The OLIP Council is committed to leadership.  In only a few years, we have a common vision and priorities, and are up to the task of implementing the Ottawa Immigration Strategy.

Salimatou Diallo
OLIP Council Vice Chair, Assemblée de la francophonie de l'Ontario
OLIP helps to unite and share scarce resources for greater impact by working together in the field of student education.

Walter Piovesan
Associate Director of Education, Ottawa Carleton District School Board
The WOW seminar on immigrant women’s nutrition and health was a step in the right direction towards closing the gap between academic researchers and service providers.

Josephine Etowa
Associate Professor, School of Nursing, University of Ottawa
The City of Ottawa will continue to play a lead role in the implementation of the Ottawa Immigration Strategy, just as we did in the founding of OLIP.

Steve Desroches
City Councillor and Deputy Mayor of Ottawa
We are very pleased to have done the “Opportunity Cost of Not Investing in Interpretation” report – it is so important to have clarity on these challenges and…

Hindia Mohamoud, Director, OLIP
I’m really impressed with the level of energy and commitment around the Health and Wellbeing table and look forward to continuing collaboration between OLIP and OPH.

Marcela Tapia
Ottawa Public Health
The work and expertise that OLIP brings to our community is so important as it helps us to build bridges and break down silos.  I look forward to our continued work together. 

Jim Watson, Mayor of Ottawa
The target beneficiary of the work of OLIP is the whole community. In this short period we have planted together important seeds for Ottawa’s development.  

Dick Stewart
OLIP Council
All the WOW events that I went to were great – WOW does give a sense of a community trying to improve its attraction and retention!

Caroline Andrew
Professor, University of Ottawa
The Ottawa Chinese Community Service Centre is so happy to have joined the OLIP Health and Wellbeing Sector Table. It is clear that OLIP cares about immigrants and refugees and…

Wendy Tang, Ottawa Chinese Community Service Centre

Highlights of a Great Beginning

June 24, 2015

Welcoming Ottawa Week 2015 launched with ideas, facts and focus on Monday, as representatives from City Council, the City of Ottawa, settlement agencies, universities, community partners and many others gathered at the Marriott Hotel for the Ottawa Immigration Forum.

Presented by WOW organizers OLIP (Ottawa Local Immigration Partnership), the forum is an interactive event designed to give Ottawa a moment to reflect on how the city is faring in its efforts to improve immigrant integration and be a top destination for international talent. This year marks the end of the first five years of the OLIP partnership and the completion of the first period of implementation of the Ottawa Immigration Strategy (2011-2014). The Ottawa Immigration Strategy has inspired the creation of the first-ever Municipal Immigration Strategy. The City of Ottawa is one of the few cities in Canada that has a formal strategy to guide its decision-making and development of policies toward enhancing the attraction, retention and integration of immigrants.

A variety of experts and decision-makers highlighted the theme of the day, Moving Forward on our Vision – Building on our Accomplishments, including:

WOW honorary co-chairs Sarah Onyango and Louisa Taylor also presented this year’s WOW Ambassadors Project, a photography exhibit that celebrates Ottawa residents who reach out to welcome newcomers through their friendship, career mentoring, hospitality or work.

Attendees were invited to contribute ideas for making Ottawa a more welcoming city, and later broke into groups to brainstorm for the next phase of OLIP’s work.

Throughout the morning, forum participants and WOW partners were active on social media, and even got #2015WOW trending in Canada on Twitter. CBC Radio and TV were on hand and produced stories on many aspects of both the forum and WOW, including a home page to showcase all its coverage of WOW.

Welcoming Ottawa Week is off to a great start – check back as the week unfolds for more highlights!