Canadian government is set to provide fund to newcomers in Durham region to settle.

The Honourable Diane Finley, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration has announced funding that is aimed to assist six organizations in Durham Region in delivering settlement services to around 2400 newcomers in the community.

This funding, which is of almost $6 million will go to the Community Development Council Durham, Northern Lights Canada, The Women’s Multicultural Resource and Counselling Centre Durham, The Durham Region Unemployed Help Centre, Durham District School Board and the Durham Catholic District School Board. All the above mentioned organizations that will receive the fund deliver a number of settlement services for the newcomers that include referrals to community resources, proper advice and guidance to the newcomers, language assessment, language training, and general information and most importantly, help them finding a job.

A part of this funding will go towards a youth mentorship program that performs the task of pairing Canadian youth with newcomer youth to help the new arrivals adapt to the educational system of Canada. Newcomers will also be benefited for the workshops that will teach them how to prepare resumes and find a suitable job for themselves.

Minister Finley said that the Government of Canada wants newcomers to succeed and this funding will help them to achieve this. She said that the funding will give them the support that they desperately need in order to settle easily into the Durham community. In its efforts to help the newcomers integrate and succeed in the Canadian society, the government of Canada has begun investing as additional $1.4 billion in settlement funding over five years, since 2006.

Tracey Vaughan, the Executive Director of Community Development Council Durham in Ajax said that in recent years, this area has become more diverse as more newcomers are calling Durham Region as their ‘home’. Tracey said that with the help of the new funding and wonderful support form Citizenship and Immigration Canada, they will be able to provide settlement services to the newcomers so that they can become active participants in their communities and contribute to the economy.

Settlement services are an essential part of the immigration program of the federal government. The government of Canada has increased the settlement funding for Ontario by $920 million over five years, through the COIA- Canada-Ontario Immigration Funding. Under the COIA, CIC works with the Province of Ontario and immigrant-serving communities in order to make a better life for the newcomers.