NEWS RELEASE
SAULT CAREER CENTRE
***************************** Settlement services
SAULT STE. MARIE - Sault Ste. Marie is now home to settlement services for newcomers to Canada at the Sault Community Career Centre through their New To The Sault program.
Incorporated in 1992, the Sault Community Career Centre has been supporting people of this city through various programming, the newest being settlement supports for permanent residents, convention refugees, and live-in caregivers.
Fully funded by Citizenship and Immigration Canada, the settlement program provides practical and ongoing support that enables newcomers to integrate into all aspects of community life including, economically, socially, and culturally.
“The Government of Canada is committed to helping newcomers succeed,” said Larry Miller, member of Parliament for Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound. “Sault Community and Career Centre will help newcomers access services to help ease their transition to life in Canada. Their success will strengthen this community and Canada as a whole.”
As more people reach the age of retirement there will be a pressing need to fill the looming void in the workforce.
Immigration is only one of many strategies to counter this.
Karol Rains, the executive director of the Sault Community Career Centre is thrilled to be able to offer this level of support to newcomers.
“Settlement services and supports are an integral vehicle as the community pushes out to attract newcomers to Sault Ste. Marie. Attracting newcomers to the Sault is only half of the equation, retention is the other half; keeping people here is the other piece of the puzzle, and that is what the New To The Sault program does.”
The staff dedicated to the settlement program truly understand what it means to pack up your life and move to a new country, a new culture as they are newcomers to Canada themselves.
Rains adds: “It is important that when a person walks through our door they know they are being listened to and heard. Having staff that have walked in the same shoes is crucial to the success of this program.”
The staff is highly trained and knowledgeable and work tirelessly to support newcomers to Sault Ste. Marie.
Citizenship and Immigration Canada recognizes the importance of having settlement services in Northern communities, and the Sault Community Career Centre is seen as a local leader in this area.
The centre has been successful in bringing workshops and training to Sault Ste. Marie which benefits businesses, employers, and community agencies.
The centre has the capabilities to deliver cross cultural communication and cultural sensitivity training, which has the ability to build bridges between the different cultures in the city.
The Sault Community Career Centre has been hosting the annual Passport To Unity multicultural event, which is now entering its fifth year.
An official launch of the settlement program will take place on March 25 beginning at 11 a.m. at our new location, 503 Queen Street East, on the corner of Queen and Spring Street.
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