Scenario Planning is not a problem solving activity, but rather an envisioning exercise to determine warning signs of potential scenarios and to imagine the ways in which this model would fit in to them.
a. What is Scenario Planning? (5 minutes)
b. Scenario Reading & Groups Instructions (15 minutes)
c. Breakout Groups (30 minutes)
d. Discussion and Reporting (20 minutes)