When the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI) hosts its 40th Anniversary Gala on November 6th, there will be plenty to celebrate. Formed in 1978 to act as a collective voice for immigrant serving agencies, the mission of OCASI is to achieve equality, access, and full participation for immigrants and refugees in every aspect of Canadian life. OCASI has earned many important victories for the immigrant and refugee communities in pursuit of that mission. One example is the “Prevention through Intervention: Domestic Violence Against Immigrant Women” project, in which OCASI developed and delivered training throughout Ontario for settlement service providers who frequently provide services to immigrant, refugee, and undocumented victims of violence. Another example is an anti-racism strategy established by the Ontario Government that OCASI and their partners Colour of Poverty – Colour of Change (COP – COC) helped to inform. “It’s the first of its kind in Ontario,” said Felicia Christmas, Coordinator of Event Management for OCASI.

OCASI has managed wonderful achievements like these despite limited budget and supports. One of the ways that OCASI has been able to maximize its impact is through the deployment of self-paced and facilitated online courses. These courses enable OCASI to efficiently disseminate important, high-quality information to agencies and other service providers across Canada. Doing it on a small budget, however, is not easy. That’s where Remote Learner came in.

• Mercedes preparó una cena especial, ya que era nuestro último dia. El postre nos lo subimos al dormitorio, era un delicioso helado de chocolate casero. Nos sentamos sobre la cama tratando de comer algo de helado, pero cada vez que Liam me acercaba la cuchara a la boca, la echaba hacia atrás acercandome a su boca.
• Todo un éxito la presentación de Fobia en la Feria de Puebla. Más de 12 mil jóvenes disfrutaron de las mejores canciones de la agrupación. El cantante Leonardo de Lozanne y el grupo Fobia pusieron a cantar a más de 12 mil jóvenes en la sexta fecha de conciertos en el Foro Artístico de La Feria de Puebla, en su sede alterna, Salón.
• Www.ocasi.org/ocmsAnimated video about main features of the OCASI Client Management System (OCMS). OCMS is a powerful and sophisticated website that can be.
• The OCASI Issues listserve provides member agencies with a forum to discuss issues and concerns in the sector, and to share response strategies. To see the collection of prior postings to the list, visit the OCASI-Issues Archives. (The current archive is only available to the list members.) Using OCASI-Issues.

OCASI is a registered charity governed by a volunteer Board of Directors. Formed in 1978 to act as the collective voice for immigrant and refugee serving agencies, OCASI's membership is comprised of more than 200 autonomous community-based organizations across Ontario.

“We were determined to get them the biggest bang for their buck.
Remote Learner delivered.”

-Janet Churchward
OCASI’s Account Manager at Remote Learner

Remote Learner understands OCASI’s ambitions well. Not only have OCASI and Remote Learner been partners for over 10 years, OCASI’s mission resonates on a personal level. “I was born in England and moved to Canada as a young child,” explains Ms. Churchward. “I have lived in communities with large immigrant populations and know well the need for the services of OCASI.”

Early discussions quickly elevated two of OCASI’s requirements. One was transparency. OCASI required robust reporting and communication tools to ensure that they could demonstrate effectiveness. The second requirement was flexibility. “Service providers are required to be continually updating their knowledge and skills,” said Beverly Lawrence-Dennis, Coordinator of Professional Education and Training.

Together, OCASI and Remote Learner settled on a Moodle®-based solution that offered the flexibility, configurability, and customizations OCASI needed to meet the needs of its learners. Moodle® also offered the forums, completion reports, and other tools OCASI needed to fulfill its obligation to transparency and accountability.

The result has been a great success for OCASI. One course, in particular, has drawn praise. “We featured the Settlement course in our annual report,” said Emily Mooney, Project Coordinator of Research, Content Development, and Training Facilitation. “100% of participants recommended the course and many said it should be mandatory.” For many of the learners enrolled in the course, this was their first opportunity to access this kind of information, which is exactly what OCASI had in mind when it set out to create a distance learning program.

Looking forward, OCASI has no interest in slowing down. “We want to change the entire narrative of what immigration looks like,” said Ms. Christmas. Remote Learner looks forward to helping OCASI achieve that vision.

Remote Learner would like to congratulate OCASI on 40 years of service and to thank them for 10 years of partnership. Here’s to 40 more years of making an impact together.

OCASI Annual Report 2020

Rising to the challenge

Read ED MessageAbout OCASI

Mission

The Mission of OCASI is to achieve equality, access and full participation for immigrants and refugees in every aspect of Canadian life.

Principles

OCASI asserts the right of all persons to participate fully and equitably in the social, cultural, political and economic life of Ontario. OCASI affirms that immigrants and refugees to Canada should be guaranteed equitable access to all services and programs.

OCASI believes that Canada must be a land of refuge and opportunity, a country known for humanity and justice in its treatment of immigrants and refugees. OCASI believes that in cooperation with other groups and communities which promote human rights and struggle against discrimination, OCASI will see these principles realized.

1977

Visionaries

17 agencies form a steering committee to monitor the Immigrant Settlement Adaptation Program (ISAP) at the first ISAP conference.

1978

OCASI founded

The steering committee incorporates as O.C.A.S.I. Annual membership fee is $24.

1982

ISAP

OCASI campaign generates 6000 letters in support of ISAP, saving the program that was to end.

1980/81

OCASI Conference

OCASI gets program funding, hires 1.5 staff and holds the first conference.

