December 2014

WELCOMING
COMMUNITY NEWS
CultureLink
Settlement Services
Volume 5, Issue 12
Page 1
Year End Issue
2014
When we are turning the last page of our calendar and ready to say goodbye to 2014, the single most important thing left on our 2014 to-do list is
to say “Thank You” to you, our stakeholders. This year has been great—
our diverse programs blossomed and fruited all seasons. To conclude this
great year, the Mentorship Program won 2014 Bhayana Family Foundation’s Team Achievement Award. We could not have done it without you:
Our heartfelt thanks go to you, our volunteer mentors who have been
working side by side with us to make an impact on newcomers’ lives; We
thank you, our newcomer clients, for your active participation and for giving us endless inspiration and motivation to work harder and smarter.
And none of our program successes would have been possible if it were
not for you, our partners who have backed us in every step. All our programs benefited greatly from referrals made by our colleagues from other
teams and other agencies. Many of our cross-sectoral partnership projects continue to produce wonderful results. In this newsletter issue and
the following ones in the new year, we are going to highlight some of these
great partnerships. Our friends, knowing that all of you will be with us in
2015, we will happily fold the passing year into our memory, with your
brilliant images well pressed on the pages of our yearbook 2014.
Inside this issue:
Goodbye 2014
1
CCMP Team Won
Bhayana Award
2
December is a
Party Month
3-4
Thank you TD
5-8
Contact Us
9
“At CultureLink we
believe that:
 Newcomers are
critical to
Canada’s future;
 Our staff and
volunteers are our
organization’s
most important
resources”
WELCOMING
COMMUNITY NEWS
CultureLink
Settlement Services
Volume 5, Issue 12
Page 2
Year End Issue
2014
Bloor West Villager December 11, 2014
http://www.insidetoronto.com/news-story/5201714-culturelink-awarded-for-team-achievement-mentorship-program/
Recently awarded for team achievement, staff of CultureLink Settlement Services’ Community Connections MentorInside this
ship program has felt a boost in morale since being recognized at a downtown ceremony, Wednesday,
Dec.issue:
3
CultureLink, a settlement organization in the Dundas Street West and Bloor Street West area, was one of 15 award
recipients at the Bhayana Family Foundation Awards. As well team achievement, CultureLink was recognized for its
mentorship program.
“It means a lot to our team,” said Fei Tang, program manager of the Community Connections Mentorship Program at
CultureLink. “We’re really over the moon.”
The awards were founded almost a decade ago by Raksha and Modan Bhayana and the Bhayana Family Foundation.
Based on their experience as community volunteers and Raksha’s earlier career working in social services, they realized that there was a gap.
“Amazing work was being done by community agencies and front-line workers, but it received very little recognition,” said Robin Crombie, a spokesperson for the United Way.
CultureLink, a United Way organization, serves as many as 500 newcomers as part of its mentorship program. It
helps clients find not just jobs, but positions within their chosen fields.
The program, said Tang, provides not just career support, but provides citizenship mentoring so that newcomers can
learn more about their adoptive country. Typically, clients find out about CultureLink through word of mouth and its
outlets located throughout the city, Tang said.
WELCOMING
COMMUNITY NEWS
CultureLink
Settlement Services
Volume 5, Issue 12
Page 3
Year End Issue
2014
…Continued from Page 2
“We get a lot of references from colleagues,” she added. “We have a network of 200 agencies.” The recognition also
benefits CultureLink brother and sister agencies because it shows “we’re doing a great job,” Tang said.
“We work as a team; we keep re-inventing ourselves,” she told The Villager. “We keep changing our services to meet
the changing needs of our diverse newcomers, our clientele.”
CultureLink was one of several “amazing” front-line workers and agencies across the city that was recognized in a
host of different categories, including innovation and creativity, leadership, partnership builder, dedication and
community partnership.
For further details, visit www.unitedwaytoronto.com/bhayana-family-foundation-awards
Holiday season is upon us. Although it is an
eventful year with the Community Connection
Mentorship Program, we certainly did not
forget to party hard in December, especially
since we understand how lonely and homesick a
newcomer feels during the holiday season. This
year right after the staff holiday party on Dec 5,
we hosted another party just for our newcomer
clients. 27 newcomer families joined us to
celebrate holidays together - for some, this was
their first Christmas and New Year in Canada.
