CANAVUA and Newcomer Integration

 

CANAVUA works in many ways to facilitate the integration of French-speaking newcomers in Alberta.

 

Over the past 11 years, CANAVUA has implemented and perfected a unique strategy to structure volunteering in Alberta's French-speaking community. This innovative system was conceived of by Dicky Dikamba, CANAVUA's founder and executive director. Today, it serves as a model for the entire non-profit and newcomer integration sectors. One of the keys to its success is the importance it places on newcomers to Canada and the overall well-being of each one of its participants and beneficiaries.

Volunteering plays a pivotal role in Canadian society. By giving freely of their time, volunteers have helped to build the society we all enjoy today. However, it must be noted that volunteers benefit from their labour as much as other community members do, albeit not financially. CANAVUA has launched many programs aimed towards meeting the unique needs of francophone newcomers, who in turn volunteer to further these programs' success. This reciprocity highlights the power of volunteering as a catalyst for social change; its end, as we will demonstrate, is a more perfect and complete integration of newcomer volunteers and program participants.

Every year, Canada welcomes thousands of French-speaking newcomers. It is expected that a francophone country should prioritize French-speaking candidates in its immigration program. After Quebec, Alberta is the most popular destination among all provinces for these newcomers. This is, no doubt, thanks to the abundant economic opportunities Alberta has to offer, being endowed with natural resources - especially petroleum - the likes of which is unrivalled across the rest of the country. When French-speaking newcomers arrive in Alberta, they have unique needs to which the non-profit and social sectors must respond. These challenges are very well understood in academia, by government at all levels and those working in the field of newcomer integration.

CANAVUA is Alberta's only French-speaking volunteering organization. Having great insight into the challenges surrounding francophone newcomer integration, we launched a series of programs designed to overcome the most significant obstacles impeding successful newcomer integration, notably access to food, health, economic security, language barriers, employability and personal autonomy:

1. In 2011, CANAVUA partnered with Edmonton's Food Bank to distribute food hampers to a French-speaking clientele in Edmonton. To date, we are the only food bank depot that specializes in serving clients in French (although we also welcome English-speaking clients without reserve). Dicky Dikamba observed how that newcomers to Canada often struggle to put food on the table once they've paid their monthly rent.
   
   
   
   
   
2. That same year, CANAVUA launched the "Health Navigator" program to offer two critical services to French-speaking medical patients in Edmonton, completely free of charge:
   
   
   1. Transport to and from medical appointments by a volunteer driver;
      
      
   2. French-English interpretation at medical appointments. Volunteer interpreters are trained in medical terminology at Bow Valley College.
      
      
   3. In the winter of 2021, we were able to offer consultations with our bilingual home-nurse thanks to funding from the Canadian Red Cross.
      
      
      
      
      
3. In 2014, CANAVUA began to offer a monthly driver training course to help French-speakers to acquire a learner's licence in Alberta. We also refer French-speaking clients to certified instructors for in-car lessons; this is particularly helpful for Francophones who wish to pursue a driving-related career, perhaps to make deliveries (to name but one example).
   
   
   
   
   
4. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, CANAVUA unveiled a community food truck to respond to the growing crisis of food insecurity among French-speaking and visible minority communities, exacerbated in large part by the pandemic's economic fallout. At the same time, we launched a new "Career Navigator" program to train volunteer cooks to acquire food handling permits in Alberta and work in the growing food industry.
   
   
   
   
   
5. Moving is a challenge that many people, and not just newcomers, face every day. But every newcomer to Canada must obviously deal with the stress of moving homes. To this end, CANAVUA launched the "Moving Crew", through which a team of volunteers (often comprised of newcomers) help others to move between houses in the Edmonton area.
   
   
   
   
   
6. Since CANAVUA's creation in 2009, our foremost emphasis has always been on community volunteering placements. Edmonton is known as "Festival City" due to the large number of community events that take place throughout the year. These cultural celebrations present many opportunities for voluntary service and civic engagement.
   
   
   

Through these examples, it is easy to see how CANAVUA's newcomer volunteers help meet the needs of others and benefit from our many services at the same time. By playing a role in their own collective integration, newcomers build their capacity to serve in an ever-increasing manner. For example, students in our driver training class become volunteer drivers after acquiring their driver's licences. Furthermore, many of the beneficiaries of our food bank and food truck programs offer their time to serve meals and hampers to others, in order that the benefit of these programs might be shared more broadly. In short, the key to CANAVUA's success in integrating newcomers through volunteerism is that volunteering, when coupled with social supports, creates a positive feedback loop, or ongoing cycle, of beneficence and mutual support.

The examples cited above demonstrate, moreover, how the specific needs of newcomers are met through CANAVUA's individual programs. Our driver training course bolsters employability and personal automony. Our food bank and community food truck programs foster food and economic security. The Health Navigator service conduces to newcomers' good health, one of the pillars of overall well-being, by reducing language barriers preventing access to Alberta's world-class healthcare system.

A system that harnesses the full potential of newcomers while facilitating their complete integration into Canadian society is destined to enjoy exponential growth, compounding returns and ever-growing success. By collaborating with other organizations working in the field of newcomer integration locally, across Alberta and throughout Canada, CANAVUA leverages its past successes to create an even brighter future.

CANAVUA's founder and executive director, Dicky Dikamba (left), with the association's president, René Vincent Tshibula (right)