After working in journalism and media relations in Morocco, Adam craved a change so he moved with his young family to Canada in September 2019. They immigrated through the Express Entry program for skilled workers. The first placed they lived was close to the OCISO office, so he inquired about services offered for newcomers. [...]
When Daniel Azike arrived in Ottawa in March 2019 from Nigeria, someone gave him a great bit of advice – to take advantage of settlement services. He browsed the OCISO website and soon found himself participating in employment and mentoring workshops. He was paired with a mentor who was working in a related field [...]
MEDIA RELEASE OCISO Receives $265,700 Ontario Trillium Foundation Grant June 19, 2020, Ottawa, ON – We are pleased to announce that OCISO has received $265,700 in funding over three years from the Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) for our Wrestling with Champions program. This program, currently scheduled to begin in January 2021, will be in line [...]
For the first time in her career, Maryana St. Hilaire is working from home. She is one of eight OCISO clinical counsellors who because of the COVID-19 pandemic began working remotely on March 16. Transitioning the counseling services for newcomers to remote delivery involved a series of steps and modifications. It had layers of [...]
When Schnael François started as a Youth Facilitator at YOCISO in March 2020, he quickly realized that some clients’ families were at great risk because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of these families already had struggles as newcomers to Canada and were further isolated because of the pandemic. Schnael soon found out about an [...]
In March 2019, Mojtaba Omran and his wife immigrated to Canada from Iran through the Express Entry program for skilled workers. With a Master of Arts in English Literature, he has taught English as a Second/Foreign Language (EFL) in Tehran, Iran for a decade. OCISO, which he found online, was one of the first [...]
When schools and OCISO’s offices closed more than a month ago due to the COVID-19 pandemic, YOCISO quickly jumped into action – finding ways to continue to engage with the newcomer youth through several online platforms. YOCISO is currently using Instagram, Facebook, Zoom and Google Hangouts for these types of activities: Daily engagement through [...]
By Suzanne Charest Lisa Olsen teaches newcomers English, helping them to reach one of the most pivotal language levels, Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) 4. What makes CLB 4 so important is that it is the level required in listening and speaking for an immigrant or refugee aged 18 to 54 to be able to [...]
Vietnamese Community Honours Marion Dewar’s Legacy On April 29, 2020, a special Zoom call took place to recognize a generous donation of $6,000 from the Vietnamese Canadian Centre to the Marion Dewar Scholarship Fund (MDSF). In normal times, this type of presentation would be done in person, but to adhere to the physical distancing [...]
