Copyright holder: Tyndale University, 3377 Bayview Ave., Toronto, Ontario, Canada M2M 3S4 Att.: Library Director, J. William Horsey Library Copyright: This Work has been made available by the authority of the copyright owner solely for the purpose of private study and research and may not be copied or reproduced except as permitted by the copyright laws of Canada without the written authority from the copyright owner. Copyright license: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License Citation: Chapman, Mark and Giovanna Heron. Faith and Settlement Partnerships: Setting Immigrants & Canada up for Success. Waterloo, ON: Centre for Community Based Research, 2018. Retrieved from https://www.communitybasedresearch.ca/faith-andsettlement ***** Begin Content ****** TYNDALE UNIVERSITY 3377 Bayview Avenue Toronto, ON M2M 3S4 TEL: 416.226.6620 www.tyndale.ca Note: This Work has been made available by the authority of the copyright owner solely for the purpose of private study and research and may not be copied or reproduced except as permitted by the copyright laws of Canada without the written authority from the copyright owner. Chapman, Mark and Giovanna Heron. Faith and Settlement Partnerships: Setting Immigrants & Canada up for Success. Waterloo, ON: Centre for Community Based Research, 2018. Retrieved from https://www.communitybasedresearch.ca/faith-and- settlement [ Citation Page ] Faith & Settlement Partnerships: Setting Immigrants & Canada up for Success Tyndale Intercultural Ministry Centre Case Study Report June 2018 Mark Chapman and Giovanna Heron [ Title Page ] Faith and Settlement Partnerships: Setting Immigrants and Canada up for Success is a research partnership intended to explore partnerships between faith-based and government-funded settlement organizations in Ontario. This two-year project is led by the Centre for Community Based Research (CCBR) and funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). More information about this project can be found at: www.communitybasedresearch.ca/Page/View/Faith_&_Settlement_Partnerships The project used multiple methods. Case studies were held within the local study sites (Toronto, Peel, Waterloo Region, London). Other methods included a literature review and a cross-site organizational survey. Reports were written for each method. Research Partnership Rich Janzen Centre for Community Based Research Joanna Ochocka Centre for Community Based Research Jessica Dyck Centre for Community Based Research Jim Cresswell Booth University College Ron Kuipers Institute for Christian Studies Michael Skaljin Interfaith Council of Peel Huda Hussein London & Middlesex Local Immigration Partnership Mohammed Baobaid Muslim Resource Centre for Social Support and Integration Aamna Ashraf Peel Newcomer Strategy Group Trisha Scantlebury Peel Newcomer Strategy Group Idrisa Pandit Renison University College Doug Binner The Salvation Army Victoria Esses The University of Western Ontario Vera Dodic Toronto Newcomer Office Mark Chapman Tyndale University College & Seminary Tara Bedard Waterloo Region Immigration Partnership Ida Kaastra-Mutoigo World Renew Site Team - (Tyndale Intercultural Ministry Centre - Toronto) Dr. Mark Chapman (Tyndale Intercultural Ministry Centre), Giovanna Heron (Tyndale University College & Seminary) Centre for Community Based Research 190 Westmount Road North, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G5 Phone: 519-885-1460 ext. 25293 E-mail: rich@communitybasedresearch.ca Website: www.communitybasedresearch.ca CENTRE FOR COMMUNITY BASED RESEARCH [ Page ] 1 Table of Contents Introduction .... 1 Methodology .... 2 Participants .... 3 Research Design .... 3 Data Analysis .... 4 Studying Faith Communities .... 5 Context .... 5 The Tyndale Intercultural Ministries Centre (TIM Centre) .... 6 History .... 6 Teaching and Training .... 7 Researching .... 7 Resourcing .... 8 Networking .... 9 Summary .... 9 Overall findings .... 10 Vision: To what extent are faith/settlement partnerships viewed positively? .... 10 (1) What are the perceived opportunities and pitfalls for partnership? .... 12 (2) What underlying motivations, values, and aspirations inform these opinions? .... 13 (3) How and to what extent can differences in motivation/values/aspiration be navigated within policy and practice? .... 14 Structure: What types of partnerships presently exist and how could they be improved? .... 14 (1) What benefits and challenges have emerged as a result of partnership activities? .... 15 (2) What types of partnership activities seem particularly promising? Why? .... 16 (3) What service gaps could faith/settlement partnerships be most effective in addressing? .... 17 Process: How can effective partnerships be better facilitated? .... 18 (1) What roles could faith and settlement leaders each play in partnership building? .... 19 (2) How could collaborative program planning and policy development be encouraged? .... 20 (3) What training and professional development activities could be developed or shared? .... 21 (4) How could partnerships that support immigrants of faith be best evaluated? .... 21 Discussion .... 22 [ Page ] 2 Finances .... 22 Faith Commitments .... 23 Immigrant Support .... 24 Intercultural Awareness .... 24 Networks .... 25 Summary .... 25 Conclusions .... 26 Reference List .... 26 [ Page ] 3 Introduction The purpose of the Faith and Settlement Partnerships project is to collaboratively study partnerships among faith-based and government-funded settlement organizations. This was done to determine how these partnerships can better lead to positive settlement outcomes for newcomers, and ultimately benefit Canadian society. Using a social systems framework, the project answers three main questions: 1. To what extent are faith/settlement partnerships viewed positively? (vision) 2. What types of partnerships presently exist and how could they be improved? (structures) 3. How can effective partnerships be better facilitated? (processes) The project included an online survey and a variety of case studies. This case study looks at the role of TIM Centre) in facilitating engagement with the government-funded settlement sector among its associates and partners. This project looks at two aspects of TIM Centre’s relationship with the government-funded settlement sector.1 First, it explores the role of TIM Centre in facilitating relationships with the settlement sector (e.g., Peoples, East Toronto). Second, it studies TIM Centre as a resourcing and networking organization that provides a third-party contribution to faith community / settlement sector relationships (e.g., role of UReach Toronto). The objective is to capture the complexity of TIM Centre’s role in developing relationships between faith communities and the settlement sector and how those relationships have, as the research proposal explains, led to “positive settlement outcomes for newcomers and ultimately benefit Canadian society.” In particular, the aim of this self- study is to improve TIM Centre’s ability to help its partners develop partnerships with each other and with the settlement sector. Questions that were explored include: ■ What resources are available? _____________________________________ 1 All references to the settlement sector, unless otherwise noted, are to the government-funded settlement sector [ Page ] 1 ■ What compromises, if any, are necessary to obtain those resources? ■ What types of relationships does TIM Centre have with organizations that partner with the settlement sector? ■ What is the process of developing a partnership with the settlement sector and how can TIM Centre facilitate that? This case study found that tTIM Centre has little direct contact with the government-funded settlement sector. However, its partners and the people it serves have regular and frequent contact with the government-funded settlement sector. TIM