Professional Development

2005 National Host Conference

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[ Section 3 ] Conference Workshops
Session 3

Workshop 3B - Blended Programs - Towards Seamless Program Delivery

(Simultaneous interpretation was provided.)

Presenters:

Larry Baillargeon, Refugees Branch, CIC Headquarters, Ottawa
Marc Rhéaume, Refugees Branch, CIC Headquarters, Ottawa

Workshop Summary:

The objective of the workshop was to generate ideas that will be used in working towards developing an improved service delivery model that is more reflective of refugee's evolving needs.

A blended approach:

• Includes the private sponsors.
• Aims to improve Canada's Humanitarian Resettlement Program through community capacity building.
• Aims to strengthen partnerships with other government departments, provincial counterparts, and community based human services sector.
• Seamless delivery means improved services, quicker resettlement and more successful integration.
• Participants should benefit from a presentation that highlights the unique elements of each program, their common elements and the limits of each of the programs: Host, ISAP, LINC and RAP (including Joint-Assisted Sponsorship).
• Participants were asked to identify shortfalls and possible overlaps in addressing the specific needs of refugees.
• Participants were invited to explore possible solutions.
• These ideas will be used to assess the feasibility of developing a more seamless delivery of CIC's programs for refugees.
• The results of this workshop will be used to help develop a proposal for a pilot project to assist a selected group requiring more assistance.

Discussion:

• The Resettlement Assistance Program (RAP) can not adapt to current context
• How to reinvent RAP to better serve the refugees due
  to:
  • Changing profiles/needs of refugees
  • Limited budget (it has not increased since inception) and more Government Assisted Refugees (GARs)
  • Today's environment of RAP
  • Changes to IRPA (need for protection other than ability to establish, exemptions from excessive demands). As a result we are looking at refugees with more needs: no labour market, no school, no social environment
  • The wider gap between refugees under GAR and other immigrants
  • Increased difficulties in achieving self-sufficiency
  • Family breakdowns
• What is needed?
  • To adapt services to needs as opposed to trying to fit the refugees to our standard programs: we need innovation.
  • To look at internal re-allocations (Canada Immigration Framework and Client Service Initiative)
  • A process that is seamless to the clients
  • To better use the Canadian Orientation Abroad and other programs that help refugees before they arrive.
  • Flexible programs (Tiers 1 to 6 depending on the needs)
  • To involve all levels of government, the business community and the voluntary sector
  • Full assessment of the refugee needs and an action plan to address the needs
  • A basket of services from which appropriate referrals can be made
  • A link to Canadian society to guide the refugee through the action plan and to recommend changes where needed
  • Ideally: all refugees to be linked to someone in Canada. How can we do it

The following questions were asked to stimulate discussion:

• From your experiences with the Host Program what refugee “needs” can you identify as being unfulfilled?
• What “gaps” do you believe exist in the program and what recommendations do you have as to how these“gaps” may be filled?
• If changes were made to the program to better meet refugee needs what changes to program design would you recommend?
• CIC now partners with Host, LINC, ISAP, SPOs and private sponsors in the delivery of RAP what other key partners would you recommend?
• How could the Host Program play a larger role in refugee resettlement?

Needs

Health

• More mental health intervention; mental health reports and better health interpretations (lexicon required for medical terms)
• More up-front medical needs assessment
• Address shortage of family doctors

Needs assessment

• Greater needs assessments:
  • should they be done in Canada or overseas?
  • Better needs assessment tools
  • More information sharing
  • Better matches of resources to needs
• Comprehensive needs assessment and follow-up action plan.
• Re-assess needs after family is reunited. (Cycle of family coming back)

Destining

• Better destining
• Rural vs. urban: too few of same background in rural setting
• More effort in choosing more supporting environment

Host issues

• More information of background of camp (client's origins)
• More training and support for volunteers and staff
• One refugee could be matched with more than one host at a time

Miscellaneous

• Transportation to specialized services
• Community-wide initiatives
• Employment
• Monitoring (follow-up and feed-back)
• Need to address life-skills
• Sharing of responsibilities i.e. schools

Gaps

• Full Interim federal health (IFH) assessment
• Educational systems (small cities receive less funding)
• Life skills (30 days not enough)
• Information from client's first contact should be used to custom design life-skills training and better matching
• Assessments should be case by case and not groups
• Consider existing studies and recommendations already available
• Assessors need to be trained on differences in groups' special needs.
• Link into ethno-specific association (for RAP and Host) benefit from their background knowledge.

Program Design

• More partnerships
• Make use of house co-ops
• Seek funding through co-op initiative
• Use common assessment tool for different programs
• 4-6 weeks of RAP not enough in many cases
• should be conference at intervals of less than 5 years, and share resources
• Host and sponsors are not equipped for JAS (burden leads to burn out i.e. Kosovo). Joint-Assisted Sponsorship should be handled only by SPOs.
• Better promotion of Host

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