April 12, 2019-Vancouver, BC-Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) works with many partners in the delivery of services to newcomers to Canada, and supports their integration into Canadian communities. IRCC is actively working to improve these settlement services through the Service Delivery Improvements funding stream and will be providing funding of almost $2.6 million to the Immigrant Services Society of British Columbia (ISSofBC).
ISSofBC will be delivering important services for three projects:
Digital Literacy Training: The objective of this one-year project is to understand the needs of newcomers who require both language and digital literacy training, and provide them with digital skills to fully participate in language training and to use technology in their daily lives.
SPARK and IGNITE: This represents a unique partnership with Settlement Services International of Australia to provide an entrepreneurship program to immigrants and refugees. SPARK is a business-based incubation program aimed at newcomers. The goal is to help newcomers determine if self-employment is right for them and to assist them in refining their business ideas and concepts. IGNITE is an entrepreneurship program that enables newcomers with viable business ideas to launch their businesses in B.C. through training and knowledge transfer.
GAR Settlement Research: This is a multilingual, multi-method research project which aims to better understand the settlement, social integration and labour market outcomes of Government-Assisted Refugees (GARs), ages 14 years and older, who arrived in B.C. from January 2007 to December 2016. The project will be guided by a multi-stakeholder advisory committee, comprised of government representatives, service providers, stakeholders, researchers and former refugees.
IRCC's Service Delivery Improvement Fund is a dedicated funding stream of over $30 million per year, devoted to service delivery improvement, innovation and experimentation to continue to find better ways to deliver services to newcomers, meet the needs of newcomer clients and support the integration process.
"I'm proud that the Government of Canada is working with organizations like the ISSofBC to provide high-quality settlement services for newcomers across the country. Finding new and better ways to help newcomers succeed in their journey benefits all Canadians, by strengthening our labour force and the economy."
- The Honourable Ahmed Hussen, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship
"Thanks to the Service Delivery Improvement fund, projects such as these undertaken by the ISSofBC will improve IRCC's understanding of the needs of entrepreneurial newcomers and support their successful integration into Canadian communities."
- The Honourable Harjit Sajjan, Minister of National Defence
Quick facts
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Funding for the 3 projects includes $238,189 for Digital Literacy Training, $2,261,194 for SPARK and IGNITE, and $91,364 for the GAR settlement research project.
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SDI funding is a dedicated stream within the Settlement Program of almost $150 million over five years. The funding was allocated to the Department through the 2017 Immigration Levels Plan, and is devoted to testing new approaches to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the Program.
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Following the first Expression of Interest process for SDI launched in fall 2017, IRCC is now funding over 100 projects across the country. All projects will be complete by March 31, 2021.
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There are 7 funding streams under the SDI: language acquisition; employment; youth supports; harnessing volunteers and supporting capacity building in the settlement sector; pay for performance; newcomer well-being and programming to support vulnerable clients; and research and analysis to drive innovation and understand the user experience.