Centre sees its role in the relationship as that of bridging the gap between individuals and groups to increase awareness of each other and to improve knowledge of services for its constituents. It has no plans to become directly involved with the government-funded settlement sector but plans to more intentionally connect faith groups with common needs together, to provide more and clearer information about settlement services on its UReach Toronto website, and to be more intentional about addressing settlement concerns as it works with new Canadians. However, another clear theme was a self-consciousness that TIM Centre’s emphasis on Christian mission was not shared and sometimes incompatible with government-funded settlement sector interests. There was a concern to identify ways of cooperating that were of mutual interest but did not transgress either group’s objectives. After a brief survey of methodology, this report describes the history and work of TIM Centre as a background to responding to the study’s main research questions. It then discusses five themes that arise of out that research. The conclusion summarizes what has been learned and responds to the specific case study questions introduced above. Methodology This section identifies the participants in the study, describes the research design, how the data was analyzed, and provides a brief discussion of the challenges of studying faith communities. [ Page ] 2 Participants This project has two sets of participants: volunteers and employees of TIM Centre, and participants in settlement activities in partner organizations. They are of both genders, over the age of 18, and from multiple cultural and denominational backgrounds. Ethnicities represented include Filipina, Chinese, Irish, and others. They were chosen opportunistically based on their involvement with TIM Centre or one of TIM Centre’ partners. Eight participants were interviewed. The relationship with TIM Centre was as employees (2), volunteers (2), a partner, and individuals who have taken TIM Centre offered courses (2). The employees were the director and the assistant director. Six were men and two were women. Research Design This case study collected and triangulated data from individual interviews, participant observation, and document review in order to understand the complexity of the case (Stake, 2005). The resulting report uses a narrative format to understand how the case’s vision, structures, and processes contribute to its ability to support its partners in their relationship with the settlement sector (Janzen and Wiebe 2011; Patton, 2015). Interview protocols have been adapted from the research of innovative and promising practices within the immigrant settlement sector (conducted by Janzen, Walton-Roberts, and Ochocka 2012). TIM Centre will be studying itself using a participatory action research process (cf. Coghlan and Brannick 2009). That is, TIM Centre personnel were involved in all aspects of the research design and interpretation of the data (although not all participants were involved in all parts of the research). All of TIM Centre’s research projects have as at least part of their goal to produce positive social change for the research participants. Thus, its research is substantially driven by the felt needs of its network. As this project is a self-study it allowed the specific means of data collection to be determined by the natural development of TIM’s interaction with its network. This resulted in three distinct data sets: [ Page ] 3 document / website analysis, interviews with TIM Centre members, and participant observation. A research assistant was hired to conduct and transcribe the interviews and code the data who was not previously affiliated with TIM Centre. Document / website analysis demonstrated that there has been little specific attention paid to settlement issues. While TIM Centre did have experiences with the settlement sector during the study period those experiences were not revealed to the researchers in sufficient time to observe them. Thus, most of the data use for this report is derived from the eight interviews and participant observations. In those interviews, TIM Centre personnel were interviewed for their experience of the interaction between TIM Centre, partner organizations and individuals, and the settlement sector. Both paid staff and volunteers were interviewed. The interviews were audio recorded and transcribed. Participant- observation data came from three sources: the experiences of TIM Centre's lead researcher, the observations of the research assistant, and the input of research participants into draft versions of the report. Data Analysis All data was converted to text documents which was analyzed deductively using a structural coding approach (Saldana 2015, 97) for evidence of Vision, Structure, and Processes and for TIM’s connection to, input in, and awareness of productive partnership between Faith Communities and the Settlement Sector. Attention was paid to the processes that enable TIM Centre to support Faith Community / Settlement Sector partnerships, the networking role of Tyndale, and the strengths and limitations of current structures. The data was also coded inductively using descriptive coding (Saldana 2015, 101) to capture any additional themes relevant to these partnerships and to identify what was and was not working in these partnerships. While descriptive coding tends to be overly general for identifying the more detailed meaning behind statements, it is sufficient to identify repeating themes for subsequent more detailed analysis. This analysis was supplemented with comments provided by [ Page ] 4 research participants on a draft of the report. There were no substantive differences between data derived from the different sources. Research participants provided suggestions for additional details and appropriate interpretation of data. Studying Faith Communities The experience of studying TIM Centre highlights one of the challenges of the faith community / settlement sector relationship: this relationship is often led by organizations that are already over- stretched in terms of time and resources who are often at least partially staffed by volunteers. In the case of TIM Centre, involvement of the researchers in TIM events was hampered by poor communication, different understandings of the needs of the project, fuzzy relationships with partners, and difficulties scheduling events. Voluntary organizations operate by influence rather than control. TIM Centre participates in events as they are invited. Invitations are rooted in carefully supported network connections. However, TIM Centre itself controls none of the faith community / settlement sector relationships it contributes to and is aware of. As the findings show, this entrepreneurial approach to operating has both advantages and disadvantages for TIM Centre's ability to contribute to faith communities’ relationships with the settlement sector. Its entrepreneurial nature makes it hard to study. For example, having no full-time employees can lead to missed opportunities, limited resources and a long time to organize events because it must work through networks of influence rather than authority. Context TIM Centre does not work directly with government funded settlement agencies. However, it has substantial contact with immigrants and with organizations that do have relationships with the settlement sector. This section describes what TIM Centre does and its relationship with immigrants and organizations that work with immigrants, as context for a discussion of the main research questions. [ Page ] 5 Tyndale Intercultural Ministries Centre (TIM Centre) TIM Centre is an action-oriented centre within Tyndale University College & Seminary that had previously partnered in a study with CCBR and World Vision examining the integration of new immigrants into Canadian congregations (Watson et al. 2011; Janzen, Chapman, and Watson 2012). The mission of TIM Centre is, “to act as a catalyst to mobilize the intercultural Christian faith community towards a more intentional and effective engagement in local and global missions” (Centre 2013). 