Grapevine Newsletter - October 2015

Welcome to the Calgary Immigrant Women's Association's bi-monthly Grapevine Newsletter! 

CIWA is pleased to launch a new project

Assessment Tools for Skills, Needs and Progress of ESL Literacy Learners is a yearlong research project that has been funded by Calgary Learns. This research project will result in assessment tools that will help ESL instructors respond to the literacy learning needs of struggling ESL learners with low first language literacy. This project is unique because of the limited research, resources, and assessment tools that currently exist in the emerging field of ESL for low literacy adult learners.  

CIWA second annual business partner luncheon a success

CIWA hosted its second annual business partner luncheon on October 15 and it was attended by 18 of our business partners. These organizations engage with CIWA as host companies, guest speakers, networking attendees and community partners. We would like to thank all of our business partners for their ongoing support in helping us empower immigrant women to integrate into Canadian society.

By: Alice Lam, CIWA Board Member

This past month, several board members had the opportunity to attend Enbridge’s Famous 5 Speaker Series. This series showcases influential women in Calgary by giving them an opportunity to talk about their leadership journey, what inspires them, and their vision for the future. Our Past Chair, Amal Umar, gave a captivating speech regarding her involvement in the immigrant sector, shared a story of how CIWA began, and highlighted the ever-present systemic issues faced by skilled immigrant women in Calgary.

This was a great opportunity for new board members to hear about the history of CIWA and also be reminded of the existing roadblocks facing foreign-trained immigrants in our community. It is Amal’s passion and commitment to the cause that led me to volunteer on the Board of Directors at CIWA, and during this presentation, I was reminded once again of why the work we do at CIWA is so vital to the long-term sustainability of Calgary and Canada.

Nominations open for CIWA Daughters' Day Awards

Nominations are open for CIWA's Daughters' Day Awards. The awards, founded in Edmonton, celebrate the lives, contributions, and achievements of all daughters based on an appreciation of gender equity in our society. Recipients of the Daughters' Day Awards will be awarded at Youth Forum on February 6, 2016. Last year, three young and exceptional community builders were awarded Daughters' Day Awards and we look forward to celebrating new winners this year. More information is available online.

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