READI PROJECT
1. READI(Rural employers’ awareness on Diversity and Inclusion)
ASSIST Community Services Centre, The Rural Development Network (RDN), and Lethbridge Family Services (LFS) are spearheading a capacity-building project that supports employers in rural communities in the attraction, retention and integration of immigrants and refugees into rural workforces. READI is a provincially-funded project that focuses on customized training for selected employers across northern, central and southern Alberta. This project will run for 18 months and will be recruiting employers with the goal of training three to five employees from managerial, human resources or leadership positions in each organization.
Capacity Training
The primary deliverable of this project will be the development and delivery of a series of training sessions for employers in north, central and southern Alberta. The training topics will be selected based on employers’ priority areas or knowledge gaps.
The Benefits/outcomes of Participating in the READI Project
- Increased capacity to be able to attract, retain and integrate immigrant employees into your organization
- Increased awareness of resources and service/program opportunities to support newcomer settlement and integration
- Increased awareness of current information and resources that support labour market integration
- Improved ability to respond effectively to the needs of newcomer workers, including cultural knowledge, skill, attitude or motivation
- Increased knowledge and understanding of the needs of the newcomers.
- Increased ability to implement more diverse hiring practices and the development of a foreign worker policy
Training Modules
- Newcomers in the Workplace and Community
- Intercultural Competence and Communication
- Hiring Process-Part 1 & 2
- Employee Retention and Ongoing Support
Toolkit Development
Upon completion of the training, the project team will develop a toolkit with all the resources and information presented in training. This toolkit will be available to all employers who participated in the training and other rural employers across the province. This toolkit will also include resources for continued learning for employers and further sustainability of the project.
For more information on the project, or if you have any questions, please contact….
Phone: 780-429-3111 ext. 117, Email: info@assistcsc.org
2. Strengthening Rural Capacity for Supporting Newcomers-Completed
ASSIST Community Services Centre and the Rural Development Network (RDN) successfully accomplished the project to build the capacity of rural service provider organizations in supporting newcomers to attract, retain and settle immigrants into rural communities. This was an 18-month project that ended in September 2022 with the participating communities- Hinton, Wainwright, Kneehill County and Sylvan Lake. Upon completion of the training, this project published a toolkit that is available to download for all service providers and community organizations. The toolkit will serve as a resource for continued professional development for immigrant-serving providers and contributes to the retention, attraction and settlement of newcomers who utilize resources within your community.