OUR MISSION
To empower, inspire, and instill confidence with newcomer and refugee community members, leading to learning excellence and economic prosperity. ,
To bridge the gap and advocate for the rights of community members who experience inequities. To build communities that can visualize and realize pathways to educational, economic, cultural, and social success..
OUR VALUE
At FOCAS, we value:
INCLUSIVITY: We are always working towards authentic inclusivity. We value and respect differences and seek to create environments where all people can participate.
EMPOWERMENT: We empower clients/community members with tapping to their needs and strengths. We know that communities are always changing and growing. Empowerment means being innovative in how we listen, respond to issues, develop programming, and work with each other. This often requires boldness, as empowerment means changing the status quo power structures that currently create marginalization for many community members, staff, volunteers, and/or partner organizations.
INTEGRITY: We have integrity if we work with honesty and transparency. It should be clear for everyone (staff, volunteers, partners, and clients/community members) what we are doing and what we hope to achieve. Demonstrating accountability to staff, funders, partners, and community maintains our integrity as an organization.
POSITIVITY: is an indicator that we are operating as a healthy organization. We seek solutions and continuous improvement – we build positive pathways for our work. If our staff, board, and volunteer work culture is not one of positivity, then it is time to examine how and why we work together and if our goals are the right ones.
OUR PHILOSOPHY
Communication between groups is essential for success. We aim to move past the barriers of racism, language, religion, and culture to make room for effective social integration. By providing our services to the refugee and newcomer communities, we engage with their existing cultures to embark on the process of learning about their new home, Canada. Supports for new families; empowers the children, the youth, and the parents to become strong and engaged in the welfare of others, enabling them in turn to become contributing members of society.
OUR FRAMEWORK
We believe that immigrant children come to live in three worlds. In the home, most parents speak their native languages and practice the cultural traditions of their native country. They are raising their children in the way they were raised even if some of those traditions contradict the ways of the new home country. Our children learn the ways and the expectations of their parents. But once they are outside of the home if they don't learn to adapt to the majority culture around them they will begin to be cut off from paths of opportunities and relationships that will provide hope for a successful future in Canada. It is not that children must forget about the beauty and goodness of their native culture. It is very important for all children to know where they come from. Parents play a vital role in developing a healthy love for family traditions.
So while our children are learning what it means to be a part of their native culture, they also need to learn what it means to be part of the majority culture in their new homeland. it is also true that our children must learn to navigate the world that is school. School is the third culture that our children must adapt to. Behavioral and academic expectations at school may differ significantly from the expectations at home. Children must learn how to recognize that different cultural situations require different responses. Children need to learn how to act appropriately in any given situation, whether it is within their home culture, school culture, or outside the home.
We believe it is important to bridge the gap between culture being identified at home and the culture of the world outside the home, including school.
