The TIEDI Exchange Forum

The Toronto Immigrant Employment Data Initiative (TIEDI) seeks to assist community organizations whose mandate includes the better integration of immigrants into Toronto’s labour force. Such partner organizations include immigrant service agencies and advocacy groups, employer associations, regulatory bodies, professional associations, training organizations, and credential assessment agencies.

The purpose of the project is to provide such organizations with free access to statistical data and analysis on various aspects of immigrant labour market integration. The goal is to help organizations access the quantitative data they need in order to: identify priorities, develop programs and services, compose proposals and reports, and carry out advocacy and public education endeavours.

TIEDI will hold its first public forum on October 10th, 2008. The one-day dialogue will showcase a few concrete examples on how this type of collaboration can work for the benefit of community-based agencies.

Date: Friday, October 10th 2008
Time: 9.30 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Location: York University, Schulich School of Business, Room TBC

For further information, please contact Maryse Lemoine, TIEDI Project Coordinator, at 416-736-2100 ext. 22826 or at mlemoine@yorku.ca.

Visit the TIEDI web site for more information. > Go

About TIEDI

Finding statistics and information resources that meet the needs of your organization can be time-consuming and difficult. In particular, large datasets from Statistics Canada and other government sources often require specific expertise in order to extract relevant data.

The Toronto Immigrant Employment Data Initiative (TIEDI) is an innovative new project based at York University that seeks to assist community organizations in accessing data and analysis that will meet their needs in areas such as identifying priorities, developing programs and services, relations with funders (submitting proposals, meeting reporting requirements), building
partnerships and carrying out advocacy and public education endeavours.

Partners in this project include the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants, the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council and the World Education Services. TIEDI is funded by the Knowledge Impact in Society program of Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and by York University.

The overall goal of the project is to service the data needs of organizations whose mandate includes seeking better ways of incorporating immigrants into the Canadian workforce.

TIEDI is inviting business associations, immigrant service organizations, labour organizations, credentials assessment agencies, media outlets, public policy-makers and professional regulatory bodies to join its growing network.

THE STATS IN THE HAT*

(with apologies to Dr Seuss)

The Cat in the Hat was excellent at cleaning. He tidied and scrubbed and left the house gleaming.
But this service sector worker on a cleaning spree, In fact had an unrecognized masters degree.

Immigrants, refugees, temporary labour,
Our job markets aren’t always doing them a favour.

Over-skilled for their jobs, underpaid for their work, Unable to practice what it is that they’ve learnt.
This is our issue, our issue today,
How best to let immigrants earn what they may.

But we need to advocate, report and plan, To be sure our efforts are the best that we can.
For this we need data, the numbers to show, That what we are arguing is statistically so.

Now not all greet statistics with overflowing enjoyment,
But they can tell us a thing (or two) about immigrant employment,
And that’s where TIEDI comes in, as a service to you,
There are Stats in the Hat and we can find that thing one or thing two.

So tell us your desires, your numerical need, And we’ll try to deliver, deliver in deed.
We pull out the data and say what it means, We’ll tabulate, analyze and count all the beans.
We’ll TIEDI them up and give them to you, And hope that they help in the work that you do.