Youth

PICS for KIDS

Summer Orientation Program for South Asian Families

In the month of July 2009 PICS partnered with the Delta School District’s Settlement Worker in Schools Program (SWIS) to deliver a Summer Orientation Program for South Asian Families. The program’s objective was to form a school-community partnership to respond to an identified need of providing South Asian families extra support by assisting vulnerable students and their families through an orientation, which would strengthen language skills in hopes to build confidence, and provide information to develop their background knowledge of the Canadian School system and culture.
 

By also joining with South Asian Arts and Higher Learning to deliver the program, the orientation also provided on site settlement counseling services regarding settlement issues such as job search skills, one workshop for parents on school culture and expectations, and the importance to support the goals of their child’s program and the school’s goals. Through this initiative newcomer parents, along with their children, felt empowered to communicate more effectively in the future with school staff regarding their educational needs.
 

All in all, the summer orientation program was a great success. The newcomer students received valuable information about conflict resolution, school programs, accessing school / after-school activities, future education and other community resources. Newcomer parents became more familiar with the Canadian culture and the school system, conflict resolution, school activities, community and government resources, along with accessing services within the school and community.
 

CitizenU Youth Leadership Program

The Progressive Intercultural Community Services (PICS) Society, Vancouver office, will have the privilege of hosting the CitizenU Youth Leadership Program this summer. CitizenU is a 9 month leadership training program, consisting of 3 months each of training workshops, citywide events and activities, and youth-led action projects. The first phase of workshops will be held weekly on Tuesdays for 10 weeks, starting Tuesday July 19, 2011 from 4pm to 6pm.

CitizenU's goal is to give youth an opportunity to work together to experiment and develop policy, approaches, strategies and responses to address racism, discrimination and bullying in Vancouver, and to build community across cultures, faiths & generations.

The program is FREE to all youth between the ages of 15-20 and benefits include:

• Food and bus tickets will be provided
• Fulfill CAP volunteer hours requirement for graduation
• Make new friends from all over the City of Vancouver
• Attend numerous City wide events
• Gain valuable leadership and employment skills to put on your resume
• An opportunity to promote Social Justice within your community
• Create your own projects and obtain training on project management
• Receive a certificate of completion at the end of the program

PICS Vancouver was opened in April 1997, to fill a need in the South East Vancouver community for employment services targeted primarily towards the immigrant community. In these fourteen years the Vancouver office has successfully helped thousands find meaningful employment through Employment Assistance Services and Targeted Wage Subsidy (for Employment Insurance clients) programs; and smoothly integrate into Canadian society through Settlement and Information services. We are located near the intersection of Main Street and S.E. Marine Drive.

To register please contact Hayley Darychuk, Youth Outreach Worker, at 604-324-7733 ext. 31 or email hayley.darychuk@pics.bc.ca.