Huron County Immigration Partnership Support Officer, Hana Aria, said the feedback they've received on their anti-racism project titled Humanizing Our Differences has been very encouraging.
She says they worked with Faux Pop in Goderich on four panel discussions.
“The first one was Why It Matters in Rural Ontario, the second one was a conversation about awareness, the third one, a conversation about privilege and then, lastly, a conversation about equity," Aria said. "So we had some folks in the county come and share their lived experiences.”
She adds, they also did several online promotions and many county residents responded and said it was a great initiative.
"Our work shops, most of them were actually fully registered and people were reaching out, asking if there was still room or if we were going to do a round two moving forward.”
Aria also notes that there are already a number of challenges for a person moving to a strange country and a community where they don't know anyone and don't speak the language and the pandemic has just added to those challenges.
“There were so many people that we just wanted to reach out to but didn't have access to and we wanted to say, you're more than welcome here, our arms are open and we want you to feel that welcomeness, so let's have these conversations and let people know that we're not a region that shy's away from anything,” said Aria.
A list of resources for newcomers is on the Huron County Immigration Partnership website.