My name is Gaylene Turner and I’ve had the privilege of working at ICA for three years.  For the past two years, I have been the Coordinator of Settlement Services and I am a small part of the larger team at ICA. 

Let me introduce a little bit about the Settlement Services Department.  Altogether, we have 11 Settlement Workers employed in the program. Represented are around 25 different languages, and we are all from different cultural backgrounds.  The wealth of knowledge and experience that the settlement workers have is extraordinary.  Two of our Senior Settlement Workers have each been working as settlement workers for over 20 years.

The strength of our team lies within our differences, and how we have learned to bridge those differences through commitment, patience, communication, and humor.  When working with such diversity, it can be easy to make assumptions and jump to conclusions about what we think someone else has said or meant.  It takes time and commitment to work through our differences, and through it, we are actually putting into practice what it is that ICA stands for – building cultural connections. 

Our team is one small example of how it is not only possible, but fun and rewarding, to build connections that extend across cultures.  ICA is built on principles of inclusiveness, creativity, social justice, encouraging sensitivity, appreciation and respect for individuals of all cultures.  We are a microcosm of how these principles are played out on a daily basis.  It can be challenging, but our experience is rich and strong.  We are very proud of our commitment to our team and the principles of ICA. 

In the fall, we are looking ahead to many exciting changes. We will be offering more and new programming and services.  We will be adding more members to our settlement team, and our larger ICA team.  We are especially pleased to be able to offer expanded employment and youth services. ICA is truly becoming a central location where immigrant and refugees can get all their needs met in one place. An integrated model like ours will be more effective and efficient.