The St. Lawrence-Rideau Immigration Partnership’s 5th Annual Diversity Day was held on November 27th at the Fire Hall Theatre in Gananoque. Service providers, educators, refugee sponsorship groups, municipalities, students, immigrants, and community members from across Leeds and Grenville (and Kingston!) attended.
This year’s theme was the immigrant settlement journey. Four immigrant speakers talked about their journeys to Canada. Frank Onasanya from North Grenville (originally from Nigeria), Jamal Saeed from Kingston (originally from Syria), Javiera Soto Breiding from Brockville (originally from Chile), and Kashif Riaz also from Brockville (originally from Pakistan) shared their challenging, joyful, funny, and emotional experiences. Julie Case of TR Leger Immigrant Services also provided a wonderful overview of the immigrant settlement journey.
Lastly, a board game centred around the immigrant settlement journey was played that enabled event participants to experience the journey as international students, refugees, skilled workers, and family sponsored individuals would. The game is now available to be borrowed from the St. Lawrence-Rideau Immigration Partnership. There are 12 boards, and each can have up to 8 players. It was a great day, and we want to give a huge thank you to everyone who was able to attend!
If you’re interested in borrowing one of the games, contact the St. Lawrence-Rideau Immigration partnership at lauren@eecentre.com or on social media @LGImmigration!
