Collaborative Community
- CAPE STRATEGIC PLAN 2010/2011
- Issues Facing Immigrants with Engineering Backgrounds
- Beyond Membership to Collaboration
- What is the vision of the CAPE Collaboration and Membership?
- What is CAPE's Mission?
- How will Collaboration Help CAPE to Achieve This Vision?
- What Has Been Achieved to Date?
- What are the Next Steps?
- How can I Become a Part of This Collaborative Community?
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Issues Facing Immigrants with Engineering Backgrounds
A major issue for an immigrant moving to a new country is the loss of their social capital, which means having no networks of friends or colleagues, emotional or moral support. In Canada, this social isolation is further compounded by the loss of engineering credentials obtained outside the province of Canada that we choose to reside in. CAPE is endeavouring to create a truly multicultural, supportive and welcoming membership community in Canada that will act as a strong collective to voice our concerns and help us to create change to better our lives and meet our professional aspirations.
Beyond Membership to Collaboration
While membership entitles you to privilege, a collaborative community brings people together to develop a common vision, thus defining the way their community should function. They can jointly develop strategies that enable various stakeholders to work together to achieve that vision. The key to collaboration is translating community needs and issues into language that creates consensus on what a community wants. CAPE is shifting focus from being a membership based organization with a limited vision to becoming a fully fledged collaboration that can influence genuine change.
What is the vision of the CAPE Collaboration and Membership?
Through a series of consultative strategic planning sessions CAPE members have defined the following two part vision for our community:
- Immigrants with engineering backgrounds wish to improve the quality of our lives by participating in the practice of engineering in Ontario and Canada to reach our maximum potential to contribute to our:
- Local communities
- Province
- Country; and
- the World at large
- By maximizing utilization of our engineering knowledge education, skills and potential through upgrading our knowledge and skills in keeping with evolving trends in engineering and sustainable human development.
Through a series of consultations with its members CAPE has identified that our mission is to support our members to achieve full labour market participation commensurate with (or, proportionate to) their engineering education and skills in Ontario and Canada using their engineering knowledge, education and experience from other parts of the world.
How will Collaboration Help CAPE to Achieve This Vision?
By building a collective voice and acquiring the right allies, problems that are difficult or impossible for an individual to overcome alone, can be solved. By structuring ourselves as a collaborative community, we can increase or leverage the power of our group, to create the social and economic changes that we desire.
CAPE has adopted "knowledge mobilization" as the engine to fuel change in the labour market participation rates of immigrants with engineering backgrounds. In particular, CAPE recognizes that knowledge mobilization calls for working relationships with others and that having influence involves shifting the emphasis from knowledge itself to building an internal community, relationships and interaction.
What Has Been Achieved to Date?
- Multi-stakeholder consultation and engagement
- A realistic employment strategy for immigrants with engineering backgrounds
- A shared vision
- A constructive engagement process for communication and collaboration
- Consensus and ownership at all levels
- Providing a full range of employment supports to CAPE members
- Developing a customized membership benefits for our members
- Providing means for supportive interactions between our members
- Employer engagement and education
- Capacity building in the service/settlement sector
- Building strong relationships with strategic partners and stakeholders
- Developing an effective branding, media and advocacy process for CAPE.
How can I Become a Part of This Collaborative Community?
There are many ways in which you can become a part of this exciting development: Some of these are
- Attending our networking and social events
- Enjoying the customized membership benefits that we have developed for you
- Exploring the services that CAPE has developed for you
- Developing social relationships and interactions with other members with similar backgrounds
- Experiencing a truly multicultural community
- Engaging with CAPE at the civic and other levels.