Glenys Reeves-Gibbs talked about a new Alberta Mentorship pilot program in Lloydminster she heads up to help immigrants transition to the workforce and Canadian work culture quickly. Reeves-Gibbs is a past president of Rotary. Geoff Lee Meridian Source
Lloydminster is piloting a new Alberta Mentorship Program to help immigrants hit the ground running to participate in the economy to their full potential.
It’s being led by consultant Glenys Reeves-Gibbs, who spoke about the project at the Rotary Club of Lloydminster’s lunch meeting on Monday, while hoping to recruit some mentors in the audience.
The Lloydminster pilot is part of a provincial project called the Edmonton Region Immigration and Employment Counsel (ERIEC), which was funded in 2019 by the Alberta government.
ERIEC connects immigrants to local knowledge so they can join the workforce.
“It’s to encourage mentorship for individuals who are newcomers to Canada,” said Reeves-Gibbs who heads an initial local steering committee
She gives credit to committee member, Kemoh Mansaray, a director of Lloydminster Local Immigration Partnership for sourcing the program for our city.
An initial needs assessment survey of local immigrants indicated the top mentorship need was to learn how to obtain certification in their chosen profession in Canada.
“We had about 162 people who emigrated to Canada do the survey for a service review,” said Reeves-Gibbs.
“It’s close to 80 per cent who said if they had a mentoring opportunity, they would have taken it.”
The survey also noted a mentorship need to learn more about the work culture in Canada and how to grow personal and professional business networks.
The pilot runs until March 2025, but Reeves-Gibbs hopes it will be something that will continue along with expanding the current seven-member committee.
“We’re just getting going. We’ve done our survey and we’re going into planning with our initial steering committee in June and putting together a final plan. Our goal by March 2025 to have done at least 30 matches,” explained Reeves-Gibbs.
In the meantime, she invites fellow Rotarians to become mentors and even refer possible mentors to the committee to roll out the program.
“If we have people that speak a different language that would be great,” said Reeves-Gibbs.
“Through the service review, we have a lot of individuals whose first language is not English, so that can be a barrier.”