2 It is actively involved in networking among new Canadian congregations and established denominations, associations and agencies for shared learning, ministry partnerships, and training development. While TIM has had little direct contact with the government funded settlement sector, it has facilitated this contact for its partners and has had input and/or has participated with its partner’s relationships with the settlement sector. Its activities have changed over the years but currently focus on four main activities: teaching and training, resourcing, research, and networking. The following discusses the history and activities of TIM Centre that intersect with recent immigrants or with the settlement sector. History TIM Centre is the oldest of the four centres that make up the Open Learning Centre at Tyndale University College & Seminary in Toronto, ON. The Open Learning Centre is composed of self- supporting, topic-specific centres that serve the larger community beyond the walls of the school. TIM Centre was started in 1998 to be a catalyst for the Canadian church to engage more effectively in overseas missions. Robert Cousins became the director in 2005 and in 2008, launched the Diaspora Initiative in response to the changing nature of global missions. Representatives of the nations of the world were coming to Toronto and TIM Centre realized that they could become more effective in their ____________________________________ 2 For TIM Centre “missions” refers to evangelizing people who are not Christians. However, that concern is understood to include meeting physical needs and showing care and concern for people. People are not understood instrumentally as subjects for conversion but rather as creations of God worth of love and care. [ Page ] 6 aims by equipping the diaspora church to engage in their own ministry activities.3 This led to TIM Centre’s current vision statement, "the church from all nations, bringing Christ to all nations.” The idea is that mission is “no longer one directional;” it is from everywhere to everywhere. The following discusses the history and activities of TIM Centre that intersect with recent immigrants or with the settlement sector in light of these four categories. Teaching and Training TIM Centre has offered regular seminars and has been involved in ministry training since its inception. In 2010, TIM Centre was approached by a Filipino group doing church planting (and its denominational partner CBOQ) to consider how TIM Centre might provide training for Diaspora leaders. So, in 2010, it launched a not-for-credit diploma in Foundations and International Ministry. This diploma eventually became an on-ramp for formal seminary education with an agreement to accept the completed diploma for some advanced credit. A prior research project had already identified this as a need among TIM constituents (Janzen, Chapman, and Watson 2012). This program has been In operation for over seven years and over 200 people have gone through the training. Of relevance to this project is that many of the individuals taking these courses are recent immigrants or are working in churches that serve recent immigrants. More recently, TIM Centre has been approached by a community group to provide intercultural training for its staff and volunteers. Researching Research was not initially one of the foci of TIM Centre’s attention. However, in recent years it has played an integral role in collecting information that serves TIM Centre’s constituency and informs the actions of TIM Centre. In 2009, TIM Centre, in partnership with World Vision and several other Canadian organizations, conducted a research project looking at how the Canadian church was ______________________________________ 3 Ministry activities are anything an individual or organization does to further its goals. This may include evangelism, community development, social support, resource provision, and so on. [ Page ] 7 welcoming newcomers. That project developed a connection with Kitchener-Waterloo based CCBR. In cooperation with CCBR and their partners, TIM Centre participated in a Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SHRCC) funded project that explored the role of Canadian churches in the settlement and integration of immigrants into Canada. Out of that project a resource tool called "Finding Your Way" was developed and that was published just at the time when Syrian refugees were being accepted into Canada. That document became a resource for the Salvation Army, the Free Methodist, and other groups as they helped churches respond positively to immigrants. For the past seven years, TIM Centre has also run a research project that examines and responds to the needs of new Canadians who plant churches. This project has often drawn TIM Centre into conversations and connections about settlement issues. As just one example, when TIM Centre instigated a conversation between denominational leaders and new Canadian church planters, they discovered that their concerns about resources were quite different. Denominational leaders were concerned about assessments and programs while new Canadian Church planters were concerned about housing, jobs, and meeting spaces (Chapman and Watson 2017). As recent immigrants, New Canadian Church planters increased TIM Centre’s familiarity with the settlement sector. More recently TIM Centre has received a grant from the Bible League of Canada to offer intercultural training to new Canadian church planters. TIM Centre will research the process and the outcome to provide data on how to serve other new Canadians. This expertise in intercultural competency has led to service opportunities outside of traditional Christian ministry. Resourcing Training and research are closely related to resourcing, but in addition to these approaches TIM Centre operates a web portal that shares resources with the broader community (UReach Toronto). Some content includes: the changing demographics of the greater Toronto area (GTA), specific people groups in the GTA, resources for immigrants, research reports, how the church can be more effective in [ Page ] 8 ministry to people in the greater Toronto area, and many other resources. The website has been used by church planters, graduate students, immigrant service organizations, and more. TIM Centre often receives calls from organizations and individuals who have found the website and are looking for specific information about a particular immigrant group. TIM Centre also hosts information on the website to make immigrants aware of the resources available to them - including settlement services. Networking TIM Centre’s lifeblood is its networks. All TIM Centre staff spend time cultivating relationships with potential partners, organizations with common interests, and individuals that could be served by TIM Centre’s work. For example, one employee who works with new Canadian church planters has a specific mandate to network with “church planters, pastors, leaders of organizations and denominations . . . [to build] relationships and [help] them connect with other groups, whether they be other denominations or other churches.” This manifests in the organization of specific events to serve those church planters and feeds into TIM Centre decisions about how to allocate its time and energy. This networking often brings TIM Centre into contact with individuals who have settlement needs or work with those who have these needs. Summary TIM Centre is housed in a university college and seminary, but its location encourages it to have an entrepreneurial approach to its