The success of the TRIEC Mentoring Partnership is collaboration, at every level. From the employers who work to recruit mentors within their organizations, the individuals who volunteer their time to mentor newcomers and the community partners who help potential mentees to become job ready before matching them with mentors to grow their professional networks in the GTA. “It’s working together. It’s a common goal,” says Vibha Vohra-Bhalla, Director of Services & Community Engagement at ACCES Employment.
Thanks to community partners- settlement organizations, colleges and community agencies- over 18,000 newcomers have benefitted from the program over the last 15 years.
In celebration of Mentoring Month, we are pleased to celebrate the pivotal role our community partners play in the partnership with the release of a video created for the 2nd Annual TRIEC Immigrant Inclusion Summit where TRIEC partners, thought leaders and mentors came together to celebrate our shared impact on newcomer employment success.
Celebrating the community partner contribution
Community partners are where the mentoring magic begins. They are the agencies serving newcomers who link potential mentees with mentors and support them throughout. Coaches at our community partners work diligently to ensure mentees are matched with a mentor in their field who can help guide them in their Canadian career journey.
This year the Community Partner of the Year award was awarded based on a balance of accomplishments in outcomes, number of matches and feedback ratings from mentees themselves. After creating a model for generating the average score across all three categories, we were amazed to find that not just one, but three, of our amazing partners deserved this year’s award: ACCES Employment, JVS and Sheridan College.
In the video, representatives from the three award winners (Vohra-Bhalla of ACCES Employment, Irene Vaksma, Director, Newcomer Services, JVS Toronto, Matt Rempel, Associate Dean, Career Education and Co-curricular Learning, Sheridan College) share their organizations’ role in the partnership and what seeing mentees succeed and grow means to them. “It’s quite inspiring,” Rempel says, reflecting on the courage and resilience of newcomers jumpstarting their professional lives in a new country.
“I can see clearly now:” The impact of mentoring
“Each individual is going to arrive here in Canada with a unique circumstance,” says Rempel, which is why having access to a supportive mentor, in their own field of expertise, can help immigrant professionals establish themselves.
“I was more than grateful for the support of Sheridan and my mentor. I had two job offers on the same day. I’m really happy with my job now,” says IT professional and former mentee Kostas Papapetridis.
The partnership even had one former mentee, Osaro Igbinomwanhia, singing its praises, literally. Crooning Jimmy Cliff’s lyrics “I can see clearly now” Igbinomwanhia says TRIEC Mentoring Partnership helps mentees to “stay focused, find a path and see that it’s possible.”
Watch the full video:
Join us in celebrating our community partners and Mentoring Month by liking and sharing this video. Want to learn more about TRIEC Mentoring Partnership? Become a newcomer mentee or a volunteer mentor.