New Connections: Arts and the Settlement Process

On Thursday, July 14, the Neighbourhood Arts Network and the Working Women Community Centre hosted New Connections: Newcomer Artist Networking Event. We invited artists, cultural workers and community workers to participate in a discussion about arts and the settlement process in Toronto. After convening in the beautiful Oriole Peanut Community Garden, we exchanged ideas about barriers and resources for Canadian newcomer artists.

Although Toronto is often celebrated for its multiculturalism and diversity, newcomers in the city continue to face barriers to engagement and professional growth. Settlement services work hard to alleviate or eradicate such barriers, but there are certain areas that tend to be overlooked. Art, it seems, is one of those areas.

The Neighbourhood Arts Network hosted a discussion to address the apparent scarcity of support for newcomer artists. What barriers are newcomer artists facing, and what would help? How can the arts support the settlement process? Are there any existing resources for newcomer artists? These are the sorts of questions we sought to answer at New Connections: Newcomer Artist Networking Event.

Neighbourhood Arts Network Coordinator Skye Louis shares a laugh with guest Nadine Peazer.

Our fruitful group discussion yielded a number of insights, with participants offering perceptive suggestions for government and cultural agencies. Most of the issues we identified stem from two foundational problems: a lack of a centralized hub for art resources, and a perception of the arts as frivolous or irrelevant to the newcomer experience.

The first problem means that people have to sift through countless sources to find educational and employment opportunities for new citizens. “It would be helpful to have all of the information in one location or package,” said one attendee. Compiling something like that would take little effort, but the benefits would be great for newcomer artists. Settlement agencies could help to distribute them in multiple languages, which would eliminate the language barrier some newcomers face in navigating existing resources.

The second problem is trickier, because the solution requires an ideological shift. Until settlement agencies begin to value the arts as a viable career option, services for newcomer artists will remain inadequate. “Newcomer services provide information about all sorts of careers, except for arts,” lamented one guest. “They need to start taking art seriously as a potential profession for newcomers.”

Once institutions devote themselves to this vision, they can begin offering professional development resources for new citizens with arts backgrounds. Resume and portfolio development, tips on where to search for employment, and opportunities to gain practical experience would all be welcome supports. Several of our guests suggested a mentorship program, in which a newcomer artist would be paired with a local artist, who could help integrate the newcomer into the Toronto arts community.

Another common source of frustration is the void of services targeted at more experienced newcomer artists. There is a wealth of resources for both youth and emerging artists, but support for mature or experienced artists is lacking. This type of vacancy stymies the growth of both Toronto’s artistic community, and the development of artists who are new to the country.

Although there is clearly room for improvement, there are some existing resources that warrant celebration. The Cultural Access Pass has been hugely successful, offering new citizens free access to cultural institutions for a year. The service is provided by the Institute for Canadian Citizenship, and information about the program is distributed at citizenship ceremonies.

Erin Glover from Arts for Children and Youth spoke about their efforts to engage newcomer youth through multi-disciplinary arts programs. AFCY facilitates 150 programs a year, allying with priority neighbourhoods around the city. By conducting the programs in local, public spaces like libraries and community centres, AFCY ensures that youth from all backgrounds have total access to their services.

Our host Nasrin Khatam shared another success story, describing the “Art in the Garden” program that she runs at the WWCC. Funded by the Trillium Foundation, the program provides free art supplies and lessons for community members, who wouldn’t otherwise have access to art. Locals also began growing vegetables and herbs in the garden, with an emphasis on international ingredients that are hard to find in Canadian stores.

“Arts and creation are always at the bottom of the list for newcomers,” Nasrin says. “They have this giant list of things they need to take care of: finding a place, finding a school, getting to know the community…arts are always pushed to the bottom of that list. But it’s an important part of getting settled. My dream is that art will eventually be recognized and supported as an important part of the immigration and settlement process.”

Download the full event notes here: New Connections Notes

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Amy Goudge is the Summer 2011 Membership Intern at the Neighbourhood Arts Network.