activities. It is primarily self-funding and relies on its networks and partners to make opportunities available. It has no full-time employees and even those individuals paid through TIM Centre are often seconded from other organizations. This is an explicit strategy for TIM Centre to be able to operate on a relatively small budget. One recent part-time employee explains, “it kind of develops as it goes along. The feeling that I get is that TIM Centre, it just adjusts as we go along, whatever comes onto our plates. So, we have like a ton of activities coming up because they just came [ Page ] 9 out, not because we initiated them at all.” It understands itself as a “learning organization” which explains why research has become such an important part of its operation. It was in this way that TIM Centre became involved in issues related to immigration. As it concentrated its work on the diaspora church, the issues it was dealing with increasingly related to issues of immigration. Initially, these were issues like cross-cultural communication and access to resources. Increasingly the people it serves are concerned with settlement issues, like the basics of setting up a Canadian household or the struggles of church leaders to work interculturally as newcomers join already established churches. Thus, all four of its main activities bring it into regular contact with the faith community/settlement sector relationship and are increasing its interest in more engagement with the settlement sector. Overall findings An overview of the history of TIM shows the overlap between its concerns and those of the settlement sector. This section reports on the findings of the case study using the vision, structure, and process template of the larger research project. It shows that TIM Centre indirectly addresses the faith community/settlement sector relationship in all these areas but that more intentionality could be beneficial in supporting immigrants. Vision: To what extent are faith/settlement partnerships viewed positively? TIM Centre is a connector. Partnerships play a key role in its identity and work. Furthermore, its constituents include a large number of recent immigrants. Thus, it is no surprise that it sees faith community / settlement sector partnerships as a good thing. The associate director explains, we're not front-line working with newcomers, we're not sitting in the community working with somebody who's a new family to a school or whatever it is or sitting in front of somebody who is looking primarily for an English class or whatever it is. But I do think that our role is about bringing the organizations together to work together more effectively. [ Page ] 10 The actions TIM Centre takes are focused on serving their constituents rather than sustaining the organization for the organization’s sake. TIM Centre’s lead researcher explains, We try and have research that benefits the participants and give something back to the participants. So, our research is never, we want to come to you and take something from you; our research is always we want to come and work with you to benefit you, and we will just record what happens in the process and give it back to you when we are done. Thus, the motivation behind TIM’s web portal, its diploma programs, and many of the other activities it is involved in is to meet the expressed needs of its partners and constituents. Furthermore, TIM’s motivation is related to the multicultural nature of its GTA context. Its vision to support “the church from all nations, bringing Christ to all nations” requires it to address issues of settlement because so many of the individuals TIM Centre works with are immigrants. However, its particular concerns differ from the settlement sector and from its partners. One interviewee notes that We have the same goals in terms of helping immigrants integrate into the community, but I would say our focus is more on immigrants that are involved in intercultural ministry and less on issues like housing and jobs and things like that. Whereas, many of our partners are actually focused on those sort of nitty-gritty issues of helping people find housing and helping them find jobs and helping them get their kids into the schools that are nearby and helping them get English language training and things like that. Nonetheless, interviewees report new immigrants coming to them with concerns about meeting primary settlement needs. Some of these are related to government funded settlement concerns (e.g., housing, jobs) but some of these settlement needs are specific to TIM Centre’s expertise (e.g., new church planters needing connections with denominations, new immigrants needing a place to meet for church). TIM Centre views faith community / settlement sector relationships positively but sees itself as a sort of second order facilitator of those relationships. That is, it does not directly connect faith [ Page ] 11 communities with the settlement sector, but helps faith communities connect with each other to share resources and knowledge about settlement sector connections and uses its seminars and web portal to disseminate information that will facilitate faith community / settlement sector relationships. It is in these specific areas that it aims to improve its abilities. TIM Center's vision in these partnerships is to act as a catalyst for these relationships. However, it has some uncertainty about how it is perceived by the settlement sector and puts effort into expressing its motivations in a way that can be understood widely without doing harm to its faith-based motivations (1) What are the perceived opportunities and pitfalls for partnership? Interviewees identified many different partnership opportunities, but they can be summarized as TIM Centre can serve as a catalyst for partnerships. Some examples included, helping the settlement sector find specific populations of new immigrants, bringing churches and other faith-based organizations with common interest in helping immigrants and having a relationship with the settlement sector together, and improving its public communication of how to navigate the faith / settlement relationship using UReach Toronto and TIM Centre events. Some of these actions would raise awareness and some would involve direct connections between organizations or individuals. Being present brings opportunities, “. . . all of a sudden something will materialize and then because we are at the table as a church, we have kind of earned our way to the table of conversation, now we can be an active part of it” (Assistant Director). TIM Centre brings expertise in relating to new Canadian faith communities that could potentially be of service to settlement sector organizations that are trying to address the needs of the ethnic communities in which these faith groups are already embedded. It is also in dialogue with new Canadians and can bring an awareness of specific needs to settlement work. Finally, it can support the work of settlement by addressing immigrants needs (e.g., the development of church communities) that are outside of the mandate of government funded settlement organizations. [ Page ] 12 TIM Centre is a mission-oriented centre embedded in a private Christian university. A pitfall to a common vision with the government funded settlement sector is the issue of having a specific faith commitment. By necessity, governments must not favour one faith commitment over another or over no faith commitment. Participants had not encountered any conflict between faith communities and the settlement sector, but they were aware that some of their core values could not be shared. Furthermore, they were uncertain what role faith was understood to play in the view of the settlement sector. This is of concern because TIM Centre believes that faith communities play a role in helping immigrants settle in Canada because of