Toronto Newcomer Strategy
Toronto is one of the most multicultural urban areas in the world. Each year tens of thousands of people from around the globe choose our city as their new home. Their diverse cultures and communities have helped create Toronto's identity as a vibrant global city.
A recent presentation on Toronto's newcomer demographics is also available.
Toronto has a comprehensive set of resources in place to help newcomers settle and integrate. However they can be difficult to access. The Toronto Newcomer Strategy is designed to improve newcomer settlement through shared leadership, stronger collaboration and a more seamless and well-coordinated service system.
Download the Toronto Newcomer Strategy report.
For more information please contact:
Vera Dodic
Project Manager
vdodic@toronto.ca
Toronto Newcomer Initiative
TNI was a pilot initiative that explored ways for the City of Toronto to encourage the participation of newcomers in the life of the city and community. The practical learnings from pilot projects as well as the advice and input of the broad range of stakeholders will help the City develop the Toronto Newcomer Strategy.
Read more about the pilot projects and research findings by downloading the TNI Program Report.
The City of Toronto's Immigration Portal
The City of Toronto's Immigration Portal is designed to help all Toronto newcomers at every stage of the immigration process. Visitors are always linked to trusted, credible and official resources to get the most up to date and accurate information.
Toronto Local Immigration Partnerships
Local Immigration Partnerships (LIPs) are funded by Citizenship and Immigration Canada to help facilitate coordination between the non-profit agencies, government and the for-profit sector to better meet newcomer needs and support their settlement process and access to the labour market. A LIP is a partnership table that is focused on planning; it is composed of representatives from the non-profit (community-based) agencies, private (for-profit) organizations and public (government) institutions.
In other Ontario municipalities, there is only one Local Immigration Partnership (LIP) table. Given the size and complexity of Toronto, 17 neighbourhood-based LIPs were originally established and subsequently merged to create 4 Quadrant-based LIPs. For more information about each Quadrant LIP, visit their websites:
Toronto East LIP
Toronto North LIP
Toronto South LIP
Toronto West LIP
Other Resources
Wellbeing Toronto
WellBeing Toronto is an interactive website that allows users to create maps, tables and graphs about Toronto's populations and services.
Check out www.toronto.ca/wellbeing for your own maps and graphs on newcomer demographics.
Recreational Programming for Newcomers
There are thousands of recreational programs for people of all ages operating daily in community centres and parks across the Toronto. Additionally, there are many new programs specifically designed with newcomers in mind. You can get information about programs at your local community centre and also suggest ideas for new ones. For a complete listing of the programs available in your neighbourhood visit Toronto Fun Online.
If you are registering for the first time, please visit the registration information section of the City's Parks, Forestry and Recreation website to find out exactly what you need to do to get started.
Reunification Adaptation Project (RAP)
The globalized market for workers and jobs has often causes families to separate in order to find work.The separation takes many forms: a spouse comes to Toronto to work or leaves the family in Toronto to work overseas; a child or youth joins his or her parents in Toronto after many years apart; or a youth or adult comes to Toronto seeking safety. Children and youth are particularly vulnerable because lengthy separations undermine the family and make reunification difficult.
To address these issues, in 2011, Toronto Public Health partnered with ten newcomer-serving agencies to provide peer support groups for adults and youth who are dealing with family separation and the challenge of reunification.
Read more about the findings from RAP at here .
The Global City: Newcomer Health in Toronto
Toronto Public Health and Access Alliance Multicultural Health and Community Services released The Global City report in 2011. It is the first comprehensive report on the health of newcomers in Toronto.
Download: The Global City: Newcomer Health Report in Toronto
For more information about Newcomer Health Research, please refer to the project webpage.
The Toronto Newcomer Strategy has been generously funded by:
