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 Links and DocumentsSettlement Workers in Schools (SWIS) - background informationSettlement Workers in SchoolsA partnership of Settlement Agencies, Boards of Education and Citizenship and Immigration Canada. To help newcomer students and their families settle in their school and community, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Settlement Agencies and School Boards have established a school based outreach program called Settlement Workers in Schools (SWIS). There are SWIS programs in six communities in Ontario. The first few years in Canada are particularly difficult for newcomer students and their families. SWIS connects newly arrived families to services and resources in the school and the community in order to promote settlement and foster student achievement. Why locate settlement workers in schools? Schools are one of the first services that newcomers connect with in the community. With the cooperation of the school, the SWIS worker systematically contacts all newcomer families to orient them to school and community resources and to refer them to specific services. How does the SWIS worker help orient newcomers to the school? Learning about the education system is part of the settlement process. The SWIS worker will explain essential school information and refer the newcomer to the appropriate school staff as necessary. The SWIS program has developed the Newcomers' Guides to Elementary and Secondary School , a series of handouts on key school topics. The guides are available in 18 languages and are posted at www.settlement.org/edguide. Do SWIS workers contact all families? The SWIS program focuses on newcomer families that are in their first few years in Canada and on newcomers that have unresolved first year settlement needs. Families with long term settlement issues or who need intensive support are referred to settlement agencies and other community services. Do the SWIS workers meet with students? In elementary schools, SWIS workers meet with parents and guardians. In secondary schools, SWIS workers meet with students, parents and guardians. How does SWIS connect with other settlement services? SWIS is an entry point for the newly arrived to the broad range of settlement services offered by settlement agencies and other community services. Are there SWIS workers in all schools? The steering committee in each community decides how to allocate the SWIS workers in order to meet the needs of as many newly arrived newcomers as possible. The committee, which is made up of Board of Education, Settlement Agency and CIC representatives, considers the pattern of newcomer settlement, existing services and the languages spoken by the newcomers in that community. Are there SWIS programs in all communities? Communities with high numbers of recently arrived newcomers are eligible for the SWIS program. At present, there are SWIS programs in the Hamilton, Kitchener Waterloo, Ottawa, Peel, Toronto and York Region communities. For more information about SWIS, please contact one of the program partners (see below) or the SWIS Provincial Coordinator at info@cicswis.ca. Program Partners Hamilton - Settlement Workers in Schools Hamilton (SWISH) Kitchener - Settlement and Education Partnerships in Waterloo Region (SEPWR) Niagara – Settlement Workers in Schools Niagara (SWIS Niagara) Ottawa - Multicultural Liaison Officers (MLO) Program Ottawa - Agents de liaison multiculturelle (ALM) Peel - Multicultural Settlement and Educational Partnership (MSEP) Toronto - Settlement and Education Partnerships in Toronto (SEPT) Toronto - Travailleuse en établissement dans les écoles (PIDEF) York - Settlement and Education Partnership in York Region (SEPYR) Windsor-Essex – Settlement Workers in Schools Essex Windsor (SWIS Essex Windsor) This page
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