their faith, not just because of their social service role. There is something significant about the faith part, and it is unclear to me in relating to the settlement sector, whether or not churches or church leaders are just kind of expecting to be kind of quiet about it and talk you know kind of in the terminology that I've been using of social supports or whatever. When you know we actually do pray for people, and we actually do believe . . . God has things to offer, and you know awareness of the love of Jesus, guidance of the Holy Spirit, is significant. Beyond just congregations being social entities that help people. (2) What underlying motivations, values and aspirations inform these opinions? TIM Centre’s motivations are, in part, evangelistic. However, they are evangelistic in a broad- based way rather than in the specific sense of the actual event of an individual switching from faith or no-faith to the Christian faith. In fact, when asked about motivations related to settlement, interviewees primarily mentioned responding to the felt needs of its constituency. One participant explains it this way, “our goal isn't just to develop partnerships here, our goal is to provide resources for our growing immigrant constituency who needs to navigate the complexities of social services and whatnot.” That is, TIM Centre facilitates relationship between organizations that need services and those organizations that provide them through its networking, its provision of resource, and its research. Much of the conversation was about the larger service goals of TIM Centre where the settlement sector was only [ Page ] 13 part of a larger package of meeting felt needs, “my vision, if we had the funding, would be to get more denominations funding our applied research through UReach Toronto, and have those denominations use it to help their front-line people and these Diaspora peoples to find those resources in order to you know, better integrate and get the resources of the NGOs.” This quote both illustrates TIM Centre's concerns and highlights that many of the people it works with are already adherents to the Christian faith. It also highlights that it is its partners that are more likely to be engaged in specific conversion- oriented activities. (3) How and to what extent can differences in motivation/values/aspiration be navigated within policy and practice? TIM Centre does not work directly with the government-funded settlement sector and thus has not had to think through policy and practice related to that relationship. However, TIM Centre is well- aware that its motivations are not the same as the settlement sector but expects its service work can be a point of contact and cooperation (e.g., resources on UReach Toronto, intercultural competency training). TIM Centre is grappling with what relationships with non-faith-based organizations would look like. It sees how such relationships can serve its core interests and believes it can bring value to those organizations. However, it is uncertain how to navigate the relationship, particularly in a service environment where there is some evidence that groups are working together without grappling with the faith commitments of service providers (Bramadat 2014). Structure: What types of partnerships presently exist and how could they be improved? TIM Centre’s partnerships come and go according to need and opportunity. It has had partnerships with World Vision, CCBR, Canadian Baptists of Ontario and Quebec, the Salvation Army, and others for research related to questions of churches and immigration. It has also had conversations and short-term connections with organizations that directly address settlement issues, like individual churches and refugee support houses. It currently has a long-term relationship with a large Toronto [ Page ] 14 church that has specific connections with organizations like the local Mennonite centre, the YMCA, JVS Toronto (an employment centre), and the North Toronto Local Immigration Partnership. In addition, individual TIM Centre personnel have personal connections with the settlement sector (e.g., the churches they attend are sponsoring refugees, one individual works for the Salvation Army) and sometimes attend local events focused on immigration issues (including ones run by the government-funded settlement sector). TIM Centre’s role is to connect people and organizations to these existing partnerships, to bring people together who have similar settlement needs (e.g., new Canadian church planters), and to provide access to resources (e.g., the community profiles on UReach Toronto). Most of TIM Centre’s structural connections have been opportunistic or are ad hoc. Nonetheless, its extensive networking allows it to play a particular structural role. It can bring together other people and organizations so that they can develop structural connections to meet the needs of immigrants. This includes both those needs addressed by the government funded settlement sector and the faith and life skill concerns that are sometimes service gaps in meeting newcomer needs. (1) What benefits and challenges have emerged as a result of partnership activities? TIM Centre personnel do not easily distinguish between their various activities. Nor do they think of their partnerships in terms of government-funded settlement sector or non-government-funded settlement sector. They do not even distinguish between settlement sector and non-settlement sector partnerships. Rather, they think about meeting the needs of their constituents generally. They engage in issues related to the settlement sector as it meets identified and felt needs. Furthermore, TIM Centre understands churches as being a primary support centre for new immigrants. Some churches already have established systems to welcome, integrate, and support the needs of the people who walk through their doors. TIM supports those churches even as it tries to equip churches without that structural development. While most of those people would be Christians, and recent research indicates that most immigrants to Canada are Christians (Statistics Canada 2013), there are also churches that sponsor [ Page ] 15 refugees from non-Christian religions. As mentioned earlier, it is TIM Centre’s partners who have the direct relationships, however, TIM Centre still provides and receives benefits from these relationships. On the providing side, its wide network can help to connect immigrants to a variety of diverse ethnic support systems (e.g., Korean churches that speak Russian, Coptic orthodox churches that provide support services, food banks, ESL programs). On the receiving side, TIM Centre’s regular contact with immigrants leads to knowledge of a wide variety of support needs. Awareness of settlement services helps TIM Centre to direct people to services (e.g., gaining permanent residence status, helping family members immigrate). The challenge of shared vision between faith-based and non-faith-based organizations is also an issue for structural cooperation. However, participants mentioned many other partnership challenges including consistency (e.g., turnover in staff), the transience of immigrants that makes it hard to know which organizations should be involved, access to resources (e.g., both groups have limited resources that do not encompass the breadth of the need), the size and complexity of Toronto, competition between organizations for resources, and the challenge of developing relationships of mutual trust. (2) What types of partnership activities seem particularly promising? Why? The partnership activities that TIM Centre finds most promising are related to its core objectives (i.e., training, researching, resourcing, networking) because they feed into its vision of equipping people for intercultural ministry. One example is the development of forums where organizations and individuals