By Surrey 604 | Link to Article
By Surrey 604 | Link to Article
Surrey, BC – Welcoming new immigrants is beneficial to all members within a community when they are made to feel welcomed and experience a sense of belonging. Newcomers help to increase innovation, creativity, economic stability, cultural diversity and acceptance of others.
The City of Surrey Welcoming Communities Project is a partnership of many services and agencies that strengthen Surrey’s status as one of the most welcoming communities in Canada. It really does take a village to say ‘welcome.’ A key principle of the Surrey Welcoming Communities Project is that successful immigration involves both a commitment on the part of immigrants and refugees to adapt to life in Canada, and a commitment on the part of Canadians to welcome and include newcomers in local communities.
The Surrey Welcoming Communities Project plays an important role to promote a proactive and genuine receptiveness to help immigrants and refugees truly feel at home in Surrey.
Accordingly, The Surrey Welcoming Communities Project inspires services and businesses to create safe and positive spaces for newcomers in Surrey and inspires more people to become champions of a more welcoming culture.
Surrey Welcoming Communities Service Provider Conference:
As a component of the SWCP, the Surrey Welcoming Communities Service Provider Conference aims to bring service providers together for a one day conference to share and discuss information, ideas, resources, and promising practices to help make Surrey a more welcoming and inclusive community for all. Conference delegates will have the opportunity to engage in conversations about what makes Surrey one of the most diverse and dynamic cities in Canada and receive the latest information and trends on super diversity, population dynamics in Surrey, and CICs vision for building welcoming communities in Canada.
The conference will be held on Friday, February 21, 2014 at the Sheraton Vancouver Guildford Hotel. 200 Surrey service providers are anticipated to attend the conference.
Special guests and presenters will include Councillor Mary Martin, City of Surrey, Daniel Hiebert, Co-Director of Metropolis BC and Canadian Network for Research on Terrorism, Security, and Society (TSAS), and Sophia Lee, Director of Integration, Western Region, Citizenship & Immigration Canada.
AMSSA (the Affiliation of Multicultural Societies and Service Agencies) is pleased to be coordinating the event in collaboration with the City of Surrey, the 25 members of the SWCP Advisory Committee and PEERs.
Surrey Welcoming Communities Service Provider Conference
For more information about the conference or interview opportunities, please contact:
Lisa Elliott, SWCP Conference Coordinator | P: 604-718-2779 E: lelliott@amssa.org | Web:www.wicsurrey.org