Learn about the innovative practices and stories of impact from across the settlement sector in Alberta. Find out how agencies are overcoming the pressing issues that the newcomers are facing when looking for employment, education opportunities, language programs, and various community supports.

What are Innovative Practices?

As an integral part of the Toolkit, the Innovative Practices brings a compilation of locally inspired models and ideas that have been implemented in the settlement agencies across Alberta. The project highlights the stories of impact and thereby enables organizations to connect with each other around common interests and encourage knowledge mobilization.

Through a series of articles, the Innovative Practices aims to inspire settlement and other community organizations to examine how they can adopt and adapt activities in their local contexts and promote awareness on importance of immigration in Alberta.

The innovation criteria are informed by various ongoing AAISA engagement initiatives with the agencies’ representatives, such as Sector Call, Small Centre Quarterly Update meeting, Provincial Engagement Initiative, RAP Providers Quarterly Meetings and other engagement activities.

Methodology

The participating organizations are selected after it is determined that they offer programs in line with the themes that the project aims to cover. Priority will be given to AAISA member organizations and those with high level of participation in AAISA’s engagement initiatives.

Themes that have been identified focus on gaps and challenges in programming for specific groups of newcomers, such as refugee claimants, temporary foreign workers, international students, women, LGBTQ+, youth, seniors. Furthermore, gaps have been detected in the areas of language programming for CLB 5+ newcomers, and adequate employment opportunities for internationally trained professionals.

As an addition to the pre-determined themes, Innovative Practices will bring stories on other emerging topics that arise in the engagement activities, such as transportation, housing, childcare, counselling, advocacy, translation and interpretation, family, wellness, local initiatives and projects.

Designated AAISA staff collects data from participating organizations through semi-structured questions, resulting in an online article published on the Toolkit. Articles are published quarterly, starting in the summer 2020.