Contact Information

Roberto Jovel - Policy and Research Coordinator
rjovel@ocasi.org

(416) 322-4950 Ext. 234

OCASI seeks to provide black French-speaking African and Haitian immigrants, as well as mainstream Francophone organizations that serve those communities, an opportunity to define their needs, and to develop strategies for addressing those needs within the OCASI network and within the broader settlement, integration and community development sector.

We want to have a clearer picture of the challenges faced by black French-speaking newcomers, especially those in African and Haitian groups, and organizations that serve these emerging communities, and of their expectation of the role that OCASI should play in building inclusive practices in Franco-Ontario organizations.

Our work identifies challenges faced by black African and Haitian Francophone newcomers to Ontario, including:

• Access to employment; accreditation and training
• Access to information in French
• Access to immigrant settlement services in French language
• Access to English language instruction
• Access to funding for ethno specific Francophone organizations
• Organizational development of ethno specific Francophone organizations
• Institutional change: all levels
• Institutional change: Government level
• Need for Institutional change, particularly with respect to the relationship with Francophone mainstream organizations

Since its inception, 25 years ago, the number of Francophone organizations that have joined OCASI as members has remained insignificant (less than 5%). The province of Ontario, which has the largest number of Francophones (533,965 in 2001) outside Quebec, has also a large number of Francophone newcomer organizations from Africa and Haiti which are not OCASI members. As an umbrella organization, it is important to increase the number of Francophone organizations among OCASI's membership to appropriately address the issues affecting these communities.