Clients were showered with gifts donated by
CIBC and had a great time networking with
fellow newcomers. It’s very rewarding for us
staff to see the smile on our clients’ faces when
they relaxed and enjoyed an evening of good
food, performances and friendships.
WELCOMING
COMMUNITY NEWS
CultureLink
Settlement Services
Volume 5, Issue 12
Page 4
Year End Issue
2014
…Continued from Page 3
WELCOMING
COMMUNITY NEWS
CultureLink
Settlement Services
Volume 5, Issue 12
Page 5
Year End Issue
2014
Who would know better about hiring processes than an HR manager? - So great to
be mentored by TD HR professionals!
Looking back, we are so fortunate to have Canada’s major
banks who steadfastly support our mentoring programs in
many ways. TD Bank who champions the diversity cause was
one of the partners we would like to highlight in our year end
newsletter issue. This year TD collaborated with us on four
mentoring events and one hiring event. Numerous TD
volunteers are heavily involved and invested in our programing throughout the year. And one incredible fact about the
partnership with TD is that it also directly resulted in six of
our newcomer clients being hired by TD.
The diversity and creativity of our TD-CultureLink events are
also remarkable. In January, 20 TD volunteers came to mentor our newcomers at CultureLink; in February
our clients were invited to TD downtown office to meet as
many as 18 HR managers; There was a women-only
mentoring event in March, which we have held as a
tradition since 2011; in August, the south of Bloor
branches co-hosted an hiring event with us; and in
September three workshops of our HitRestart Entrepreneur workshop series for MarCom professionals were
facilitated by TD volunteers Cecil Munkoh and Gunalan
Since she first came to CultureLink in January, Amy has Nadarajah. If you say this is already very impressive, you
been a devoted mentor for CultureLink newcomers
can say it again when you come to know the TD “Dress to
Impress,
prepare for success event” in December.
Since end of October, one group of volunteers from TD HR
and another group of volunteers from TD Insurance started
professional clothing drives for our program. By December, an
amazing amount of professional clothing, including numerous
full suits and professional outfits in great conditions were
donated and delivered to our office. We noticed that soft skills
and workplace culture are always the key things that could
break and make someone’s career in Canada, and our
Women-only mentoring event has always been
the most heartwarming event of every year.
WELCOMING
COMMUNITY NEWS
CultureLink
Settlement Services
Volume 5, Issue 12
Page 6
Year End Issue
2014
…Continued from Page 5
clients appreciated learning more about these from mentors. Therefore, we requested the volunteer captain
of the second volunteer group, Roopie Ratanpal, that she also organize a workshop to complement the
clothing event. Did we get what we want? They went out of the way and performed 200% beyond our
expectation!
On Dec 12, Roopie and her 12 TD Insurance colleagues not only delivered tons of professional clothing and
accessories, but also prepared thoughtful presentations and delivered them in the most delightful ways.
They talked in detail about workplace culture in the banking sector, shared very inspiring personal stories,
spoke of how to retain
a job and get promoted
and many other very
practical aspects that
newcomers need to
know to establish and
advance a career. They
covered points way
beyond how you
should dress for
interviews and
professional settings. Newcomer professionals got a chance to mix and mingle with TD mentors to ask indepth questions, and some TD volunteers became impromptu fashion consultants to assist newcomers in
choosing the clothing that was suitable for them. The atmosphere was extremely friendly and clients had a
fantastic ‘shopping’ experience. This event punctuated perfectly our long lasting productive partnership
with TD for 2014. We look forward to continued collaboration with our amazing TD volunteers in 2015.
WELCOMING
COMMUNITY NEWS
CultureLink
Settlement Services
Volume 5, Issue 12
Page 7
Year End Issue
2014
With mentoring, questions can be more important than answers
by Stephen Knight, Manager, Corporate and Public Affairs, TD Bank
I was recently invited to participate in a speed mentoring
session by CultureLink, a community agency that has
been providing settlement services to newcomers to
Canada for more than 25 years.
