The Settlement Workers in Schools (SWIS) initiative (called Multicultural, Settlement and Education Partnership in Peel), places settlement workers in elementary and secondary schools that have high numbers of newcomer students. The settlement worker provides a variety of services including:

• Proactively contacts each new newcomer family in the school at the time that they register in the school to assist them with their settlement needs;
• Refers the families to more specialized community resources as needed;
• Provides group information sessions, often in partnership with school staff;
• Provides orientation on the settlement needs of newcomers for school staff and
• Provides orientation to newcomer high school students when they first arrive in Canada. The Newcomer Orientation Week (NOW) initiative provides orientation to the school and the community during one week in August before school starts. The session is delivered by previously arrived newcomer youth, known as Peer Leaders, and facilitated by SWIS workers and teachers.

The SWIS Program is designed to provide consistent service delivery across all schools and projects, and to provide accountability to all the partners. Each local project is guided by a Steering Committee that meets quarterly to address project issues and plan future service delivery. Each steering committee has representation from the school boards, service providing organizations, the Provincial SWIS Coordinator, and CIC. In addition to the local steering committees, there is a provincial advisory committee, known as SWISAC, with representation from other federal and provincial departments, other funders, school boards and settlement agencies. SWISAC meets four times per year to discuss and make recommendations on province-wide issues and SWIS enhancements.

We’re serving the following schools in the North/West Mississauga area:

Peel District School Board:

• Oakridge Public School
• Thorn Lodge Public School
• Erindale Secondary School
• John Fraser Secondary School
• Streetsville Secondary School
• Ruth Thompson Middle School
• Stephen Lewis Secondary School
• Thomas Street Middle School
• Mississauga Secondary School
• Meadowvale Secondary School

• Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Secondary School
• St. Joan of Arc Secondary School
• St. Aloysius Gonzaga Secondary School