{"id":22160,"date":"2018-11-09T11:35:19","date_gmt":"2018-11-09T16:35:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=22160"},"modified":"2018-11-09T11:35:19","modified_gmt":"2018-11-09T16:35:19","slug":"conversation-circle-helps-newcomer-kids-with-boost-from-trillium-foundation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/conversation-circle-helps-newcomer-kids-with-boost-from-trillium-foundation\/","title":{"rendered":"Conversation Circle helps newcomer kids \u2013 with boost from Trillium Foundation"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve ever been the new kid in class, you know how difficult it can be to find your feet in a new environment. But, put yourself in the shoes of a child in the same situation who is new to Canada, new to English, and struggling to find the words to forge ahead.
\nThe Conversation Circle, an initiative of Big Brothers Big Sisters of York, is hoping to help make that transition easier for newcomer youth.
\nFunded by the Ontario Trillium Foundation, the Big Brothers Big Sisters of York (BBBSY) program introduces newcomer youth to mentors \u201cwho have a caring, flexible attitude and an interest in mentoring young people who are new to Canada.\u201d
\nThe program\u2019s mandate is to give youth the opportunity to practice English language skills \u201cin a safe, encouraging environment,\u201d while improving self-esteem through positive relationships with mentors and other group members, while also promoting social integration in schools and the wider community.\u201d
\nThe program got a welcome boost from Trillium last week with the formal presentation of a $104,000 grant which will help support over 100 kids here in York Region.
\nThe presentation, which was also attended by Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill MPP Michael Parsa, took place in the middle of a pumpkin carving competition, but officials took some time out to share the benefits of the program.
\n\u201cAs coordinator of the Conversation Circle, I have had the opportunity to see the program out in the community,\u201d said Devinder Hallan, BBBSY Program Coordinator responsible for Conversation Circle. \u201cWe know we live in a diverse region that many newcomers are choosing as their new home. We have been working with several workers and different schools [in all nine municipalities] who have addressed the need and need a program like Conversation Circle. We have connected with them and many of these schools want our continued service and want us to come back with Conversation Circle because they have seen the growth of the participants and they see the need is there.
\n\u201cWe have seen the success. We have seen participants come in and not know certain activities and had the opportunity to try new ones \u2013 and even different foods. We have had the opportunity to provide participants with different foods they have not been exposed to. We measure first how they are socially when they first come into the program and how they feel when they have ended the program. We do our own evaluation in terms of how they feel the program went for themselves. If there are any new things, that\u2019s how we learn.\u201d
\nSarah Dame, Executive Director of BBBSY, added while the organization performs evaluations and measure all outcomes of the programs, these outcomes in turn are all measured through the Ontario Trillium Foundation.
\nFollowing the formal presentation from the OTF, and determining the winners of the pumpkin carving competition, Ms. Dame held a meeting with Mr. Parsa to outline some of the needs facing Big Brothers Big Sisters of York. Before they went into the meeting, both shared their thoughts on opportunities.
\n\u201cWe just want the Premier, the Ministers and all the Members of Provincial Parliament, to know what we do and what is now an essential service in terms of mentoring and the impact,\u201d said Ms. Dame. \u201cWe\u2019re building thriving communities, we\u2019re not just a nice to have. The research tells us it is playing a role in the cycle of poverty. We\u2019re keeping kids engaged in school. There is so much research coming out of everywhere in terms of what mentoring means to children moving through and being successful. The Boston Consulting Group did our study for us and the social return on investment was 23-1.
\n\u201cThe reality for us is we are raising the bar in terms of the mentoring programs that we are doing. We are working more closely with our Toronto partner to provide the essential service and with the Premier and all of the Ministers in terms of working against violence. This is going to be a big thing moving forward and how we can keep kids in school and get more kids moving onto post-secondary education, it\u2019s all the things I think our Premier actually is really standing behind.\u201d
\nMr. Parsa said he was looking forward to chatting, noting he\u2019s familiar with BBBSY\u2019s programs and the importance they have in the community.
\n\u201cWe always talk about how early prevention is key to everything,\u201d he said. \u201cThe camaraderie that this kind of thing builds, the confidence it builds, I was an introvert when I was younger and very shy. It was through initiatives like this that allowed me to be able to make friends, to have the confidence to be able to share\u2026 when I had concerns, which later on becomes vital as you become an adult to be able to talk about things that you\u2019re not comfortable with it. The youth might be a small percentage of today, but they are 100 per cent of our future. We have to make sure we get it right.\u201d
\nMs. Dame agreed: \u201cThe earlier the intervention, the better the pathway our kids are going to take.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019ve ever been the new kid in class, you know how difficult it can be to find your feet in a new environment. But, put yourself in the shoes of a child in the same situation who is new to Canada, new to English, and struggling to find the words to forge ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5Lq","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-26 03:44:51","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22160\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}