By Sarah Rae

Newcomer sessions bringing light to immigrant services

Aug 26, 2016 | 5:00 PM

Communities around the northwest region are holding sessions for newcomers in the coming weeks to introduce them to available services.

North West College and the Battlefords Immigration Resource Centre are co-hosting information sessions about settlement and English language learning services in North Battleford, Meadow Lake and Spiritwood. A session in Turtleford is co-hosted by Catholic Social Services instead of the BIRC.

“We have a responsibility to provide English training throughout our region and right now we have classes in North Battleford, Meadow Lake and Rosthern,” North West College Special Projects Coordinator Shelley Platten said. “We want to make sure other people can find out about learning English in their area.”

The sessions are open to anybody who has questions about settlement and learning English.

English classes through North West College can either be provided in-person or online depending on the number of students.

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North West College Manager of Corporate Services Victoria Lamb-Drover said one thing the college excels at is providing learning opportunities for people in rural areas who may not have as much access to college courses.

“If there’s a demand there, if there’s enough students to justify getting a class there we’ll do that, but if there’s a small group we’ll still make sure the students are served well and make sure they are connected with resources,” she said.

North West College typically serves 180 to 200 English as an Additional Language (EAL) students every year and assists with job coaching and further studies.

Lamb-Drover said the school tries to make English classes available for people who work full-time jobs, so there may be a class during the day for people who work evenings and a class in the evening for those who work during the day.

She said people may be unaware of some of the services for newcomers in the northwest region and although it may seem like there are less services in small communities there are intangible benefits moving to them.

She said small towns see a lot of migration out, so locals are often grateful for anyone coming in and contributing to the economy.

“Small towns are struggling, they welcome that kind of input from new immigrants,” she said. “Where formal services may be more difficult to access, those informal networking opportunities, those community engagement supports are I think quite strong in northwestern Saskatchewan and in our rural communities.”

The first newcomer session is in North Battleford on Aug. 31, then Meadow Lake on Sept. 1, Unity on Sept. 20, Turtleford on Sept. 21 and Spiritwood on Sept. 22.

Representatives from North West College will be available to answer questions about language classes and other academic pursuits and the BIRC or Catholic Services will be answering questions about settlement and citizenship.

Sarah Rae is battlefordsNOW’s court and crime reporter. She can be reached at Sarah.Rae@jpbg.ca or tweet her @sarahjeanrae.