Sometimes individuals facing hardship or unfamiliar challenges need specialized help to make it over life’s hurdles. With support from Calgary Foundation, the Calgary Immigrant Educational Society and the Canadian Child Abuse Association are providing assistance.
Moving to a new country can be stressful— many newcomers to Calgary have to deal with the pressures that come from learning a new language, navigating unfamiliar city services, dealing with harsh weather and finding a job and a place to live. Settling in can be hard for those who chose to make a new life in Canada, so imagine the anxiety that refugees who have been forced to leave their homes overseas must experience.
The Calgary Immigrant Educational Society (CIES) was founded 30 years ago to provide tools to newcomers as well as low income Calgarians to assist them in settling in or finding employment in Canada. The organization provides language, employment and settlement training to 1,200 clients in two Calgary locations every day.
In recent years, the CIES also started directing newcomers who are struggling with mental and emotional wellness issues to various mental health services on an informal basis, but last year, partially in response to the influx of refugees hailing from Syria, it formalized its much-needed Refugees and Newcomers Emotional Wellness (ReNEW) program, with funding from Calgary Foundation.
“A big portion of the clients we serve are refugees,” CIES CEO Sally Zhao says. “Even just in language and employment programs, about 36 per cent of our clients are refugees. We know that in addition to the language barriers there are other barriers because they come from war zone areas. When it comes to mental health, many of us need some help, but when it comes to this population, the help can be critical for them.”
Clients needing assistance can meet with CIES’s dedicated in-house ReNEW counsellor, who is fluent in Arabic, or one of her volunteer assistants who can serve clients in a number of different languages if necessary. After a friendly conversation, the counsellor may refer the person to services ranging from settlement classes offered by CIES to therapy sessions at Distress Centre Calgary or even into hospital care, depending on the complexity of their needs.
“Our counsellor is offered up as someone who is trustworthy and approachable that clients can chat with,” says Cesar Suva, CIES’ program development manager. “They chat about whatever they’d like to talk about, and whatever concerns and issues they have often come out. Often it’s just run-of-the-mill culture-shock issues, but frequently, more serious things are addressed, and it opens the door for that.”
Suva says that with so many “good news” stories about the successes of refugees and other newcomers in the media, it’s easy to forget that it takes time for many to acclimatize to Calgary and gain the emotional well-being needed to make those steps to learn the language, find a job and feel at home in the city. With the first year after arrival being the most critical time in any newcomer’s re-settlement process, Suva is proud to be able to offer referral services that go beyond the basic needs for housing and employment.
“Often we see the end results, which are frequently positive, and we emphasize those positive stories because it’s inspiring to see [newcomers] succeed,” he says. “But really, the steps to that success involve working through many of the ordeals they’ve had to go through.”
Story by Elizabeth Chorney-Booth