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Community Impact: Building solutions for immigrant employment and assessing impact. IMPACT: 2011 United Way Agency Conference / December 9, 2011
TRIEC aims to address the problem of skilled immigrants in Toronto facing high unemployment and underemployment. It does so through three objectives: making connections between immigrants and employers; building employer awareness and capacity to hire immigrants; and influencing public policy. TRIEC implements programs like mentoring, internships and employer workshops. It also tracks outcomes and impact through methods like mapping outcomes and contributions analysis to determine if its strategies are effective in improving immigrant employment.
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Community Impact: Building solutions for immigrant employment and assessing impact. IMPACT: 2011 United Way Agency Conference / December 9, 2011
- 1. Community Impact: Buildingsolutions for immigrant employment and assessing impact Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC) Joan Atlin, Director of Programs, TRIEC IMPACT: 2011 United Way Agency Conference December 9, 2011 TORONTO REGION IMMIGRATION EMPLOYMENT COUNCIL (TRIEC) | NEW REALITIES. NEW OPPORTUNITIES.
- 2. What is theproblem we want to impact? Skilled immigrants settling in Canada, and in the GTA, face persistently poor and worsening outcomes in terms of unemployment, underemployment relative to their skills and education, and income. The gap between immigrants and Canadian-born on all of these indicators is growing. TORONTO REGION IMMIGRATION EMPLOYMENT COUNCIL (TRIEC) | NEW REALITIES. NEW OPPORTUNITIES
- 3. The nature ofcomplex problems Source: Mark Cabaj TORONTO REGION IMMIGRATION EMPLOYMENT COUNCIL (TRIEC) | NEW REALITIES. NEW OPPORTUNITIES
- 4. The nature ofcomplex problems Close to Certainty The links between cause and effect are simple, clear, consistent and known. Feasibility and likely outcome of prospective solutions is clear. Far from Certainty The root causes underlying the issue are multiple, inter-related, dynamic and difficult to grasp. The impact and feasibility of possible solutions are not well understood. Close to People agree that the issue is important and worth Agreement pursuing, agree on the root causes of the issue, and that the possible solutions are worth pursuing. Far from People disagree that the issue is important and worth Agreement pursuing, on the root causes of the issue, and possible solutions and that they are worth pursuing. Source: Mark Cabaj TORONTO REGION IMMIGRATION EMPLOYMENT COUNCIL (TRIEC) | NEW REALITIES. NEW OPPORTUNITIES
- 5. Complex problems requirea theory of change What are the levers for change? Who do we need to impact/involve to make those levers move? Which levers can we act on directly? Which levers do we need act on others to impact? Who? What levels do we need to make change at to have the desired impact? What’s the mechanism/the methodology? TORONTO REGION IMMIGRATION EMPLOYMENT COUNCIL (TRIEC) | NEW REALITIES. NEW OPPORTUNITIES
- 6. What is TRIEC? Leadership council Vision: A Greater Toronto Region that prospers by fully engaging the contributions of skilled immigrants. TORONTO REGION IMMIGRATION EMPLOYMENT COUNCIL (TRIEC) | NEW REALITIES. NEW OPPORTUNITIES.
- 7. What does TRIECdo? Objectives 1. Make connections. Convene and collaborate with partners, creating opportunities for skilled immigrants to connect to the local labour market. 2. Build awareness and capacity. Work with key stakeholders, particularly employers, building their awareness and capacity to better integrate skilled immigrants into the workforce. 3. Shape public policy. Work with all levels of government, enhancing coordination and effecting more responsive policy and programs for skilled immigrant employment. TORONTO REGION IMMIGRATION EMPLOYMENT COUNCIL (TRIEC) | NEW REALITIES. NEW OPPORTUNITIES.
- 8. Making connections • Occupation-specific mentoring relationships • Paid internships • Connecting employers to immigrant talent pools • Professional Immigrant Networks TORONTO REGION IMMIGRATION EMPLOYMENT COUNCIL (TRIEC) | NEW REALITIES. NEW OPPORTUNITIES.
- 9. Building awareness &capacity • Media and public relations • Recognizing employer excellence and innovation Immigrant Success Awards • HR tools and resources @ hireimmigrants.ca • Workshops and training for employers/ TRIEC Campus TORONTO REGION IMMIGRATION EMPLOYMENT COUNCIL (TRIEC) | NEW REALITIES. NEW OPPORTUNITIES.
- 10. Impacting public policy •Intergovernmental Relations Committee • Federal: CIC , Industry Canada, Service Canada • Provincial: MCI, MTCU, CSS • Municipal: Toronto, Peel, Halton, York • Participation and leadership in collaborative policy projects/tables • Local Immigration Partnerships • Peel Human Services Board • Toronto Immigrant Employment Data Initiative (TIEDI) • Civic Action • Parliamentary Committees TORONTO REGION IMMIGRATION EMPLOYMENT COUNCIL (TRIEC) | NEW REALITIES. NEW OPPORTUNITIES.
