Who
is the National Advisory Panel?
The following
is a list of the members of the National Advisory Panel for the
project, including brief personal descriptions in their own words
and descriptions of the organizations where they work. Their participation
was vital in accomplishing the goals of the project. Their thorough
understanding of the topic, tremendous personal and professional
experience, commitment and enthusiasm guided the development of
the research and resources. Their commitment to bringing the value
of cross-cultural attachment practices to the forefront is reflected
in the final products of this project.
Soodie Ansari
Families Branching Out Coalition,
Frog Hollow Neighbourhood House, Vancouver, BC
Soodie is originally from Iran and immigrated to Canada after spending
a number of years living in San Francisco.As a result of her experience,
she has an in-depth personal understanding of the challenges and
positive aspects of the migration experience. She had a particular
interest in this project having completed her Masters in Child Development
with an emphasis on attachment styles in 5 and 6 year olds.
Soodie Ansari was the Central CAPC Coordinator for the Families
Branching Out Coalition in North East Vancouver. The Coalition is
made up of 4 agencies (Frog Hollow Neighbourhood House - host agency,
Collingwood Neighbourhood House, Kiwassa Neighbourhood House, and
Thunderbird Community Centre) which provide programs and services
for families with children birth to 6 years that live in conditions
of risk. Soodie was also the Family Programs Coordinator at Frog
Hollow Neighbourhood House, where she oversaw the Family Programs.
Frog Hollow Neighbourhood House is a community services organization.
The agency's purpose is to assist and empower the residents of their
community to improve the quality of their lives through social programs
and services. Frog Hollow's programs and services respect and value
cultural and other differences among the residents of their community
and encourage and rely upon volunteer support.
Pamela Kasir
Families Branching Out Coalition,
Frog Hollow Neighbourhood House, Vancouver, BC
Pamela Kasir replaced Soodie Ansari on the National Advisory Panel
towards the end of the project. She gave an enormous amount of energy
and enthusiasm to the dissemination component of the project, contributing
to its success.
Amanda Dale
Women's Health Centre (WHC)
Amanda Dale brings to her role as manager of the St. Joseph's Women's
Health Centre nearly 20 years experience in women's services. In
this capacity, she performed all financial as well as overall project
management duties. She was part of the project advisory team, and
participated in the National Advisory Panel. She brought to the
table a keen interest in cross cultural issues as well as qualitative
research design and methods.
Elaine Eskow
Calgary Immigrant Aid Society, Calgary, AB
Elaine Eskow is a social worker who has been interested in cultural
diversity issues for many years. She was involved with the multicultural
organizational change initiative in Calgary which was spearheaded
by the United Way, is currently part of a team developing a web-site
to prepare newcomers for human service careers, and is part of a
Steering Committee guiding the immigrant services and system evaluation
within Calgary.
Elaine Eskow is a member of the Board of Directors of the Calgary
Immigrant Aid Society (CIAS). The Mosaic Centre, one of the services
of CIAS, provides preventive and interventive services for new Canadian
families who require support in accessing medical, social, mental
health and early education resources provided in Calgary. A wide
variety of programs have been developed to address the physical,
social, emotional, psychological and cognitive development of young
immigrant and refugee children. Holistic programming for parents
and caregivers is also provided, including a drop-in resource centre,
pre-school, family literacy program, home visits, family support
counselling, parenting workshops, celebrations and special events.
Jo-Anne Henderson-White
Metropolitan Immigrant Settlement Association, Halifax, NS
Jo-Anne Henderson-White is currently completing her Master's in
Community Social Work. She is a newcomer to Canada originally from
the Caribbean. She is interested in theatre, poetry, short stories
and other awareness raising art forms.
Jo-Anne Henderson-White is a Community Worker at the Metropolitan
Immigrant Settlement Association (MISA). Her responsibilities include:
coordinating a capacity building project, which includes providing
training for leaders within ethnic communities to become involved
members of community boards, commissions and committees at the community
municipal and provincial levels; conducting research regarding immigration
policies and the worldwide refugee situation; providing public education
to increase awareness of immigrant issues and the community's responsibility
regarding immigrant settlement and integration. MISA is a community
organization, established in 1980, that welcomes newcomers and recognizes
their essential role in Canada. MISA provides special services to
help newcomers in their efforts to participate fully in Canadian
life.
Hiteshini Jugessur
South Asian Women's Community Centre
(Centre communautaire des femmes Sud Asiatique), Montreal, QC
Hiteshini Jugessur was born in Mauritius of a Mauritian father and
an Indian mother. She moved to Ethiopia in 1983, subsequently lived
in England, and now resides in Montreal. Outside of her work, she
has been involved with the 'Teesri Dunya' ('Third World') Theatre
Group in Montreal, that has used theatre to educate and create awareness
about the different socio-political situations faced by South Asians
in their country of origin as well as in Canada.
