Regina Immigrant Women Centre hosts first “one-stop shop” event for newcomers to Canada

The Regina Immigrant Women Centre hosted local services at Cornwall Centre to help newcomers settle into the province. Damian Smith reports.

Newcomers to Regina had the chance to connect with more than 20 organizations offering support and services, as the Regina Immigrant Women Centre (RIWC) hosted their first ever one-stop shop event at Cornwall Centre to help ease their transition to life in Canada.

“We needed to make sure that we are able to support the people as best as possible,” said Ritu Kalra, the executive director of the RIWC. “We’re bringing all those services together, which would really help them just as a one stop shop, and you get all your answers.”

For Maya Dabo, the event was a welcome change. When she and her seven siblings immigrated from Senegal to Prince Albert in 2002, and later moved to Regina in 2008, similar supports weren’t readily available.

“A lot of the settlement needs weren’t met ... and a lot were just done through people and volunteers,” she said.

Dabo, now the community connection coordinator with the Regina Open Door Society, has worked with the organization for 12 years. She says established agencies with the capacity to support newcomers across a wide range of needs simply weren’t in place at the time.

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Language support was also available at the one-stop shop. Interpreter Nahid Abid, who has been in Canada for just one year, provided assistance in languages including Urdu and Arabic.

“For some, they are very confused. It is really a problem for them because they cannot express what they want to say,” she said.

Abid moved to Canada only last year after 15 years in Saudi Arabia.

“If they find an interpreter, it is quite a relief for them and they will be happy.”

Local support group Rooted Connections was also on hand, offering settlement services such as language assistance and housing support. The organization says many newcomer families are struggling to find suitable and affordable homes.

“A lot of our clients are not finding the right size of homes for them,” said Shams Badri, the newcomer family support supervisor. “If they have bigger families, what’s available is a smaller unit. Even the ones that can find houses they’re too expensive. They take up more than 50 per cent of their budget.”

After taking over as executive director of the Regina Immigrant Women Centre in December, Kalra says she hopes to make the one-stop shop an annual event to continue supporting newcomers as they adjust to life in Canada.

“When newcomers come to Canada, they need that support,” she said. “They’re isolated, there’s barriers of language transportation, we just support them just to feel at home.”