Who We Are

Background

In April 2020, the City of Brantford was awarded funding from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to create and lead a Local Immigration Partnership in Brantford.

A Local Immigration Partnership (LIP) is an organization that improves the coordination of newcomer-related services in a community and promotes collaboration between local service providers and community organizations to ensure that newcomers successfully participate and integrate into Brantford.

Brantford is quickly becoming more ethnically and culturally diverse, with 2% of the total population having arrived in Canada since 2006, and over 10% of Brantford residents speaking a first language other than English.

Newcomers are important to Brantford for a variety of reasons, including their high levels of skills and education, their contribution to the local economy, and enrichment of cultural life in the city. To continue responding to the needs of the newcomer community, the City of Brantford, together with community partners, established a LIP appropriately named the Brantford Immigration Partnership (BIP) to utilize this federal funding over a five-year period from April 2020 to March 2025. Throughout these five years, we will be responsible for creating a community-wide strategy to promote newcomer inclusion, and respond to challenges faced by newcomers.

Mission

Our mission is to create a welcoming and inclusive community in the City of Brantford where all immigrants are able to succeed and participate in the economic, social, civic, and cultural growth of the city.

We will work collaboratively, as community leaders, to ensure meaningful settlement and integration into a welcoming community for newcomers.

We will work to support newcomers in the complex challenges and barriers they face integrating into their new community. This includes support in understanding various Canadian systems (health, education, justice, and social services), accessing needed services, finding employment in their chosen field, and learning more about the local culture.

Goals

We will communicate with stakeholders and the community as a whole to strengthen awareness. Our partnership will help improve access to services and programs that facilitate immigrant settlement and integration. We also aim to increase capacity to research and disseminate best practices within the settlement sector.

Key objectives

• Conduct community consultations, engagement, and research to inform our planning and community programs and services
• Develop campaigns to enhance education and awareness of newcomer programs and services, as well as to celebrate inclusion, diversity and community pride
• Actively identify ongoing opportunities to align our priorities with current and future community policies, plans, and strategies

 Funded by the IRCC