- 11. Assessing impact: howdo we know we’re making progress Program level: Are our programs working? Strategic Level: Are our strategies - implemented through our programs - the right ones Fundamental Approach: • Does our theory of change still hold? • Do our assumptions hold? • Has the landscape changed? • Are we trying to affect the right levers; are we engaging the right players? TORONTO REGION IMMIGRATION EMPLOYMENT COUNCIL (TRIEC) | NEW REALITIES. NEW OPPORTUNITIES.
- 12. Exploring tools tomeasure our impact Mapping outcomes • What are the short term, easy, individual level outcomes we expect to see in the stakeholders we are “acting on” ? • What are the medium term, more complex, organizational level changes we would like to see? • What are the long term, complex, systems level changes we would hope to see? Network mapping: tracking the ripple effect of relationships and connections What is the most significant change: from each stakeholder’s point of view Contribution analysis: if change happened, to what extent did our work contribute to the change TORONTO REGION IMMIGRATION EMPLOYMENT COUNCIL (TRIEC) | NEW REALITIES. NEW OPPORTUNITIES.
- 13. Achieving change throughemployer engagement TORONTO REGION IMMIGRATION EMPLOYMENT COUNCIL (TRIEC) | NEW REALITIES. NEW OPPORTUNITIES.
- 14. Awareness Indicators: • The message • Media coverage • Employer awareness (issue) • Employer awareness (TRIEC) Challenge: • How do we know if the message made a difference? Increasing employer awareness of the value of immigrant skills, education and experience TORONTO REGION IMMIGRATION EMPLOYMENT COUNCIL (TRIEC) | NEW REALITIES. NEW OPPORTUNITIES.
- 15. Moving the message TORONTOREGION IMMIGRATION EMPLOYMENT COUNCIL (TRIEC) | NEW REALITIES. NEW OPPORTUNITIES.
- 16. Capacity Indicators: • Participation in learning • Internal leaders and champions • Readiness for action Challenge: • Process of change is a long Increasing employer capacity to cycle explore solutions and opportunities TORONTO REGION IMMIGRATION EMPLOYMENT COUNCIL (TRIEC) | NEW REALITIES. NEW OPPORTUNITIES.
- 17. Action Indicators • Program participation • New ideas and solutions • Networks / partnerships • External leaders and champions Challenges • Attribution • Telling the story Enabling employers to take action and engage in solutions that result in immigrant employment TORONTO REGION IMMIGRATION EMPLOYMENT COUNCIL (TRIEC) | NEW REALITIES. NEW OPPORTUNITIES.
- 18. Tracking the rippleeffect TORONTO REGION IMMIGRATION EMPLOYMENT COUNCIL (TRIEC) | NEW REALITIES. NEW OPPORTUNITIES.
- 19. Questions for discussion What elements of the TRIEC model resonate with you? Have you considered using a theory of change approach or framework in your organization’s work? If you have used this approach, how have you engaged your staff and various stakeholders? What are some of the challenges that you’re presently experiencing in measuring the impact of your work beyond program outcomes? How are you overcoming these challenges? What would your organization find helpful in building its capacity to measure community impact? TORONTO REGION IMMIGRATION EMPLOYMENT COUNCIL (TRIEC) | NEW REALITIES. NEW OPPORTUNITIES.
Editor's Notes
- #3Â Established in 2003Focus on finding solutions for including highly skilled immigrants in Toronto Region labour marketMulti-stakeholder collaboration: employers, universities, colleges, unions, community and immigrant organizations, occupational regulatory bodies, all three levels of governmentVision: AÂ Greater Toronto Region that prospers by fully engaging the contributions of skilled immigrants.
- #4 Before I talk about TRIEC and how we have structured our work, want to talk about complex problems and the kinds of approaches to solutions they demand. You’ve probably heard of the idea of complex or wicked problems. Mark Cabaj from the Tamarck Institute shared this slide with me that he uses to describe different kinds of problems. Describe the two axis and the different tasks (bake a cake, launch a space shuttle; run a city, raise a child, reduce poverty, improve immigrant outcomes…What kind of problem is this? (flip slide forward, flip back)Close to Certainty: The links between cause and effect are simple, clear, consistent and known. Feasibility and likely outcome of prospective solutions is clear.Far from Certainty: The root causes underlying the issue are multiple, inter-related, dynamic and difficult to grasp. The impact and feasibility of possible solutions are not well understood.Close to Agreement: People agree that the issue is important and worth pursuing, agree on the root causes of the issue, and that the possible solutions are worth pursuing.Far from Agreement: People disagree that the issue is important and worth pursuing, on the root causes of the issue, and possible solutions and that they are worth pursuing.
