"It is not easy finding complete and reliable information, or keep up with how fast information changes. I would even call organizations to verify the information they would have on their websites!" Settlement worker, participant in the Module 1 workshop in Kitchener.

The Community Information Centre of Waterloo Region (currently the Social Development Centre Waterloo Region) has run a pilot project to contribute to the development of provincial training on information management practices to support settlement service providers across Ontario. The local information resources, such as the Waterloo Region Settlement Service Directory, have been built with an Advisory Group made of representatives of the local settlement organizations and the Local Immigration Partnership of Waterloo Region. The database for Settlement Services information can be found here or follow the link in the right sidebar.

Building Local Information Support to Ontario Newcomer Project (BLISON) has been developed by the Association of Community Information Centres of Ontario - InformOntario. The project started in 2012 with the objective to support and train community information centres across Ontario in collaboration with local settlement services to produce useful and sustainable information resources to support newcomers. Waterloo Region and South York Region have been the pilot communities to help develop online courses.
Initial gains for the organizations participating in the project:
* Closer working relationships between organizations from the community information and settlement sector
* Having more reliable information resources to support an increasingly diverse client base
* Community information centres contributing data for the advantage of the whole community

Want to join the Advisory Group of the project? - contact Trudy Beaulne

Want to participate in the online training? - contact Aleksandra Petrovic

The pilot project is created through the contribution of the two pilot communities - York Region and Waterloo Region, and is supported by the Ontario Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration.