Working With Newcomers

Bridging Two Worlds provides teachers, school administrators and counsellors with the knowledge and practical resources to deliver more informed and culturally responsive career development and guidance to newcomer and refugee youth from Kindergarten to Grade 12. This book and the study upon which it is based grew out of the Canadian spirit of cultural diversity and inclusivity. Bridging Two Worlds offers data-informed curriculum development and instructional ideas that recognize and address educational gaps as well as cultural or experiential differences that impede progress. The book is built around nine key themes related to effective pedagogy and mental health supports: Conflict Awareness Social Determinants of Health Peace and Sustainability Refugee Characteristics Building Personal and Community Connections Cultural Competency/Culturally Safe and Responsive Teaching Trauma-Sensitivity, Mental Health Awareness and Crisis Response Career Planning and Career Development Teacher Self-Care In the first section, the book considers issues that relate to school-based learning and teaching. While not all newcomers to Canada face the cumulative effects of trauma, interrupted learning and new-language acquisition, all educators should be aware of how these affect human development and learning. The second section focuses on educator competency - preparing and training teachers and counsellors to work with newcomer and refugee children and youth. It includes relevant core competencies from the Career Development Guidelines and Standards of Practice and 30 sample lessons for educators. The book concludes with a section devoted to student learning outcomes for life/work development. Learning outcomes from the Blueprint for Life/Work Designs are provided with accompanying suggestions for instruction across all elementary and secondary grade levels. "Bridging Two Worlds brings to bear the power of original research and the insight of its experienced authors on the crucial issue of educating newcomers. With the world witnessing an ever-growing number of refugees - many coming to our shores with expectations of a better life - education is the key. Equally, the new arrivals must learn about their new land and how they can make Canada a better place. Fortunately, this guide creates understanding and provides the tools that will enable the building of bridges to take place." - Hon. Lloyd Axworthy, Chair, World Council on Refugees and Former Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs

Traces the lives of twenty-two immigrant teens throughout the course of a year at Denver's South High School who attended a specially created English Language Acquisition class and who were helped to adapt through strategic introductions to American culture.

Recent immigrants and refugees — both children and their families — often struggle to adapt to Canadian education systems. For their part, educators also face challenges when developing effective strategies to help these students make smooth transitions to their new country. In Immigrant and Refugee Students in Canada, researchers join educators and social workers to provide a thorough and wide-ranging analysis of the issues at the preschool, elementary, secondary and post-secondary levels. By understanding these issues within the unique Canadian context, educators can work more effectively with newcomers trying to find their way. This book pursues three lines of inquiry: What are the main challenges that immigrant and refugee children and families face in the Canadian education system? What are the common aspects of successful intervention? What can we learn from the narratives of researchers, educators, social workers, and other frontline workers who work with immigrant and refugee families?

Green jobs represent one of the fastest growing and changing segments of the global economy. You have an opportunity to introduce young people to career paths that are not only in demand, but that are also rewarding and help conserve the environment. Green Jobs: Exploring Forest Careers contains four learning activities that engage youth in actively exploring forest-related green careers. Anyone can use this resource with youth ages 12-25 in settings ranging from community youth programs and school classrooms, to college and career prep, to field trips and forest tours. Designed to be flexible, use individual activities or use the entire set as a stand-alone unit. The guide also contains a quiz that helps youth match their personality with an array of green jobs opportunities, and a self-assessment of their technical and other skills, such as communication and problem solving. Appendices include a list of career information websites, job boards and connections to academic standards.

2004 winner of the Robert E. Park Book Award from the Community and Urban Sociology Section (CUSS) of the American Sociological Association Although the death of the small town has been predicted for decades, during the 1990s the population of rural America actually increased by more than three million people. In this book, Sonya Salamon explores these rural newcomers and the impact they have on the social relationships, public spaces, and community resources of small town America. Salamon draws on richly detailed ethnographic studies of six small towns in central Illinois, including a town with upscale subdivisions that lured wealthy professionals as well as towns whose agribusinesses drew working-class Mexicano migrants and immigrants. She finds that regardless of the class or ethnicity of the newcomers, if their social status differs relative to that of oldtimers, their effect on a town has been the same: suburbanization that erodes the close-knit small town community, with especially severe consequences for small town youth. To successfully combat the homogenization of the heartland, Salamon argues, newcomers must work with oldtimers so that together they sustain the vital aspects of community life and identity that first drew them to small towns. An illustration of the recent revitalization of interest in the small town, Salamon's work provides a significant addition to the growing literature on the subject. Social scientists, sociologists, policymakers, and urban planners will appreciate this important contribution to the ongoing discussion of social capital and the transformation in the study and definition of communities.

This captivating examination of immigration in rural Canadian towns analyzes the essential components that smaller municipalities and counties must consider to attract and sustain meaningful settlement of newcomers. With the research compiled and presented in three parts - setting the context, promising principles and practices, and case studies - the book offers important information that will be helpful to all participants in the rural immigration process.The analysis presented by the authors systematically makes one point clear - populations are continuously declining across many rural communities due to a variety of reasons, including urban migration and declining birth rates. Promoting immigration for these rural centres offers "optimism that strategies can be embraced that will help to avoid population decline through a thoughtful approach to attracting and retaining newcomers."