Center for Social Innovation in Toronto Supports Jobless Immigrants

The nerve center of Toronto's expanding social enterprise sector, the Center for Social Innovation (CSI), is focusing on helping deserving jobless immigrants gain new employment and entrepreneurial opportunities. It is identifying and reaching out to immigrants who are fairly qualified, but fail to get employed because they lack Canadian experience and do not have formal Canadian qualifications.

The CSI does not promise the immigrant candidates full-time jobs, but it does support them in various ways to improve their prospects to get gainfully employed. It provides them with necessary experience, exposure to a dedicated network of more than 300 open-minded entrepreneurs with industry connections, and a Canadian milieu where they can apply their skills while adapting to a new business environment.

The immigrant is looking to become a part of the Canadian workforce can apply to the CSI to become a volunteer community animator. The job responsibilities include managing the welcome desk, offering IT support to clients, taking visitors on tours, helping organize community events, preparing meeting rooms and improving the center's work practices and procedures.

The volunteer animator receives access to a full-time workspace where he or she can perform job search, and make use of the center's facilities such as phones, printers, photocopiers and teleconferencing equipment. In addition, the volunteer receives a CSI membership that enables him or her to become a part of the various programs and workshops.

Most importantly, the volunteers get an opportunity to engage with social entrepreneurs who are already running or in the process of starting new businesses. Such networking opportunities may lead to a contract, a job or a referral for the volunteer animators.

The center is also looking for partners who may be able to provide more focused pre-employment training to the volunteer animators. The team at CSI is developing a program under which the member organizations of CSI will provide one day per week of paid work to immigrant Canadians.

Source: The Star


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