Achēv – TRIEC Mentoring Partnership 

Location:  Toronto, ON

Quick Facts

• Audience: Settlement Sector
• Population of Interest: Immigrant and refugee populations
• The Need:  Immigrants and refugees face numerous barriers to accessing employment in Canada, resulting in underemployed relative to their educational and professional backgrounds. There is a need for programming and policy designed to close these gaps — including in the areas of settlement and bridging.
• What's Promising:  Newcomers are connected and partnered with an industry professional in Canada who is from their occupation. As the name of the program suggests, this partnership is so that the newcomer can be mentored by the industry professional for a period of time. The purpose of this mentoring partnership is for the newcomer to have the support and guidance of a working professional in their field/occupation, as they go about the process of trying to reconnect with that field and attain their employment goals. Through the program, newcomers can expect to gain valuable resources and insight that can help them get a head start on their journey to success in Canada.
• Key Takeaway:  Partnerships are essential to the success of this promising practice. The TRIEC Mentoring Partnership program is managed by TRIEC—The Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council. Achēv is one of TRIEC’s 12 Community Partners to deliver the program to the community. In addition, TRIEC has a partnership with Employer Partners. Employer Partners offer mentoring as a professional development opportunity for their staff, significantly boosting the number of mentors who enter the program.

Achēv

Achēv is a leading charitable organization that delivers employment, newcomer, language and youth services. Through a number of different programs, initiatives and personalized services, Achēv supports career development, language education and settlement success in our communities. We also work collaboratively with employer and community partners to ensure that they have the tools and capacity to support others. Our vision at Achēv is to change people’s lives as they discover their potential and achieve their purpose. A significant focus of this vision is changing the lives of newcomers and impacting them in a positive manner.

Achēv is a human capital development organization. We optimize the dynamic relationship between our people, processes and technology, enabling communities to thrive, businesses to succeed, and individuals to prosper.

The TRIEC Mentoring Partnership

The TRIEC Mentoring Partnership is a program that aims to support newcomers in their settlement and job searching journey in Canada, as they try to reconnect with their profession. Newcomers are connected and partnered with an industry professional in Canada who is from their occupation. As the name of the program suggests, this partnership is so that the newcomer can be mentored by the industry professional for a period of time. The purpose of this mentoring partnership is for the newcomer to have the support and guidance of a working professional in their field/occupation, as they go about the process of trying to reconnect with that field and attain their employment goals. Through the program, newcomers can expect to gain valuable resources and insight that can help them get a head start on their journey to success in Canada.

Learn more about the program here: https://achev.ca/service/mentoring-program/

Partnerships

The TRIEC Mentoring Partnership program is managed by TRIEC—The Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council. Achēv is one of TRIEC’s 12 Community Partners to deliver the program to the community. Newcomers are assigned a Mentoring Coach in the program who is their main point of contact for everything related to the program. The Mentoring Coach is there to support them with things such as providing them with information about the program, registration, searching for their mentor, addressing general questions/concerns and more. Mentoring Coaches are there to provide newcomers with the individualized support they need as they move through the program.

Another partnership that TRIEC has that is key to this program is the partnership with Employer Partners. Employer Partners offer mentoring as a professional development opportunity for their staff, significantly boosting the number of mentors who enter the program. Employer Partners and the mentors they provide, range in industry and sector including healthcare, finance and IT, just to name a few. Partnerships can also be made with individual mentors who may not necessarily be associated with one of our Employer Partners, but who are interested in mentoring a newcomer through the program. Our mentors are key to directly supporting newcomers in the program and helping them with achieving success.

Employment: A key social determinant of mental health

Employment can so often be something that impacts many areas of our lives. It can give us financial stability, a feeling of belongingness and a path to pursue our goals, just to name a few. All of these concepts can be linked to the condition of one’s mental health. Achēv and the TRIEC Mentoring Partnership aims to support newcomers on their employment journey in Canada to achieve their goals and thereby improve their overall wellbeing as new members of Canadian society.