Welcoming & Inclusive Pictou County
“A welcoming community has a strong desire to receive newcomers and to create an environment in which they will feel at home. A welcoming community ensures newcomers are able to participate fully in all aspects of community life. A welcoming community ensures newcomers have access to a full range of services and programs and can find meaningful employment opportunities.”
—Attracting & Retaining Immigrants: A Toolbox of Ideas for Smaller Centres, 2nd Edition, 2007, p65 National Working Group on Small Centre Strategies
People bring community to life; they make our community vibrant and are the economic and cultural sustenance of our region.
In 2009, the Pictou Regional Development Agency (PRDA) and the Pictou County United Way (Pictou County Unites!) both felt a need to explore the welcoming nature of Pictou County. Over the course of a year, meetings were held with recently immigrated persons to Pictou County to discuss their experiences in settling into the community. During the summer of 2009, Pictou County Unites!, associated with the Pictou County United Way, held a series of conversations around the welcoming subject. Resulting from these conversations, staff from PRDA, United Way and several volunteers convened a Welcoming Community Workshop, hosted at the Nova Scotia Community College on November 18, 2009. A diverse group of individuals attended the event, which was aimed at laying the base work for a Welcoming & Inclusive Community Strategy.
The strategy is founded upon a clear Vision, Mission and set of Guiding Principles.
Vision
In Pictou County, we know what truly sets us apart is our people, who provide the raw talent and energy that fuels our region's competitive advantage. Here, people are interested, engaged and compassionate. We seek diversity in all things because it is inherently enriching.
Mission
In Pictou County we strive together for a place that removes barriers, creates opportunities and attracts diversity. We have turned our international reputation for hospitality into the act and art of genuinely welcoming all who have chosen Pictou County as their home.
Guiding Principles
Diversity Pictou County celebrates its growing multicultural community and the diversity of all its residents. Pictou County recognizes its existing challenges and strives to include all residents, especially those who may be marginalized due to race/ethnicity/national origin, physical or intellectual disability, gender, or sexual orientation.
Collaboration By bringing together our partners, agencies, and organizations, in a meaningful and mutually respectful way, Pictou County can more effectively deliver and communicate its wide array of services and programs, for residents and newcomers alike.
Cultural Integration Newcomers will adapt to life in our community, while our residents will adapt to new people and cultures. The process of cultural integration requires a two-way respect of new and existing ways of life.
Integration When collaborating, partners will identify their relative proficiencies to streamline program/service delivery, thereby serving our growing and changing community more effectively and efficiently.
Respect Pictou County respects and values all residents whether new or longstanding, regardless of age, ability, gender, culture, socioeconomic status, faith or sexual orientation. Pictou County respects the worth of all persons.
The strategy, which is available for download here(1.2MB), is an action plan, reflecting the contributons of the workshop's several dozen participants, as well as research conducted in the fall of 2009. For each action, the plan identifies the community parters who are best suited to lead and collaborate on the various welcoming activities. The plan's actions fall into the following 4 categories:
1. Education & Advocacy
2. Integrated Communication
3. Settlement Services
4. Leadership
The Pictou County Welcoming & Inclusive Strategy is about identifying the ingredients that will make the difference between people living here and calling it home.
Pictou County Welcoming & Inclusive Strategy (1.2MB)
Implementation Plan (123KB)
WELCOME! Newsletter Summer 2011 Issue
