The Settlement Workers in Schools (SWIS) program places settlement workers from community agencies in elementary and secondary schools that have high numbers of newcomer students. As of April, 2010, there are SWIS programs active in eleven Ontario regions. In total, approximately 250 settlement workers from 22 settlement agencies are based in schools in 22 school boards. Ottawa, Toronto, London and Windsor also have French language (TÉÉ) programs. SWIS is funded by Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

The settlement worker:

• proactively contacts newcomer parents (and youth in secondary schools) to assist them with their settlement needs;
• refers the families to more specialized community resources as needed;
• provides group information sessions for newcomer youth and parents, often in partnership with school staff,
• provides orientation about the settlement needs of newcomers for school staff.

During the summer when schools are closed, SWIS workers are placed in other locations in the community, such as public libraries, where newcomers are likely to encounter them. As well, settlement workers coordinate the Newcomer Orientation Week (NOW) and Welcome and Information for Newcomers (WIN) programs, which take place in the last weeks of the summer.

Each SWIS program is guided by a Steering Committee that meets quarterly to address project issues and plan new services. Each steering committee adopts operational guidelines and has representation from the school boards, the settlement agency(s) and Citizenship and Immigration Canada. Each program adopts its own name. Collectively, they are known as SWIS programs.

SWISAC
SWIS is supported by a province-wide advisory committee (SWISAC) with representatives from SWIS partners across the province as well as constituencies that have an interest in SWIS such as the Ministry of Education and Ontario Ministry of Citizenship. SWISAC provides advice and guidance to Citizenship and Immigration Canada on broad operational issues and policies relating to the SWIS Program. (Read More about SWISAC in www.SWISOntario.ca/SWISAC).

Newcomer Orientation Week (NOW)
The Newcomer Orientation Week program provides orientation to newly-arrived high school students. Over three and-a-half days in the last week of the summer, the students are oriented to their school by Peer Leaders-students who were newcomers in recent years. The Peer Leaders are trained for their role over four days in the previous week.
For more information about NOW, see www.SWISOntario.ca/NOW.

Welcome and Information for Newcomers (WIN)
The Welcome and Information for Newcomers program was developed to help newcomer teens entering middle school (grades 6-8). WIN uses some of the same programming elements as NOW but is one day instead of four. Whereas NOW is a full orientation to high school, WIN is a basic introduction intended to build a positive foundation for parents and students to interact with the school and settlement worker. Peer leaders are also central to WIN, helping demonstrate elements in the program and to build friendships with the newcomer students. For more information about WIN, see www.SWISOntario.ca/WIN.

SWIS Resources
In cooperation with the stakeholders, the SWIS program has developed a number of multilingual videos, pamphlets and on-line resources to explain the school and public library systems to clients. These free resources are distributed by SWIS projects or can be viewed at or downloaded from www.SWISOntario.ca/Resources. Also, see the SWIS brochure Free Multilingual Resources About Schools and Libraries.

Download the SWIS Brochure (pdf).
Download the SWIS Presentation (ppt).