- #6 What are the levers for change? - hiring practices , settlement policy and programs, selection policy, occupational regulatory policy, selection policy, employment and settlement services, training etc. Which levers can we act on directly? noneWhich levers do we need act on others to impact? Who do we need to impact/involve to make those levers move?Hiring practices - Employers (small, med. Large?) hr professionals, senior champions, managers who make hiring decisions; policy - Govt policy makers, program funders, Public awareness: general media, professional media; Service providers – eds, job developers; educational institutions, regulatory bodiesWhat levels do we need to make change at to have the desired impact? Individual, organizational, systemicWhat’s the mechanism/the methodology? Collective solution building involving all the players need to make a particular lever move; convening to find areas of possible action with somewhat predictable results and reasonable agreement
- #7 Structure: CouncilWorking groups – ad hoc, time or task limited (sector, hr, project)Staff team – began as 3 people seconded from Maytree, now a staff of 15 – 20 depending on projects we have going at any point.Funding – seed (maytree), core cic, some mci, corporate support particularly for mentoring partnership.
- #8Â Our objectives pretty clearly reflect our theory of change and within that, the priorities that we have chosen.
- #9Â Objective 1:Make connections. Convene and collaborate with partners, creating opportunities for skilled immigrants to connect to the local labour market. .
- #10 Objective 2: Build awareness and capacity. Work with key stakeholders, particularly employers, building their awareness and capacity to better integrate skilled immigrants into the workforce. Raising awareness of the benefits of skilled immigrants in the local economy has been a focus of TRIEC’s work since the beginning. Because of our mandate and approach, communications is key to our work, so despite our relatively small size, we have two full time communications and events staff. Started with awareness campaigns: tv ads, print adsIS Awards: recognize employer leadership and innovation in recruiting and retaining skilled immigrants in the Toronto Region. Now in its 6th year, the awards have recognized 25 employers and individuals , highlighting effective practices in immigrant integration.Training and capacity building for employers: Videos: finding talent, cross cultural teamwork, integrating talent; Discussion guides for trainers, study guides for immigrantsWorkshops: Recruit and Selection: Cross Cultural Communications; Orientation and Onboarding; Performance Management; TRIEC Campus will now house it all and build a learning community of trainers, employer and agency partners etc.
- #11 IGR is a space for information sharing, developing collaborations, exploring ideasTopics we’ve covered in the last year: Getting the right information to skilled immigrants Services and supports for Immigrant entrepreneursMeasuring collective impact Changing immigration trendsKey area in participation with LIPs etc. is in sharing expertise on employer engagement and working towards better coordination of employer engagement.
- #12 Program level – Are our Programs working:evaluation methods that can help to: improve a model; make a decision about continuing a program or initiative; to monitor performance - make management/operational decisions; Accountability:arewe following workplans, meeting targets, spending money the way we said we wouldStrategic Level: are our strategies - implemented through our programs - the right ones Fundamental Approach: does our theory of change still hold; do our assumptions hold; has the landscape changed; are we trying to affect the right levers; are we engaging the right players
- #13 Went to Tamarack institute course on Community Impact last spring – these are a few of the most useful approaches we found in terms of tools that could help us track our impact and tell our story.
- #14 Want to walk through one aspect of our work and how we are beginning to look at tracking our impact: Employer engagement. Basic model – our theory of change for this elementCreate awareness of the issue, the business caseBuild capacity – provide the tools to be able to actMove to action that leads to improved outcomes for skilled immigrants
- #15 Awareness 1: How aware are employersWe commissioned an EKOS poll when we first began our work, and then two follow up polls, the latest in March 2011. Who was polled? 461 employers surveyed in the Greater Toronto Area using EKOS’ Probit© online panel Almost 1 in 5 had hired a skilled immigrant in order to: Target local cultural communities to find new business opportunities – of these 83% felt the skilled immigrants hired were effective in helping on this front Help diversify their company’s client base globally – of these 93% felt the skilled immigrants hired were effective on helping on this front 1 in 10 hired a skilled immigrant because they discovered that competitors were benefiting from hiring skilled immigrants – of those employers. 81% felt the skilled immigrants hired were effective. After 7 years, 12% of employers polled have now heard of TRIEC.
- #16 Awareness 2: Media coverage – amount and contentFull article available online at http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/tapping-canadas-immigrant-capital/article2017418/
- #17 Building Employer Capacity: Easiest is to track use/participationMore difficult to measure impact: Currently developing a set of impact tools (surveys, organizational checklists) to measure what impact our workshops are actually having on the behaviour of the individuals and their organizations over time. We are using some of the tools above in those surveys – eg. most significant change, if your behaviour changes (e.g. where you’re posting jobs), to what extent did participating in our recruitment and selection workshop contribute to that change.
- #18 Again – we’re not really measuring the population indicators (immigrant employment levels, income levels, because we can’t tell if our work is impacting those, so trying to pick indicators for things we are directly impacting. How can we measure whether employers are moving to action:They are participating in programs like TMP, Career Bridge, posting through community agencies etc.they are generating new ideas (IS)They are engaging as champions to bring in othersOne of the ways we are increasingly trying to use is network mapping – tracking the ripples of the connections that we build: next slide