1988

Immigration Numbers

OCASI and allies advocate to set yearly immigration at 1% of the population, government agrees

1992

Multilingual Access to Social Services Initiative

MASSI is created by Ontario. OCASI advocacy results in the inclusion of cultural interpreter training and services.

1995

Settlement renewal

OCASI leads Ontario opposition to devolution of federal government responsibility for immigrant settlement and integration to the provinces.

1998

Sector is computerized

OCASI advocacy results in the computerization of sector agencies funded by Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

2000

Settlement.Org

Settlement.Org is launched and becomes the trusted source of information for newcomers.

2001

Every Child’s Right to OHIP Coalition

OCASI and allies get OHIP coverage for Canadian-born children of parents without full immigration status.

2002

Immigration & Refugee Protection Act

OCASI and allies successfully advocate to include same-sex spousal sponsorship in this new immigration law.

2007

Francophone agencies

OCASI creates the Francophone Consultative Committee to better support agencies serving francophone refugees and immigrants.

2008

Colour of Poverty – Colour of Change

COP-COC founded in 2007 by OCASI and allies, holds first provincial forum.

2009

Positive Spaces Initiative, Accessibility project

OCASI launches PSI and Accessibility projects to build sector capacity to meet needs of LGBTQ newcomers and immigrants and refugees with disabilities.

2012

Making Ontario Home

OCASI launches report from the largest study of immigrant and refugee use of settlement services and their needs in Ontario.

2012

OCASI School for Social Justice (SSJ)

OCASI launches the SSJ, an initiative to strengthen the advocacy capacity of member agencies.

2014

OCASI Client Management System

OCMS is launched across Canada. It is a powerful online client data system

2014

CRRF Award

OCASI receives the Canadian Race Relations Foundation (CRRF) Award of Excellence for the Accessibility Program.

2015

Refugee Resettlement

OCASI supports sector agencies in resettling refugees arriving from overseas.

2015

OCASI Francophone Director

OCASI francophone member agencies elect the first Francophone Director to the Board.

2016

Anti-Islamophobia Anti-Racism Campaign

OCASI partners with allies and launches a public education campaign on Islamophobia, racism, and anti-Black racism.

2016

Anti-Racism Directorate

The Ontario government establishes an AntiRacism Directorate, thanks to efforts of advocates such as OCASI.

2017

Telling Our Stories

OCASI launched a graphic novel written by immigrant and refugee women as a violence against women prevention tool.

2017

Anti-Racism Act

Ontario passes the Anti-Racism Act, first of its kind in Canada, thanks to advocacy by COP-COC and others.

2018

Women’s Caucus

Women’s organizations among OCASI member agencies establish a Women’s Caucus

2018

Community of Practice

OCASI creates a national practice in collaboration with sector umbrella organizations across Canada.

2019

Women’s Director

OCASI member agencies elect the first Women’s Director at the 2019 Annual General Meeting.

2019

National anti-racism strategy

A national anti-racism strategy is introduced by the federal government, and later different orders of government start to collect disaggregated data all thanks to years of advocacy by groups such as OCASI and COP-COC.

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Member Agencies

Members of our Community

Source: OCASI Membership Database 2019 (reported by 271 member agencies)

1978-2020

Cumulative number of agencies per year

We grew from 17 to 244 member agencies in 42 years.

2020

Member agencies

• 244 Member Agencies
• 40 Women’s organizations
• 20 Francophone Agencies
• 8 New member agencies

2020

Charitable organizations

184 member agencies

2020

Languages

107 Services provided by OCASI members in Languages other than English & French

2020

Staff

• 15,200 workers (79% are women)
• 48,700 volunteers

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2020

Agencies generating revenue

• > $5MM: 61 agencies
• $1-5MM:: 91 agencies
• < $1MM:: 86 agencies

2020

Connections to Indigenous Peoples

47% of member agencies carried out activities with or about Indigenous peoples in Canada between 2014 and 2019.

61% of member agencies reported having a relationship with an Indigenous group, organization, Elder, Knowledge-keeper, leader, community worker or peoples.

2020

Unionized agencies

29% of member agencies are unionized

2020

Member agencies divided by region

• Central East: 12 (5%)
• Central West: 20 (8%)
• East: 22 (9%)
• North: 12 (5%)
• South: 16 (7%)
• Toronto: 140 (58%)
• West: 20 (8%)

12 Members (5%)

Central East Region

• Barrie
• Bradford
• Durham Region (Ajax, Oshawa, Pickering, Whitby)
• Peterborough
• York Region (Aurora, Markham, Newmarket, Richmond Hill, Vaughan)

20 Members (8%)

Central West Region

• Peel Region (including Brampton)
• Halton
• Milton
• Mississauga
• Oakville

22 Members (9%)

East Region

• Belleville
• Kingston
• Ottawa

12 Members (5%)

North Region

• Kenora
• North Bay
• Sault Ste. Marie
• Sudbury
• Thunder Bay

16 Members (7%)

South Region

• Beamsville
• Brantford
• Cambridge
• Fort Erie
• Guelph
• Hamilton
• Kitchener
• Niagara
• St. Catharines
• Waterloo
• Welland

140 Members (58%)

Toronto

• City of Toronto

20 Members (8%)

West Region

• Chatham
• Leamington
• London
• Sarnia
• Windsor-Essex

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada

Women and Gender Equality

Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services

United Way Greater Toronto

The Law Foundation of Ontario

A special thank you to our funders, partners and collaborators.

A special thank you to our many volunteers for your generous contributions.