Alternative Welcome to Canada Guide for Youth
The Canadian Council for Refugees (CCR) Youth Network is developing an Alternative Welcome to Canada Guide whereby newcomer youth can share their experiences and provide useful insights for youth who are just arriving in Canada. Seeing that many orientation materials currently available to newcomers do not adequately cover the indigenous and colonial history of Canada, this guide also seeks to provide this important context.
The purpose of this alternative guide is to:
- Provide an introductory resource that is primarily led by youth and that is specifically directed towards a youth audience.
- Create a space for newcomer youth to voice their different experiences in Canada and to facilitate the sharing of useful tips on accessing information.
- Connect experiences faced by Indigenous and newcomer youth across the country.
Contribute to the Guide!
The CCR Youth Network would like to invite youth with immigrant and refugee experiences to contribute to this guide for youth arriving in Canada, by sharing your own stories and views on:
- Adjusting to life in Canada
- Finding out about different ways of navigating the system in Canada and in different provinces (e.g. finding a school, finding out how to move around and where/who to ask for help in different situations)
- Services, organizations, groups and/or individuals that supported you the most when you arrived to Canada and in what ways
- Resources you found most useful to learn about how things worked and to meet new people (e.g. community resources, after-school programs)
- The things that marked your experience the most, both before and after coming to Canada
The advice you would like to be able to give to yourself at the time you arrived in Canada.
Criteria for submitting your experiences:
- We are looking for stories that speak to refugee and immigrant youth’s experiences in different formats and media and that can be useful in some way for youth who are arriving in Canada. Formats and media may include but are not limited to:
> Poems
> Short recordings/videos
> Short stories
> Illustrations
> Photographs
… and more…
- We also welcome any input about useful resources: for example, you could give us a list of the top 5-10 resources that were most useful to you when you arrived in Canada.
- Languages:
- All stories can be submitted in English or French
- If you would like to submit a story that reflects on your life experiences before and after arriving in Canada, you may also send it in your first language. If you choose to do so, please send an English or French version as well.
- Stories may be published anonymously if desired. If you wish to remain anonymous please indicate this in your email and we will not publish your name.
- Stories must respect the CCR’s anti-oppression policy (see: http://ccrweb.ca/en/ccr-anti-oppression-policy)
How to submit something:
Send your submission by email to yn@ccrweb.ca by 31 March, 2014. Submissions sent after that deadline may still be considered.
For more information, please contact us by email.
The CCR strongly encourages submissions from people of colour, gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, and queer people.