can partner on specific settlement needs. Observation of TIM Centre’s participation in a Local Immigration Partnership (LIP) run meeting on the faith and the settlement sector highlighted the need for partnerships and the importance of not duplicating efforts in meeting the needs of immigrants and newcomers. TIM Centre could facilitate some of these networks and relationships in multiple ways. Collaborating with partners is one way that can be done - through connecting people with each other [ Page ] 16 and hosting seminars or focus groups that can facilitate further face-to-face discussion to know what is being done. These seminars could lead to further networking and building of partnerships. Collaboration could also be achieved through hosting information from each partner or linking their websites in a central location such as the UReachToronto.com website. Similarly, one TIM Centre partner explains: My idea would be to create an association of churches and Christian-based organizations that are serving refugees and newcomers. Coming together to have a platform for learning and sharing models, challenges, and opportunities for growth. So, I do believe that should be the progression, it is interdenominational, nondenominational at the same time, it goes beyond denominational boundaries. And coming together to have a common platform, a forum, a discussion and sharing of resources and opportunities. Interviewees also mentioned several specific areas where the development of partnerships could be fruitful including employment, practical settlement needs, and even healthcare. (3) What service gaps could faith/settlement partnerships be most effective in addressing? Closely related to promising partnership activities is the service gaps that partnerships might meet. The most commonly mentioned gap was employment services. Mention was made of immigrants that just want any job, immigrants with university degrees whose qualifications are not accepted in Canada, and immigrants who don't know how to access settlement services. However, there was also mention of the gaps in settlement services that faith-based organizations are best placed to fill, what churches in the GTA are doing, are filling in gaps or things that... So, a lot of it is awareness of what the government-funded settlement sector is doing and filling in places where it doesn't work. So, for example, that's really hard for the government-funded sector to do because it's an institution right, its formal processes and procedures. Meeting needs like friendship and community development are more challenging for resource limited settlement organizations. Even addressing issues that, while they may not be specifically settlement [ Page ] 17 needs (e.g., how to navigate Canadian cell phone plans), or would not be appropriate for government- funded agencies (e.g., Bible studies), can improve immigrant quality of life. A potential role for TIM Centre in this faith-based organization / government relationships is as a space for building relational trust. One participant explains I really do feel like getting churches, getting new immigrants and getting settlement agencies to trust each other is huge, and how do we do that by providing spaces of relationship, you know. So, I do think that's one place that the TIM Centre is really providing that no one else really is. I mean I don't think we would put that on the website, like "we're building trust!" but essentially, we are, by making newcomer services a safe conversation in the church, and then making the church become a safe conversation for newcomer services and settlement agencies to say hey they are not just here to pound you with the Bible and make you read the Bible kind of thing. The church is genuinely [wanting] to help newcomers settle and find a home. Yeah so, yeah if I boil it down I would say honestly yes, it's trust which again is not super tangible, but yeah, we are not a settlement agency, we don't do housing, we don't do job and employment career counselling, but we have connections with all of those and we have connections with doing research and getting the word out to churches about this information. Process: How can effective partnerships be better facilitated? The process of partnership is both where TIM Centre excels and where it could use the most work. One TIM Centre volunteer commented that currently its processes are Pretty haphazard, we don't do anything intentionally, it just happens because people are in the same room together. So, some intentionality I think could strengthen it. The UReach Toronto website could be organized, like right now if you want to find out settlement information on the UReach Toronto website you really can't find it. I mean there's bits and pieces all over the place, but we could probably have a section that would be helpful for that. [ Page ] 18 TIM Centre’s processes are largely related to its primary functions. That is, it is intentional about teaching, resourcing, researching, and networking. It is this last intentionality, networking, that is key to its process role. Its existing emphasis on connecting people together could be strengthened by the development of specific types of networks that could then be supported through its other services. (1) What roles could faith and settlement leaders each play in partnership building? TIM Centre has a director and an associate director, and they play a role in setting priorities and choosing foci. However, a lot of TIM Centre activity results from listening to its constituency and taking advantage of opportunities as they present themselves. Nonetheless, there are several areas where leadership could contribute to improved partnership. One area would be improved awareness of what each other are doing. One participant asks, I wonder if there is some way to have . . . talks with key people in the settlement sector to find out what options are available from their perspectives as well. . . we are in the process of imagining how we can make a contribution or we could possibly do with partnerships with settlement sector. I wonder if there is a way in which we could access key folks within the settlement sector to find out what their perspectives [are]. A participant who has worked directly with the settlement sector gives an example of where this would be helpful, There are programs, however, that the government is providing, and that non-profits are providing, but most churches don't know anything about this. For example, in terms of hiring, the moment you hire a newcomer there are actually government grants to provide you with resources so that you can pay them. So, there are a lot of government resources that we could access through non-profits. A second area of potential leadership is in intercultural competency training. TIM Centre is at the intersection of many different cultures and ethnicities. Both its directors did their doctorates on an [ Page ] 19 area of intercultural competence (Cousins 2014; Tang 2014). Increasingly this is a service that TIM Centre is providing beyond its regular constituency and outside of faith-based contexts. A third area where leaders could contribute is in bridging between different groups. For example, leaders could explain to faith groups How to initiate relationship with the settlement sector. My sense from the research is that most faith leaders, particularly Christian church leadership that we had contact with, either had someone in the congregation who had a professional role within the settlement sector and so was able to bridge with the settlement sector and the particular faith group. Or they sort of stumbled along and figured out on their own based on the need [they] are perceiving in the community or needs that were presented to them by members of their congregation. And so, it might be nice to be able to offer something proactive around how do