What was intended as a project to bring together Indigenous and refugee youth for intercultural exchange, celebration and community building grew into even more.

Through a series of dialogues – two dialogue circles and a traditional longhouse ceremony with Kwantlen First Nation – youth were able to safely share their individual journeys and find common ground with respect to experiences of displacement, trauma, and colonization.

These have been interesting times for the diversity debates. Last week James Damore—the former Google engineer who mapped a path to infamy via a memo to his bosses about their diversity policies, and the nature of women folks’ brains—filed a class-action suit against Google.

Options Refugee Youth Literacy Project is more than just an English class - students get to learn new vocabulary and essential skills through themes they can relate to. One of these themes is ‘Online Bullying and Peer Pressure.' With the help of RCMP Diversity Coordinator Yousef Nasimi, the Youth Literacy Project recently held a presentation and discussion on how to deal with bullies and peer pressure both online and offline.

Alexandra Neighbourhood House’s vision is a vibrant, inclusive, and caring community. We acknowledge that we live, work, and play on the unceded, occupied, ancestral and traditional lands of the Coast Salish peoples; locally the Semiahmoo First Nation.

“No matter how difficult the road is, you should be brave enough to travel head on and to always find ways to reinvent yourself.” That's the determination of Filipino-Canadian Onoya Construction Surveys owner, Neil Onoya, and the advice he would give newcomers to Canada.

I came to Canada in 1998. I was 33. My English was good, so I didn’t go to class. But I took Immigration Services Society classes on job finding techniques in Canada. I had no idea what a resume was; it was so different from the principles of finding work in my home country. I also took basic computer / internet ( which was a novelty even in Canada on those days) courses along with them.

Thousands of skilled immigrants come and settle in Surrey every year. One of the areas of interest for them is to explore opportunities with employers and their hiring practices. Staff from Whalley WorkBC had an opportunity to work closely with Henlong Market while placing some immigrant youth with them. It is always a pleasure!

It’s been about 10 years since I moved to Canada. As other newcomers  do, I spent several years in improving my English skills in the government funded English programs for immigrants. During the years, not only could I improve English skills but also met great mentors on my way to get my current job, a Library Technician at Surrey Libraries.

I came to Canada in 2013, with a young family, University degree in Computer Engineering a plethora of work experience in India and Kenya as a senior manager. Also, I have always involved in giving back to my community. Yet, as it happens with all newcomers to Canada, I had to struggle in initial phase to get a job related to my academic skill set.

My family moved from Philippines to Canada two years ago.  During my first few months it was very difficult to get a job that aligned with my previous work background. I applied with different companies only to get no positive feedbacks. After countless tries, I eventually got accepted at a very reputable company, but career and personal-wise, it was a job that was less than I had hoped for.