On June 22, 2011 Working Skills Centre (WSC) partnered with the Toronto Workforce Innovation Group (TWIG) to host “Immigrant Women’s Journeys 2011”, an event geared towards promoting intercultural, interfaith dialogue in Canada.
The event consisted of 2 parts; an afternoon World Dialogue session featuring storytelling, entertainment and multicultural displays followed by a reception with multicultural appetizers, and an evening dinner gala with a live fashion show featuring clothing from a diverse range of countries, international vendors and a delicious buffet dinner.
The afternoon was attended by more than 200 participants. The event kicked off with an exciting Chinese Lion Dance performance and was followed by storytelling from immigrant women from around the world including Shamira Madhany, the Assistant Deputy Minister of the Diversity Office, Ministry of Government Services who spoke about migrating to Canada from Kenya. Other storytellers included women from India, Iran and Ghana and were also graduates of Working Skills Centre’s Diploma Programs.
New Immigrant Women’s Journeys 2011 was a tremendous success and we thank all who attended and were involved in helping to foster the intercultural, interfaith dialogue. Two tools were developed for the roundtable dialogues: the World Dialogues and the Identity Wall Activity.
We would like to extend special thanks to Citizenship and Immigration Canada for funding the afternoon dialogues and our partner organization the Toronto Workforce Innovation Group as well as Human Resources and Skills Development Canada; corporate and agency sponsors including the RBC, CIBC, Nesbitt Burns, ACCES Employment and Miller Thompson who supported the evening gala.