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	e-Newsletter		February 7, 2012

IMSS has moved!

1270 2nd Ave

The Immigrant and Multicultural Services Society of Prince George moved over the weekend and we are now located at 1270 2nd Ave, which is the old School District 57 building for continuing education. Our phone and fax numbers remain the same, so feel free to give us a call or stop by to see our new digs!

AimHi Open House

Friday, Feb 24th 2:00pm - 3:00pm

AiMHi was the 2010 Welcoming and Inclusive Business Excellence Award winner and will be hosting Welcome PG’s first open house on Feb 24th at 2pm. The event celebrates AiMHi’s HR policies on diversity and practice of employing new Canadian immigrants.

Speakers include Mayor Sheri Green, Baljit Sethi Executive Director of IMSS, Keith Dennison HR Manager of AiMHi and Cat Sivertsen Welcome PG Project Manager. The overriding topic is the importance of being open to hiring foreign skilled workers and how to successfully manage and retain a diverse workforce.

This event is open to the public and we encourage local businesses to attend to learn more about how one of their peers work successfully with new immigrants and how this practice adds to our sense of community.

The talks will be followed by a question and answer session, closing with refreshments and networking before the event evolves into AiMHi’s Job Fair.

We encourage you to come out to hear about AiMHi's success story and to learn how it could work for you!

New Public Artwork for the Airport!

Welcome PG has selected Aiden Callison's proposal

Aiden Callison's project under the theme “Celebrating Diversity” will be installed inside the arrivals terminal at the airport in the spring. This project was selected by Welcome PG’s partners, the Chamber of Commerce and Initiatives Prince George, and the art advisory committee.

Aiden Callison, originally from Smithers BC says, “I feel a strong connection to this project and the area as my Grandfather moved to Prince George in 1928 when he first immigrated to Canada.”

Callison describes his project as a portrait chandelier sculpture. The sculpture has a steel structure resembling the two rivers with suspended glass panels of photographic portraits of past and present Prince George residents. The overall concept of the sculpture is that people are constantly moving, somewhat like the rivers, and it is this movement that makes up the diverse fabric of this community and Canada as a whole.

Upcoming Resource Kits

For Employers and New Immigrants

As mentioned in our last HTML blast, Welcome PG is working on numerous projects and one of them is creating resources for employers and new immigrants. The employers kit focuses on local resources and information about successfully integrating immigrants into an organization, and helps lay out a plan for employers to do so. While second resource, the manual for new immigrants entering Prince George, is looking at Canadian culture in the workplace and local resources they can access to comfortably settle in Prince George.

These resources will be complete in April and at that time we will be approaching employers to present the kits to their management team. These presentations will offer face to face suggestions and practicalities associated with the resource kit to help employers develop diversity practices within their workplaces. If you are interested in having us come into your workplace or association for a FREE 20 to 30 minute presentation please call us at 250-562-2900, or email us at kelley@imss.ca or cat@imss.ca

We are also looking forward to presenting to the BC Human Resource Management Association at their upcoming “Multiculturalism” event on Thursday, Feb 16th from 6-9pm at The Twisted Cork. Our talk will focus on culture and retention of a diverse workforce. If you're interested in attending go to the link below to register.

http://www.bchrma.org/content/events/net/details.cfm?EventID=015-904