you initiate relationship with the settlement sector, how do you have good communication, who do you talk to, take those first steps of being able to work with the settlement sector. And I can see that as being a piece of either training or communication that the TIM Centre could be well situated to be able to provide. Such forums need not be one-way - other participants speculated about the mutual learning that results from the interaction between faith groups and the settlement sector. (2) How could collaborative program planning and policy development be encouraged? TIM Centre’s entrepreneurial nature has sometimes led to a lack of planning and it has resulted in very little written policy. Its policy is largely driven by its mission and by the policies of its partners. However, it does have a set of shared values that serve as guidelines for action and could contribute to the facilitation of collaborative planning and policy between faith communities and the settlement sector. These shared values include: mutual benefit from shared action, providing resources if they are available, a bias towards connecting people to resources so they can meet their own needs, and [ Page ] 20 conducting research with participants who will benefit from the research. These values are not policy, but they provide an atmosphere for diverse organizations to develop shared plans and policy. (3) What training and professional development activities could be developed or shared? TIM Centre excels in training. At its inception, it was involved in preparing people to engage in intercultural ministry. It has conducted regular seminars and provided many short-term training events. More recently, it has run a well-received diploma program primarily for recent immigrants. Furthermore, its networking has frequently connected people needing training with people offering training and its research has had both data collection and educational goals. While issues related to immigrant settlement have been frequent themes in teaching and research, as of yet, none of those activities have paid much specific attention to the government-funded side of settlement - except as it came up in conversation. Yet, it has developed a specific expertise in intercultural training and connects with immigrant services that are harder for the government funded settlement sector to provide (e.g., theological training, access to church-based activities and support). Thus, there appears to be opportunity for TIM Centre to contribute its expertise in aid of immigrant settlement even as the government-funded settlement sector contributes to teaching about the practical business of settlement. Furthermore, while it is not formal training, networking of churches providing settlement services, the settlement sector, and immigrants themselves has potential to serve the objectives of all three groups. (4) How could partnerships that support immigrants of faith be best evaluated? Without more experience with partnerships, it is hard for a study of TIM Centre to speak into evaluating those partnerships. However, its core service value would suggest that those partnerships should be judged on the basis of how they improve the meeting of immigrant settlement needs. Immigrants don't need more administrative work. What they need is for different service providers to talk to each other to see where the gaps and the overlaps are in service provision and then to work together to fill the gaps. [ Page ] 21 Discussion Issues of immigrant settlement are often discussed at TIM Centre events. They come into conversations at its seminars, during its teaching, and when it does research. However, it has not specifically focused on the relationship between the faith communities it serves and the government- funded settlement sector. Ideally, TIM Centre will facilitate the conversation and action will come in partnership between these two groups directly. That experience can feed into how TIM Centre relates to and supports other parts of its network and will guide its choice of seminars and resources to develop. For example, a first step is intentional action to bring together these different communities and to provide resources for both groups on UReach Toronto. Having explored what that does and could look like following the organizing theory that structured this research project (vision, structure, process), the remainder of this section briefly explores the same material using five themes that arose inductively from the research data: finances, faith commitments, immigrant support, intercultural awareness, and networks. Exploration of these themes serves to further thematically develop a picture of TIM Centre’s role in faith community/settlement sector partnerships explored in the previous section. Finances Funding was a constant theme in all topics of discussion. It was clear that stable funding was a constraint on both meeting settlement needs and on the ability of faith communities and settlement sector organization’s ability to partner. TIM Centre survives by cobbling together funding from half-a- dozen different sources. Some of that funding is temporary or limited. This constraint keeps TIM Centre from having the consistency and personnel it would like to serve its constituency, affects the courses it can offer, the research it conducts, and the maintenance of its UReach Toronto website. However, funding also was a discussion when faith groups discussed their ability to provide settlement services and what kind of settlement services the government funded settlement sector provides. These funding [ Page ] 22 challenges increased the interest in partnerships because the assumption was that immigrants would be better served by organizations cooperating than by having them operate independently. Indeed, a large church who is a TIM Centre partner has put time and money into its relationship with the settlement sector. The result has been a more encompassing settlement service that draws on the community support of the church and the access to government services offered by a settlement worker. This same church has regular conversations with its local LIP to understand the picture of immigrant needs in Toronto. Faith Commitments The role of specific faith commitments inherent in the actions of faith communities has already been discussed above. Faith communities are uncertain what their convictions mean for their relationships with the government-funded settlement sector. Their faith commitments are both their motivation for involvement in settlement issues and a potential impediment to working with government-funded organisations. However, some faith communities have figured out how to set boundaries on their activities such that government organizations are comfortable cooperating with them. TIM Centre could play a role in helping those faith communities who have figured this out explain what works to those faith communities that have not yet figured it out. It could also provide guidance for understanding the limits of government-funded settlement organizations in engaging faith communities. Yet, there does seem to be a general uneasiness within our interviewees about the relationship. They are providing legitimate services to immigrants but wonder if their faith commitments will someday disqualify them from participation in an increasingly secular Canadian society. For the moment, it appears that everyone can agree that if immigrants are helped then good is being done, but it is not clear how much attention any of these organizations want to draw to the relationship. [ Page ] 23 Immigrant Support Despite concerns over finances and uncertainty over faith commitments, there is general agreement about the need to further support immigrant settlement needs. Interviewees mentioned several settlement needs: instructions on how to use the internet, resources in