OUR WORKSHOPS...
Seeing issues from different points of view and presenting them in a way that participants say ‘aha’

* The Frustrated Employer: What employers want from employment programs
* Resume Principles, Not Rules
* A Hire Vision: Hiring from the Employer’s Perspective
* Pre-Screening Job Candidates: Strategies & Best Practices
* Mapping the Connection: Purpose, Process, People

OUR PROJECTS…
Seeing what everyone has seen and discovering what nobody has thought

Region of Peel’s Immigration Web Portal (Peel)
We call it “settlement” but our clients call it…? We often incorrectly assume our clients share the same words and concepts as we do in the not-for-profit industry, but our work on this project showed us we are wrong. After conducting focus goups, we made strategic recommendations that steered the final content direction of this new web portal for immigrants; this resulted in moving the web user from simple “information gathering” to a stage of “comprehension” (grasping the meaning of the information). These recommendations remind us all to be wary of the words and concepts we use in our industry that may not be effective with our clients.
Web Portal: www.immigrationpeel.ca
Executive Summary: www.region.peel.on.ca/social-services/web-portal-exec-sum.htm

Job Search Workshop (JSW) (Ontario)
Revamped a 10-year old job search curriculum/program for newcomers across Ontario and ensured it does not allow for clients to simply receive information; instead, clients work towards understanding, reflection and practice, all of which can be accomplished within a few days of strategic, impactful learning. Quality learning beats quantity every time. 

Ableworks.ca (Hamilton)
Convincing employers to hire employees with disabilities is no easy task, but when you listen to their needs and fears, and create a service that speaks to the business case, we can make great strides. Overseeing the entire project, we selected the vendors and made the recommendations that resulted in a unique job posting website for Hamilton-based employers. We created an innovative marketing plan that will keep this project going and growing.
Website: www.ableworks.ca

Intake Process: Women in Skilled Trades (Halton)
What kind of woman goes into the trades as a career? What are their shared characteristics? And how can this knowledge help with the intake process? Researching, conducting interviews, and contacting organizations offering similar programs in Western Canada and the United States helped us to create a successful intake process that ensures the right person is not only accepted into the program, but has a good shot at trades success.  

Employment Resource Centres (Halton)
Why create an Employment Resource Centre like every other? Taking the time to research and collect best practices and lessons learned resulted in the creation of a successful ERC model which morphed into 3 additional centres, becoming a model to be emulated by many others. Our strategies resulted in successful outreach to the community and surpassing all targets: more than 40,000 resource centre visits over 3 years.
Website: http://www.thecentre.on.ca/CareerServices/ERCs.asp

Client Services Strategic Planning (Halton Region)
If you look around you’ll find there are many organizations across Canada with interesting models of employment service delivery. Scanning the Canadian employment services landscape is exactly what we did for this project and we were able to help this organization to create the very best service delivery model for their employment programs. Using an innovative technique to test the models showed us not all models are created equal.

Community Consultations (Peel/Halton/Dufferin)
How do you get hundreds of people meeting at a yearly event to commit to community action items? By using fun, interesting and engaging facilitation strategies. For these community consultations in 2007 and 2008, we engaged participants to commit to more than 25 action items to address community trends, opportunities and priorities.
2008 Report: http://www.phdtrain.com/PDF/TopReportJan08.pdf 

Newcomer Youth Resource Centre (Mississauga)
Immigrant youth are sometimes forgotten in the settlement process. We assume they will adapt quickly and so we focus a lot of our services towards children and their parents. But our sourcing and analyzing of research helped us to recommend the development of a resource centre devoted to immigrant youth. Website: http://www.palc.ca/ourserv.html#5  

Career Possibilities for Newcomers (Malton)
This is the program that almost wasn’t! We started the project assuming one thing, but took the time to search for and analyze research to determine the needs of job seeking immigrants in Malton. We made recommendation to develop a career exploration program for newcomers, followed by managing the entire program implementation, from hiring to marketing. We wrote the curriculum and created the client resources used in this innovative program.
Website: http://www.thecentre.on.ca/CareerServices/CareerPOS.asp  

HireLocal.ca (Peel/Halton)
If you want to engage employers in your programs, you have to first understand their perspective. We know they want quick and easy access to our government-funded programs for their recruiting needs, and this is what we gave them with this project. We talked directly with employers via focus groups and interviews and created the layout for this website service and managed the entire implementation. It is the first of its kind.
Website: www.hirelocal.ca  

Co-op Program for Internationally-Trained Professionals (Peel)
How do you grow a program from 50 participants to more than 900 per year? You give clients exactly what they need and want. Recognizing a growing dissatisfaction among internationally-educated professionals with existing ESL classes and employment programs, we created the first co-op program for newcomers in the Greater Toronto Area. Long before placement became the norm, we created a centre that was a leader in the field and emulated by many. Website:http://www.dpcdsb.org/CEC/CNE/Adult+Centres/

Program Start-Up
No matter the scope or type of program, we excel at starting programs from hiring and training staff to marketing the program and overseeing facility construction; some of our program start up includes: Global Business Centre, ISAP/Settlement Program, HOST Youth Program, Get in Gear, Employment Resource Centres, ELT, and many more.

Curricula Writing
JSW (Job Search Workshop)
Pathway to Success for (Immigrant) Women
Career Possibilities (Exploration) for Newcomers
Enhanced Language Training (ELT)
ELT for Finance Occupations
Co-op for Internationally Educated Professionals

Resources & Publications
Labour Market Information for Peel/Halton:
http://www.peelhaltonworkforce.com/index.php?page=labour-market-links
A Newcomer’s Guide to Peel, Halton, Dufferin,  2007 & 2010:
http://tinyurl.com/yf5qoxn
Dufferin County Resources Guide:
http://tinyurl.com/ygue6j8
Information for Youth Guide: http://www.peelhaltonworkforce.com/uploads/PHDTB Guide Brochure-2.pdf

Proposal Writing
Citizenship & Immigration Canada
Ontario Trillium Foundation
Service Canada/HRDC
Employment Ontario
Toronto Arts Council

Facilitation & Focus Groups
Employer Engagement
Meetings & Special Events
Community Consultations
Change Management
Strategic Planning
Focus Groups
Teambuilding