Settlement Clusters: Enhancing Services for Vulnerable Populations

1. Settlement Clusters State of Play and Future Planning John Biles Assistant Director PNT Integration 27 October 2017

2. Table of Contents • What are the clusters? • Why have we initiated this work? • What has been accomplished thus far? • What is planned for the future? • Challenges? • Opportunities? • Questions

3. What are the clusters? • Groupings of providers across the 5 PNT jurisdictions who deliver similar services, provide specialized services to a potentially vulnerable clientele, or who have similar community/institutional characteristics?

4. Why have we initiated this work? • Inconsistencies in 2012-2017 CAs for similar programming across 5 PNT jurisdictions. • Inconsistency in professional development opportunity across providers. • Inconsistency in service availability between large urban centers and smaller centers. • Very little previous work on outcomes undertaken. • Desire to enhance services for vulnerable populations. • Few opportunities existed in the past for PNT settlement agencies delivering similar services to connect across jurisdictional lines. • Both Ontario and BCY have utilized this approach to great effect in the past to build communities of practice, identify and generalize best practices, and to conduct evaluations to guide future service planning and delivery. • Opportunities for investment where priorities are identified. • “Winter is coming.”

5. What has been accomplished thus far? • Learning Events • Refugees (Lessons Learned 2016; Resettlement Day of Integration Summits 2017) • Case Management (Winnipeg February 2017; Teleconference August 23, 2017) • RAP (National Conference Ottawa February 2017) • Youth (Calgary March 2017; Regina June 2017) • Newcomer Women (Calgary March 2017) • Small Centers (Brandon June 2017) • LGBTQ (Calgary September 2017) • Language Assessment (Winnipeg October 2017) • Post-secondary institutions (teleconference September 2017) • North (Yellowknife October 2016) • LIPs (Calgary September 2016; Regina June 2017) • Disability (Teleconference August 23, 2017) • Health/Mental Health (Teleconference August 23, 2017) • Seniors (Teleconference August 25, 2017) • Crisis Counselling (Teleconference August 16, 2017) • Evaluations • Language Assessment (Immigrant Services Calgary, Calgary) • Orientation (Altered Minds, Winnipeg) • Summer youth programming (Saskatchewan Intercultural Association, Saskatoon) • Settlement Practitioner Training and Accreditation Program (AAISA, Calgary) • Communities of Practice • LIP Coordinator Base Camp

6. What has been accomplished thus far? • Standard needs assessment development for RAP agencies in each province. • Pilots undertaken in Calgary and Edmonton to enhance uptake of needs assessments. • Typology of community connections programming developed and being fine-tuned through service mapping exercises.

7. What has been accomplished thus far (cont.)? • All funded organizations asked to complete professional development template. • Results rolled up. • Analysis undertaken to identify common requests. • Data reveals that: • There is inequity in how professional development funds are presently distributed. • Many service providers have difficulty articulating professional development needs and/or costing professional development opportunities. • There are many common themes that could be tackled at an aggregate regional, jurisdictional, or community level rather than agency by agency. • There is a need for some tailored professional development at the agency level. • Small centers / Northern providers require additional resources to be able to obtain professional development.

8. Professional Development Survey Results:

9. What is planned for the future? • North (Iqaluit November 2017) • Language (Edmonton February 2018) • Employment (Calgary March 2018) • Disability (Quarterly Calls) • Health/Mental Health (Quarterly Calls) • Seniors (Quarterly Calls) • Community Connections (Planning Underway) • Francophone Services (Planning Underway) • Crisis Counselling (Quarterly Calls) • Case Management (Lethbridge February/March 2018) • Regional Professional Development Strategy Pilot (3 courses for 75 counsellors from across PNT this fiscal – annual survey of need to funded SPOs FY2 and ongoing)

10. 3 Region-wide Pilot Courses Client Needs Assessment and Action Plans • This course is part of AAISA’s Pre-Service Certification program. • This course will support Settlement Practitioners to conduct needs assessments and assist clients in developing individualized goals and action plans appropriate to the client’s culture and life experience.  Basic Counselling Skills in a Cross-Cultural Context. • This course is part of AAISA’s Pre-Service Certification program. • This course will support Settlement Practitioners to define their counselling role with the clients they serve, and help them to recognize and develop the attitudes, skills, and knowledge to be effective in that role. Managing Practitioner Stress and Burnout Online Course • This online course was developed in response to sector reports of burnout and compassion fatigue experienced by front line practitioners. The course provides participants with practical knowledge to be able to recognize and identify symptoms of stress and to use this foundational knowledge to explore, develop and practice strategies to be able to effectively manage workplace stress.

11. What is planned for the future? • IRCC is working with partners to get cluster learning events scheduled until the end of the fiscal cycle and to ensure that agencies are appropriately resourced to participate. • In addition working with umbrella organizations to expand on-line delivery of courses required by wide cross section of settlement practitioners (as identified in annual professional development survey). • Starting in 2018/19 a maximum basic professional development allowance for all agreements for professional development apart from that offered through the clusters or the regional professional development strategy pilot. • $2,700 for conference participation + $150/FTE for language and $300/FTE for settlement for large urban center service providers.* • $3,000 for conference participation + $150/FTE for language and $300/FTE for settlement for small center/northern service providers with additional travel costs to be explored case by case.** • Evaluate this approach to professional development at the component and aggregate level to ascertain outcomes before CFP 2020. • Notes • *the conference amount is per provider, NOT per agreement • ** for providers with multiple sites, they will need to identify FTEs that are determined to be “small centers or northern”

12. Challenges? • Resources - Convergence Towards Equity • Timing / Planning • Participation • Outcomes • Access to Reports

13. Opportunities? • Annual Professional Development Survey • Continuous Improvement (Evaluations) • Planning Over the Fiscal Cycle • Leverage Technology • Co-ordination of cluster activities, umbrella, LIP and RIF activities, and agency-specific plans

14. Questions? • In person • Via email to cic-winnipeg-settlement-spos@cic.gc.ca