mother tongues, ESL, refugee sponsors, employment services, meal programs, fitness programs, opportunity to celebrate familiar festivals, and schooling. Some of those services are primarily the domain of the government- funded settlement sector but many of them are beyond the resources of that sector. In particular, support for faith-specific cultural accommodation or integration into faith communities. They also mention settlement needs specific to faith communities such as meeting spaces for churches and access to ethnic or language specific churches. It was clear to TIM Centre participants that immigrants could best be served with partnerships between faith communities and the settlement sector rather than expecting new immigrants to navigate a complicated settlement and immigration system and Canadian culture on their own. Furthermore, faith community / settlement sector partnerships can help immigrants navigate the religion / society relationship in Canada that has some features that set it apart from other societies where they either have no relationship, or the relationship is completely intertwined (to choose the two extremes). Intercultural Awareness TIM Centre’s work has always been at the nexus of different cultures. From its inception, it was trying to help its constituents understand each other and the people they aimed to serve. Over time that constituency has internationalized and TIM Centre’s expertise in intercultural competency, research, and training has expanded. It is this with expertise that TIM Centre may have opportunities to partner directly with the settlement sector or other government-funding social services. TIM Centre is seeing increased demand for its courses and training in this area. While TIM Centre can contribute to intercultural understanding it also has the potential to help faith communities and government-funded [ Page ] 24 settlement organizations understand each other. Several TIM Centre personnel expressed the hope that they could become a bridge between these two groups so that they can partner together effectively. Networks The bridging role is closely related to the networking role. TIM Centre as networker was a theme for everyone who worked directly for TIM Centre. They understand it as a strength and a structural mandate. It is a way to get a lot done with very few resources. As TIM Centre’s networks cross multiple boundaries, they bring people together that otherwise would not know each other or cooperate together. However, TIM Centre also understands the need to mediate some of those relationships. Some of its connections don't work well together and thus are not always in the same room together. Some of the relationships need to be guided, but others are facilitated by TIM Centre reducing its involvement. While TIM Centre personnel and its partners were uncertain if TIM Centre should play a role in networking faith communities and the settlement sector directly, it was agreed that it should play a role in bringing faith communities together to talk about their relationships with the settlement sector. Furthermore, TIM Centre is having more opportunities to connect directly with the settlement sector and is watching those opportunities to see how mutually beneficial relationships might arise (see intercultural awareness above). Summary In sum, TIM Centre has found partnerships a fruitful approach to providing services to its intercultural constituency and expects that its strategy of partnership development will continue to expand. There is potential to play a greater role encouraging and supporting faith community / settlement sector partnerships, but currently TIM Centre is limited by its finances and its available personnel. It is working on addressing both of those limitations with the hoped-for result that more immigrants will be served well. [ Page ] 25 Conclusions To conclude this report, we return to questions shared in the introduction about availability of resources and compromises necessary to attain those resources, relationships with the settlement sector, and the facilitation of partnerships. TIM Centre’s resources include strengths in knowledge of immigrant needs, intercultural competence, and awareness of network connections. Those resources contend with constraints related to finances and uncertainty about the role of faith in the conversation that leads to the necessity to be selective about resources provided and partnerships developed. TIM’s relationship with the settlement sector is indirect. While it attends conferences also attended by individuals in the settlement sector, its connections are largely about resourcing its constituency because its settlement work is in the area of teaching and training rather than meeting the physical needs of immigrants. TIM Centre’s emphasis on networking gives it a natural vision for faith community/government funded settlement sector partnerships. Its entrepreneurial structure can facilitate that but at the same time provides only a weak foundation for the development of these partnerships. Yet, its values provide an opportunity for the development of policies that will more specifically address the development and maintenance of these partnerships. Moving forward, positive settlement outcomes for newcomers and Canadian society can be fostered by TIM Centre’s continued attentiveness to its constituents’ needs, and by more intentionality in its teaching, resourcing, and networking. It is well-placed to play a larger role in faith community/government funded settlement sector relationships if it can overcome its resource constraints. Reference List [ Page ] 26 Bramadat, P. 2014. “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell: Refugee Settlement and Religion in British Columbia.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 82 (4): 907-37. Chapman, Mark D., and James W. Watson. 2017. “Common Actions: Participatory Action Research as a Practice for Promoting Positive Social Action Among and Between New Canadian Church Planters and Denominational Leaders.” Ecclesial Practices 4 (1): 63-86. Coghlan, David., and Teresa. Brannick. 2009. Doing Action Research in Your Own Organization. London: SAGE. Cousins, Robert. 2014. “Developing Competencies for the Intercultural Journey: Designing, Facilitating, and Evaluating a Program to Develop Intercultural Competencies for Culturally Diverse Missional Leaders in a Multicultural Urban Context.” Doctor of Ministry diss., Tyndale University College & Seminary. Janzen, Rich, Mark D. Chapman, and James W. Watson. 2012. “Integrating Immigrants Into the Life of Canadian Urban Christian Congregations: Findings From a National Survey.” Review of Religious Research 53 (4): 441-70. Janzen, Rich, Margaret Walton-Roberts, and Joanne Ochocka. 2012. “Waterloo Region.” In Immigration, Integration and Inclusion in Ontario Cities, edited by Caroline. Andrew, John Biles, Meyer Burstein, Victoria M Esses, and Erin Tolley, 131-57. Montreal PQ and Kingston ON: McGill-Queen’s University Press. Janzen, Rich, and David Wiebe. 2011. “Putting God in the Logic Model.” Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation 25 (1): 1-26. Saldana, Johnny. 2015. The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers. Los Angeles: Sage. Statistics Canada. 2013. “Immigration and Ethnocultural Diversity in Canada: National Household Survey 2011.” Tang, Timothy L.H. 2014. “Developing Intercultural Leadership in the Aggregate Chinese Church: A Didactic Model.” diss., Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Centre, TIM. 2013. “What We Do.” Watson, James, Rich Janzen, Mark D Chapman, Yasir Dilder, and Janet Clark. 2011. “Churches Responding to the Immigrant Reality in Canada.” CUExpo [ Page ] 27 ***** This is the end of the e-text. This e-text was brought to you by Tyndale University, J. William Horsey Library - Tyndale Digital Collections *****