New pilot to address multiple barriers to success for women in Canada’s job market
The Government of Canada is committed to ensuring that newcomers have the support and services they need to make the most of their talents and experience in order to fully integrate and contribute to the Canadian economy and to their communities.
Newcomer women who are members of a visible minority group may face multiple barriers to success, including gender- and race-based discrimination, precarious or low income employment, lack of affordable childcare and weak social supports.
Recognizing these challenges, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is providing additional funding of up to $5 million to 10 service provider organizations across Canada over the next 3 years to increase employment supports and services for newcomer women.
The Rexdale Women's Centre provides multi-generational supports for newcomer women and their family members so that they can become full participating members of Canadian society. The organization ensures that newcomer women can access settlement services and activities that assist in integration, foster emotional well-being and sense of belonging, and increase participation in the labour market and broader community. Although the centre serves every population of newcomers, a big proportion of their clients are newcomer women including visible minority newcomer women. This increased funding of $310,000 will enable them to serve more visible minority newcomer women in the area.
Identifying IRCC-funded service providers that are already offering strong programming for women and giving them additional funding will provide an immediate boost in capacity to support visible minority newcomer women.
Today’s funding announcement is part of IRCC’s 3-year Visible Minority Newcomer Women Pilot, which also includes establishing new partnerships with organizations for women. On December 5, IRCC launched an expression of interest process for new partnerships with organizations for women not currently funded by the department. IRCC will provide up to $7 million in funding over the next 3 years for new, innovative programs and services to support visible minority women in accessing the labour market and to build capacity in smaller organizations that serve or are led by visible minority women.