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Immigrant Services highlights:
•
helped 5,000 newcomers settle into
their new lives in Canada
•
recruited more than 300 newcomer volunteers to
support programs including workshops, professional
forums, and social and recreational activities
•
offered services in ten languages (English, French,
Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Turkish, Tamil,
Bengali, Urdu, German) to newcomers
In the summer of 2003, after years of being moved
around and brutalized by their father and his relatives,
two teenage brothers were referred to WoodGreen’s
Immigrant Services by the Children’s Aid Society in
To ronto. Having first immigrated to Canada in 1999,
they were being treated as illegal immigrants and being
asked to leave the country, after their father (born
in Zaire) had withdrawn his sponsorship of them.
Their lives had taken them from an early childhood
in Switzerland, to being kidnapped by their father
and taken to France and then to Canada. While
reunited with their mother for a few short years in
her homeland of Zimbabwe, she died suddenly there.
So the brothers were sent back to live with their
father in Canada who abused them both physically
and psychologically, and refused to feed them. In
part, as a result of the abuse, the younger brother
developed a schizophrenic condition.
WoodGreen intervened to keep the brothers in
Canada. Assembling a team of individuals, including
a refugee lawyer, the boys’ guidance counsellor at
school, a staff psychiatrist at the Hospital for Sick
Children and their Member of Parliament, WoodGreen
helped to convince Citizenship and Immigration to
allow the brothers to become protected persons of
the Government of Canada. The brothers are very
excited about becoming citizens of Canada – the one
place they feel truly accepted and safe. It has given
them a sense that they really belong somewhere and
that they can now finally go on and build their lives.
Building hope and a better life
6 WoodGreen Community Services
Last year, WoodGreen helped
5,000 newcomers settle into
their new lives in Canada.
Last year, WoodGreen provided
high-quality child care and enriching
learning opportunities to more than
400 children and their families.
Promoting healthy
child development
routines and other children. She stresses that her
daughter is much more comfortable going into new
situations and generally more excited about going
to school than her older sister, who did not have the
When Keri, a mother of four, enrolled her daughter in
the Bruce/WoodGreen Early Learning Centre, she could
see the advantages of the program almost immediately.
One of five Toronto First Duty Projects, Bruce/
WoodGreen combines kindergarten, child care and
parenting supports into one comprehensive program.
Lower teacher-to-child ratios, available parental
supports and regular communication between all
the staff in the program create a place where children
feel comfortable and secure – a place ideal for
optimum learning and development.
Having had the experience of one daughter who
went directly into kindergarten and one daughter
in the Bruce/WoodGreen program, Keri says that
the differences are incredible. She believes the
Bruce/WoodGreen approach has made it much easier
for her daughter to adjust to a new school, new
Child Care Services highlights:
•
provided high quality, affordable child care
to 359 children and their families
•
provided resource teacher support to
special needs children
•
provided a summer camp program for 91 children
•
provided a half-day nursery program for 20 children
•
provided an integrated child care environment to
more than 60 children at the Bruce/WoodGreen
Early Learning Centre
benefit of the program.
While the results of a recent study on the program
have not been released yet, initial data indicates that
children within this new model are advancing quickly
academically and that they are thriving both socially
and emotionally. Keri attributes the program’s success
to the ongoing support available to parents and to
the excellent communication between staff, who meet
weekly to ensure that they are accommodating the
children’s individual interests and needs within the
program. “Having everything integrated into one
program really works,” says Keri, adding that it
should be made available to all families.
Mental Health and Developmental Services highlights:
•
increased the number of individuals supported through
mental health case management services by 50%
•
enhanced our capacity to respond to people with dual
diagnosis (mental and developmental challenges)
•
involved 109 individuals in our mental health
group programs
•
supported more than 75 individuals with developmental
challenges in the community
•
provided support and information to more than 180
children with developmental challenges and their families
Annual Report 2003
•
2004 7