I was excited to be a mentor, but also a little nervous. I
worried if what I had to say would be of value. I've lived
in Canada all my life. How could I relate to some of the
experiences faced by the mentees?
It turned out that I didn't need to worry. It was a great
session and I'm pretty sure I picked up more inspiration
from the mentees than they did from me.
I met mentees from Brazil, Iraq and Russia and their
stories were very different, but what they all had in
common was uncommon amounts of determination, risk
and sacrifice to come to Canada to have a better life. I
was humbled by the mentees' stories, and also felt proud
(and lucky) to be a Canadian, with all the freedoms we
have.
The speed mentoring session was a reminder for me to not worry so much if my streetcar is late or if my
phone battery dies or if the Starbucks line-up is a wee bit long, because there are thousands of people from
around the world who would love to have those "problems".
What also struck me about the mentees is that they were all very qualified from an education and experience perspective. If they were not newcomers to Canada, it seemed to me they would have no trouble
finding great jobs.
And that's part of the risk of coming to a new country. Although your education and experience may be
exemplary, not all employers are as open to diverse candidates. I would say employers can do better on this
front because New Canadians will increasingly be a prime source of talent in a country where the population is aging.
TD supports CultureLink precisely because it understands that diverse candidates bring diversity of
thought. Valuing each other's differences is part of our unique and inclusive culture.
As the mentoring sessions ramped up, rather than trying to dispense advice, I went with the approach of
trying to learn about the particular situations the mentees were facing and what they were looking for in
terms of networking and in terms of career.
WELCOMING
COMMUNITY NEWS
CultureLink
Settlement Services
Volume 5, Issue 12
Page 8
Year End Issue
2014
Through TD's Volunteer Grant
Program, TD employees who volunteer more than 40 hours annually at a
registered charitable organization are
eligible to earn a donation of $500 for
the organization. Gunalan (left,
picture top-left), is one of such TD
employees who had taken advantage
of this grant. Since he joined CultureLink Mentorship Program as a
volunteer in June 2013, Gunalan, a
marketing manager from TD, has
been actively involved in mentoring
newcomers and assisting with our
program design.
After having accumulated more than
50 hours, Gunalan applied for this Volunteer Grant
to support our HitRestart Workshop Series for
MarCom Entrepreneurs. He not only delivered a
highly valued workshop and coached several wouldbe entrepreneurs on Product Innovation, but also sat
on the judge panel of our entrepreneurial idea Pitch
Competition at the end of this12-week workshop
series. Vichitra, a newcomer marketing professional
(in the picture holding the $500 cheque from TD,
joined by Ibrahim Absiye, CultureLink’s Executive Director), was the winner of the competition. Speaking
of this experience, she wrote, “thank you so much for everything. Your programs have restored faith and
hope for me. It has been a harsh, rough and tough journey.”
WELCOMING
COMMUNITY NEWS
CultureLink
Settlement Services
Volume 5, Issue 12
Page 9
Year End Issue
2014
CultureLink is a newcomer serving agency located at
Bloor and Dundas West in downtown Toronto.
For 26 years, we have upheld our mission:
CultureLink is dedicated to facilitating the Independence
and full participation of newcomers in Canada’s diverse
community. CultureLink works within an antidiscriminatory framework to ensure a respectful, safe
and inclusive environment.
We hope you have enjoyed this issue of our Welcoming
Community Newsletter, and that you will look forward to
future newsletters.
2340 Dundas Street West, Suite 301
Toronto, ON M6P 4A9
Phone: 416-588-6288 Fax: 416-588-2435
Visit us at:
www.culturelink.ca
CONTRIBUTORS
Fei Tang
Mentorship Program Manager
Newsletter Supervisor
Marie Margis
CCMP Worker
Lisa Rainford
Reporter, Bloor West Villager
Stephen Knight
Volunteer Mentor from TD Bank
The Welcoming Community News invites you, the
members of the CultureLink Community to share
your story with us. Please send your story,
comments and thoughts to: ftang@CultureLink.ca
Please note that the submission deadline for our
January edition is: Friday, January 30, 2015
Photo Credits: Pictures of Bhayana Award provided through the courtesy of United Way Toronto
The newsletter can be read online at http://www.culturelink.ca/index.php/publications