Women in Oakridge are taking it upon themselves to ensure every woman in the neighbourhood can enter the workforce through employment training workshops built by immigrants for immigrants.
In Southwest Scarborough, Oakridge is recognized by the City of Toronto as a Neighbourhood Improvement Area with a median family income $30,000 less than the rest of the city and 26 per cent of children under six living in low-income households.
Local women saw a need to push towards a better life, so, in 2008, the South Asian Women’s Rights Organization, now renamed as South Asian Women and Immigrants’ Services (SAWIS), was born.
The community group is helping women gain employment so they can provide for their families.
Sultana Jahangir, the executive director of SAWIS, says that immigrants come with the hope of living a better life for themselves and their children, but are taken aback by the reality of available services for them.
“The women first feel shocked that the services that right now is available is not accessible for them, like the systemic exclusion for childcare, systemic exclusion to recognize their skill and experience, systemic exclusion in not getting the housing that they need right now, social house or adequate housing, that exclusion is creating poverty on them, so they are struggling here.”
In 2018, SAWIS surveyed precariously employed women in the neighbourhood.
They found that a lack of Canadian work experience and education, in addition to the right job search skills and access to childcare were the biggest barriers to successful full-time employment.
So the non-profit set up classes led by community members to improve each other’s employability, from strengthening workplace conversations and interview prep to a class on upgrading computer skills.
In 2021, Statistics Canada found that 27 per cent of recent immigrants with a bachelor’s degree or higher were in jobs that only needed a high school diploma, showing a trend of education and occupation mismatch.
Arshadun Nessa Niva, a project support worker at SAWIS, says, “Before coming to Canada, I worked as an HR executive and admin in a multi-national organization for more than 6 years, so after coming here, I started work with precarious jobs, so I realized that the computer skills and everything is very important for our community women.”
Oakridge resident MST Farhatul Zannat says, “Back home I was a banker, but when I came here and when I search job, this job [did] not match my skills, I was very unhappy on what I should do. But when I got this opportunity, really I am very happy, and I am very grateful to this organization.”
SAWIS continues to run different classes to improve the employability of immigrant women in Oakridge while also empowering them to lead civic action in the neighbourhood, practicing their motto: “If the women advance, the whole community moves forward.”
