Southeast Advocates for Employment (SAEA) held their 2018-19 annual general meeting on Sept. 19 at the Western Star Hotel. The non-profit organization had a lot of exciting events, activities and achievements throughout their 20th anniversary year to share.
“Southeast Advocates for Employment Estevan and Weyburn has had a very productive year,” said SAEA executive director Debbie Hagel. “In the last year, the offices in Estevan and Weyburn worked with 153 individuals, assisting in securing long term sustainable employment or post-secondary education. With a funding partnership primarily with the Ministry of Immigration and Career Training we have had the ability to once again maximize on the potential of ‘people’ within the communities we provide service.”
Since its inception, the transitional for youth employment, settlement for newcomers and integration for newcomer children in schools were added to the original organization. All of these additions proved to be helpful for people SEAE serves.
“The supportive manner, in which we assure our participants to take the ‘risks’ necessary to become as self-sufficient as possible, has proven to be empowering and rewarding for the individuals we serve,” said Hagel.
In the past fiscal year, Southeast Newcomers Services worked with 98 registrations and 2,803 inquiries.
“This service not only complements the existing service we provide to our region but also has proven to be exciting and continues to challenge our ‘out of the box’ philosophy,” said Hagel.
She also talked about Settlement Workers in Schools (SWIS), which is a partnership that includes a settlement agency, board of education and Citizenship and Immigration Canada.
“It is a school-based outreach program to help newcomer students and their families settle in their schools and community. SWIS connects newly arrived families to services and resources in the school and the community in order to promote settlement and foster student achievement,” said Hagel.
They currently have 223 families registered and expect this number to increase as they move out to other communities within the region.
SWIS employee Aimee Haralson said that SWIS has been approved for another five years which means that they can continue following their goals.
“SWIS would like to help all students in school succeed,” said Haralson. “What is a success to a child? It could be just being able to dive on his own. It could be just practising and being able to do it. It could just be getting As in exams. But then, as they grow older, they will start to distinguish skill with luck, with ability, with effort and with success. So in the process, we are hoping to be there for them and we would like to acknowledge as well all parents that are there.”
A mother of one of the families receiving support from SWIS was a guest speaker at the meeting. Andrea Hernandez talked about how SWIS has helped her eight-year-old son Cyrus Osano and her family.
“We are one of the families that SWIS was able to assist with some free programs,” said Hernandez.
The family benefited from Kidsport, which allowed Cyrus to get involved with skiing, soccer, swimming and taekwondo free of charge.
“I have three kids… They were able to benefit from the free car seat program as well. We were given two car seats. It’s a big help because car seats are not cheap,” said Hernandez. “My oldest was also able to learn to camp in Woodlawn (Regional Park).”
Cyrus also attended a basketball clinic. The family participates in monthly meetings organized by SWIS and keeps receiving advice and directions on what programs are there and how to approach them.
During the meeting, Hagel also said that the Transition Project was, once again, successful and helped 19 students to transit from high school into the world of work or post-secondary education. That was done in partnership with the South East Cornerstone Public School Division and funding from the Ministry of Immigration and Career Training. And this story of success will be continued.
“This fiscal year we will continue to assist with the transition of students with disabilities, ages 16-22, attending high school in their last years,” said Hagel.
Throughout the last year, SEAE also hosted and helped with a number of events including the facilitation of the recognition of Treaty 4 territory between the City of Estevan and First Nation, Aboriginal Day celebration, the Collage Cultural Festival, peer leadership training, Canada Day celebrations and much more.
