PRSN greetings and best wishes for 2025 to you and those you are sponsoring or who have already arrived and are in the process of settling in Canada. Last year witnessed a number of significant changes for PRSN, including saying goodbye to those who were instrumental in creating the Network and welcoming new directors who bring new ideas for addressing challenges and taking PRSN to its next level of growth. We have lots to do moving forward.
In September we elected four new members to the Board: Jennifer Kett (Navigator; Communications), Teresa Costa (YMCA; settlement agency), Yemane Ghebreweld Abede (OCISO; settlement agency), and Alizee Zapparol-Manzoni-Bodson (WUSC; business), and in November, we increased the board’s ranks with two additional members: Farrukh Hussain (TD Insurance; business), as the new Secretary-Treasurer, and Carolina Bendaña (Stephen Thomas; business). During that same timeframe, we said goodbye to some long-time and shorter service members – Marika Elek, Karen Scott, Anna Nguyen, Sieg Will and Michael Duschenes.
In December, we saw the retirement of our Volunteer Administrator / Projects Co-ordinator, Barbara Sheffield. Barbara was chair of the steering committee that established PRSN. We are grateful to her for her tireless contribution of time and energy. Barbara will remain active as a member of the Skills Development Committee, which offers our workshops.
With a new strategic plan that builds on the previous 2021 plan, we are focussing on four main goals:
- Provision of accessible, relevant information and support
- Excellence in organizational effectiveness
- Financial sustainability
- Widespread recognition and value of private sponsorship
To address financial sustainability, we have a new Revenue Generation Committee, co-chaired by Carolina Bendaña, supported by Niro Kandasamy, a work colleague of secretary-treasurer Farrukh Hussain. In addition, we have submitted an application to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) to gain charitable status.
One of things we will be monitoring this year is the reduction in numbers of newcomers to Canada announced by Immigration, Citizenship and Refugees Canada (IRCC). This affects the limits on refugee newcomers as well as other immigrants to Canada.