Working Women Community Centre

Working Women Community Centre is a stronghold providing services to newcomer and immigrant women and their families. On March 31st, I sat down with Director of Programs & Services Adriana Beemans to hear exactly how WWCC keeps up to date and continues to serve the community.

we find in our programs is that once people start participating, art helps feed the soul and support holistic personal growth – which is a really important part of settling in a new country. If you just focus on the basic needs you don’t have places to be creative and deal with broader issues.

How does Working Women Community Centre support such a large range of people?
We serve immigrant women and their families. So we definitely serve men and boys as well. I think the primary focus is entering that process through the woman. The challenge is that programming differs between age groups and on top of that the skill set of staff. The other range is ethno-cultural groups. We have staff that speak 21 languages to access those populations. The needs, interests, and assets of one age range aren’t the same as the others. What a young mother is dealing with and facing is very different from a senior immigrant woman.

The needs, interests, and assets of one age range aren’t the same as the others. What a young mother is dealing with and facing is very different from a senior immigrant woman.

What has allowed WWCC to remain active over 30 years?
In the past 10 years WWCC has expanded significantly from an organization of 8 – 10 staff to about 100. The key thing that has allowed us to stay successful is to keep abreast of trends in the refugee and immigration sector, the funding, and policy environment. Other key things are to provide wraparound supports and a suite of programming that is not limited to a narrow definition of settlement, integration or support services – to meet the needs of the whole person. It’s not just providing information or a referral, but the areas that they would like to develop and explore. It’s about being innovative and thinking about what different participants say and how they want to improve. Another key thing is that we provide a lot of support and training for peer leaders; a lot of our activities are volunteer driven and self-run.

How does WWCC work with and support volunteers?
The most important challenge is making sure they have meaningful experiences. They want to volunteer and have it be relevant and lead to another work opportunity. So the challenges are identifying the right volunteer activities. It’s a lot of coordination and upfront interviewing and understanding what they’re interested in. But also the support and coaching that goes throughout that process. For us the demand is really high for volunteers from our communities. Most of our volunteers are our clients as well.

For us the demand is really high for volunteers from our communities. Most of our volunteers are our clients as well.

What are the obstacles and successes associated with WWCC having 4 locations throughout the GTA?
The challenge is to ensure there is similar organizational culture. Each site can get it’s own culture which makes sense, but making sure they each feel part of the same organization. Also just staff feeling connected to one another. You have staff from one site who never see staff from another site. But the ability of being a city-wide organization is that we can respond to needs and keep abreast of an idea that’s working in one area to be transferred to another. There’s a lot of learning and sharing between sites. But also recognition of the complexity of the clients and of the identity. If you’re only working in one area your experience can be framed by your client group. Here in the downtown we primarily see a lot of Portuguese, and Spanish immigrants, but up in North York it’s a very different client group. It’s great because it allows you to see some issues that are the same, but some are completely different .

How does WWCC reach out to the local community to attract new members or clients?
The biggest thing is word of mouth. We’ve been in this location for 30 years and probably a third of our staff have been previous volunteer summer students, or clients themselves. We really try to reflect the population we work with and serve, and that is one of the ways we do outreach. Also we sit on a lot of service networks and planning collaborations, and have staff funded to engage other organizations for partnerships. We use the animator model to hire for key projects locally from the community.

How does WWCC incorporate arts programming?
We see art as a key engagement mechanism – if you are a newcomer immigrant it’s not always prioritized, because it’s about finding employment, learning the language, or affordable housing. But what we find in our programs is that once people start participating, art helps feed the soul and support holistic personal growth – which is a really important part of settling in a new country. If you just focus on the basic needs you don’t have places to be creative and deal with broader issues. We run arts programming in our North York site where the community garden is kind of like an extended living room. People don’t just do food stuff there, they also come together, they celebrate. We were working with an artist to explore immigrant women’s experiences as cleaners through self expression. It’s a powerful way for immigrant women to tell their stories and to reflect on them.

To learn more about Working Women Community Centre visit http://www.workingwomencc.org/

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Robyn Shyllit is a graduate of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, and a student in the Cities Centre Community Development Program at the University of Toronto completing a Masters degree in Planning.