On behalf of the OCASI Board of Directors and staff, I am pleased to welcome you to the 2008 Ontario Executive Directors Forum and the OCASI Annual General Meeting.
The Executive Directors Forum is organized by OCASI on behalf of Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Settlement and Intergovernmental Affairs (Ontario Region).
Now in its fourth year, the Forum is a legitimate and essential site for productive dialogue with Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) and sector leaders engaged in facilitating the settlement of immigrants and refugees. With your enthusiastic support and participation and with solid leadership from the OCASI Board the Forum is an annual gathering rich in opportunities for generating new ideas, sharing expertise, engage in collective problem-solving and building collaborative relationships with peers and funders.
2008 is OCASI’s thirtieth anniversary of leadership in the immigrant and refugee serving sector. Over the past three decades, OCASI members have responded constructively and innovatively to the settlement challenges experienced by immigrants and refugees. They have led and participated in initiatives to facilitate labour market integration and language acquisition as well as a broad range of other undertakings related to settlement. They have met and addressed challenges of contradictions between policy and practice and the growing gap in access to basic services.
The sector therefore approaches this opportunity with a wealth of experience and expertise, and with an analysis that is informed by the lived reality of immigrants and refugees. The 2008 Executive Directors Forum provides a space to network and dialogue with sector colleagues and government representatives and to develop real multilevel collaboration. It creates the potential for us to negotiate a vision of settlement that is informed by the experience, hopes and aspirations of refugees and immigrants. It is an opportunity to dialogue on migration and settlement, and to build a truly inclusive and equitable vision for the future of settlement in Ontario.
In Solidarity,
Debbie Douglas
Executive Director
