Programs designed to help newcomer families and youth navigate Calgary’s education system are facing funding challenges ahead of the 2024-25 academic year despite increased need from the community.

The Centre for Newcomers in northeast Calgary is hosting a workshop on Aug. 16 to help newcomers navigate the city’s various school systems. According to the official event page, participants will be provided information about the various school boards in Calgary and information about registration processes, transportation, fee waivers, student absence reports, and creating an account with the school board.

The organization also has many programs that help school-aged newcomer youth, such as the Real ME Intervention Program – which works with newcomer youth at risk of being involved in criminal activities – and the Real ME Mentorship Program – which connects newcomer youth to a mentor who is willing to share their knowledge and experiences.

Despite thousands of families relying on these programs, the Centre for Newcomers is facing funding challenges ahead of the 2024-25 school year. That need is also increasing, reflected in the large population growth the city is facing.

The organization recently submitted a proposal to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada for five years of funding but a decision won’t be made until months later.

“We are always fighting for funding to get more resources to help those newcomers,” said Charlie Wang, the centre’s chief of staff.

“There’s so many things happening in the city and we just want to have all those newcomers properly informed about all the resources available and how we can serve them better.”

The Centre for Newcomers isn’t the only community organization that is facing potential budget cuts.

Frank Cattoni, CEO of the Calgary Bridge Foundation for Youth (CBFY), said its programs also face funding challenges.

The CBFY is a non-profit organization that focuses on the well-being of newcomer children, youth and their families. The organization hosts free after-school programs for newcomer youth to make friends and improve their English language skills, as well as a mentorship program that helps immigrant and refugee youth entering grades seven to 12.

Cattoni said the CBFY normally looks after 2,500 to 2,700 kids in a school year. The organization is expecting to see between 9,000 to 11,000 kids in the 2024-25 academic year.

“We have times when my staff will be at a school and they’ll have a lineup of teachers out the door saying they have a kid that needs help, and we have an obligation to work with them … But when these kids come into the system, a whole lot of money did not follow them,” Cattoni told LWC.

“There are so many immigrants and so many newcomer children and youth right now that we have to work in a collaborative fashion.”

Newcomer families face unique challenges in Calgary’s education system

Wang and Cattoni said newcomer families and their children face a lot of barriers in Calgary’s education system.

For parents, navigating through Calgary’s various school boards and education system can be daunting.

“The language barrier is definitely a big one. Without a [common language], they cannot properly communicate with school administrators or school boards to get the information they need,” Wang said.

“Luckily we have practitioners and case managers who speak over 70 different languages and can provide services in their first language if needed. This is a big help for those newcomer families.”

For youth, it’s a lot harder to stay in school without the right resources.

Cattoni said many newcomer youth act as interpreters for their parents and are often working to support the family financially.

A lot of youth are also refugees from war-torn countries who had to endure violence, famine and refugee camps and require mental health resources, Cattoni added. The CBFY said it works with schools across Calgary to build trust with newcomer youth from these countries to refer them to the right programs and resources.

“My staff speak about 45 languages and they represent over 40 cultures. They can create that bridge between [them and the youth] because they build a relationship with the family,” Cattoni added.

“Trust is the biggest commodity that we use within the organization, because we have trust built between us and the kids and the families. Then we try and bridge that work between the schools and the kids. That’s very critical.”

Newcomer youth need early and regular support to succeed in school: experts

Despite the challenges, Cattoni said a lot of immigrant and refugee youth become more resilient as they grow older if they are supported throughout their childhood.

“It’s a tremendous burden to bear at the beginning, but over time [the challenges] have a positive impact on them. They become informal leaders within their families, and those leadership characteristics transfer into school systems and into the community,” Cattoni said.

Cattoni added there isn’t a “cut and paste solution” for immigrant children. What works for one child won’t work for another.

“Depending on where they’re coming from, depending on how they were raised, depending on when they came into that country, that will have an impact on them,” the CEO said.

Wang urged educators and Calgarians to remember that newcomers come from different cultural backgrounds, and things that may be “common sense” in Canada may not be in their country of origin.

“They are facing way more barriers compared to a family who speaks English, or an immigrant from the U.S. or a European country,” he said.