Ontario’s Children’s Aid Societies and Indigenous Child and Family Well-Being Agencies work to achieve safe, permanent, and stable family connections that promote the well-being of children and youth in their care. For some children and youth, we know there is a significant intersection between this work and issues surrounding immigration. Children and youth with unresolved immigration issues face unique barriers to permanency, which can mean restricted access to education, job opportunities, health services, financial assistance, and more. In many cases, these barriers can be overcome only by helping these young people obtain permanent residency, and ultimately Canadian citizenship.
In 2018, the Child Welfare Immigration Centre of Excellence (CWICE), led by the Peel CAS, and the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies in a supportive partnership role, was established to support child welfare staff when managing complex or unresolved immigration status issues. A year later, the resource Immigration Status Matters: A Guide to Addressing Immigration Status Issues for Children and Youth in Care, originally published in 2014, was updated to reflect further changes within the immigration and child welfare sectors and is now being made available to the public. It serves as a resource for child welfare agencies and their staff and offers practical ideas and advice for strengthening organizational capacity and practices to better address immigration status issues of children and youth in their care.
The updated guide is available here, and more information about CWICE can be found here.
To contact CWICE for a consultation or support services, call 905-363-6131 ext. 2222 or email cwice@peelcas.org.