Hiteshini Jugessur is a Community Outreach Worker at the South Asian
Women's Community Centre. The South Asian Women's Community Centre
was first started in July, 1981 by a group of 9 women from India
and Pakistan under the name South Asian Community Centre (Centre
Communautaire Sud Asiatique). The organization started because these
women recognized that immigrant women from visible and ethnic minorities
experienced great handicaps in integrating into the Canadian way
of life. In addition, the socio-cultural background of South Asian
women was a contributing factor in the difficulties they faced.
In some respects these problems were unique to South Asian women
because their cultural traditions kept them more isolated than many
other immigrant groups. The core objective of the organization is
to help South Asian women develop their potential to the fullest,
to raise their social and community awareness, and to facilitate
their access to mainstream life in this country.
Joanne King
Community Resource Centre (Killaloe) Inc., Killaloe, ON
Joanne's maternal grandparents came to Canada from Lebanon. Her
parenting choices, made in the 1970's, were very "non-mainstream"
and included sharing the family bed, baby-led weaning, and carrying
her daughter and later her son on her front and back. This combination
of experiences has resulted in a strong dedication to promote both
positive attachment practices and equity issues enabling her to
bring this commitment to the National Project.
Joanne King is the Executive Director of the Community Resource
Centre (Killaloe) Inc. The Community Resource Centre (Killaloe)
Inc., is a non-profit, charitable, community based centre operating
out of the Village of Killaloe, in rural Renfrew County, Ontario.
The CRC, along with its many community partners, offers a variety
of CAPC and CPNP activities, including: a mobile children's resource
centre and toy lending program (known as "the Toy Bus"),
Kids Corp Family Resource Program in the Town of Renfrew, drop-in
play group programs, programs for young parents, prenatal programs
(some specialized for teens), parenting education programs, healthy
child development programs, a second hand clothing store, food bank,
employment counselling, children's mental health counselling, a
community table and garden project, computer and internet access
and information and referral.
Joanne also served as a liaison for the project to the Ontario Coalition
of CAPC/CPNP projects. The Coalition provides a network for collective
action, learning and resource sharing among Ontario projects, organizing
an annual conference and semi-annual newsletter among other activities.
Elise Lavigne
Health Canada
Elise is from a "famille quŽbecoise", and is married,
with no children of her own, although she does volunteer work with
children. She believes strongly in the respect of and the strong
value of cultural diversity. When faced with cultural difference,
if everyone could simply live by "It's not better, it's not
worse, it's simply different", she believes strongly that discriminatory
practices would be significantly reduced.
Elise Lavigne was the Health Canada Program Officer responsible
for the management of CAPC/CPNP National Projects Fund and as such
part of her role was to ensure successful initiation and completion
of the projects. In addition, her role was to assess CAPC/CPNP projects
needs in order to establish funding priorities for the Fund. When
CAPC/CPNP groups were consulted, an underlying need was expressed
to provide support for increased cultural diversity among program
participants. For this project, it was Elise's responsibility to
acknowledge and present the project proposal as responding to the
both the Attachment funding priority and to the need for support
for increased cultural diversity in programs across Canada.
Gaby Vieira
Health Canada
Gaby Vieira replaced Elise Lavigne in her position at Health Canada
and on the National Advisory Panel towards the end of the project.
She offered a lot of enthusiasm for and commitment to the project.
Farah N. Mawani
Women's Health Centre
Farah N. Mawani was born in Nairobi, Kenya, while all her great
grandparents were born in India. She immigrated to Canada at the
age of four and had the opportunity to return to Kenya several times
as she grew up, filling an intense need she felt to regain some
of what she had lost in her migration to Canada. The history of
migration in her family, along with her personal experience, fed
her passion for and insight into the project.
Farah was the Project Coordinator for Sharing Attachment Practices
Across Cultures: Learning from Immigrants and Refugees. She carried
the primary responsibility for the project. This involved coordinating
and chairing all meetings of the National Advisory Panel, coordinating
travel to and interviews in all regions, conducting interviews with
parents and service providers, analyzing the interview data, collecting
resources, taking photographs, leading the design of all project
materials, writing the project materials, presenting on the project
at several conferences, and coordinating and conducting workshops
based on the project materials.
Maureen McDonald
Parkdale Parents' Primary Prevention Project
Maureen McDonald is the Project Coordinator for the Parkdale Parents'
Primary Prevention Project. Please see the description of the project
in this section of the toolkit. Maureen was involved in writing
the proposal for this project and also acted as a supervisor to
the Project Coordinator.
Alejandra Priego
Women's Health Centre
Alejandra Priego is the Spanish-speaking Health Promoter at the
Women's Health Centre. Her experience as an immigrant woman and
mother of two has guided her groundbreaking inspiration, visioning,
knowledge and critical thinking from the initial proposal writing
to her input into the practical resources developed out of this
project.
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