CCIS was proud to serve as the Gold Member Sponsor for the 2025 AAISA Settlement and Integration Conference, held October 28-30, 2025, in Edmonton. With the theme “Navigating Change: Immigration Policy, Perceptions, and the Road Ahead,” this biannual gathering brought together settlement practitioners, policy leaders, and advocates from across Alberta and beyond to address the critical challenges facing our sector.
Leading Critical Conversations
CCIS’s participation extended far beyond sponsorship. Our team led five impactful presentations that addressed some of the most pressing issues affecting newcomers and the professionals who serve them.
​In Beyond the Numbers: Humanizing the Impact of Immigration Policies on Migrant Workers, our Jessica Juen and Alejandra Gil from CCIS’s Community Support Services program for temporary foreign workers joined colleagues from across Alberta to explore how shifting immigration policies affect migrant workers—from exploitation and legal precarity to social stigma. This panel amplified migrant voices while offering practical recommendations for more compassionate, inclusive immigration practices.
​Our Medicine Hat team—Sadiki Bamperineza and Harry Dominguez Barbosa, joined by our Sherrisa Celis—presented Community Allyship: Addressing Anti-Immigration Sentiment, sharing our multi-pronged approach to countering racism and anti-immigrant attitudes. Their presentation highlighted partnerships with local law enforcement to document hate-motivated incidents, the integration of security services into our Thrive Together welcoming campaign, and grassroots advocacy that addresses anti-immigration sentiment at the neighbourhood level.
​Marren Pluchinski from our Health and Wellness program delivered Navigating the Complex World of Disabilities: Mental, Physical, Cognitive, an interactive session exploring the complex challenges faced by Government Assisted Refugees within the Canadian context. They provided a step-by-step process for working with clients with disabilities while addressing the challenges of navigating government systems and technology.
In Building Equitable Newcomer Crisis Help and A Tapestry of Care, our Aqsa Iqbal joined partners from The Immigrant Education Society and Centre for Newcomers to share insights from the BENCH and TAPESTRY projects—collaborative initiatives creating effective crisis response for newcomers in Calgary and engaging with ethnocultural communities within a dynamic process of shared learning for mental health. The presentations highlighted these models of service, learnings from the pilot phase and emerging best practices based on research and evaluation.
​Our Ricardo Morales facilitated a timely roundtable discussion titled DEI or ACB: What Lies Beneath These Acronyms? A Transformation of Principles—or Their Evolution? This interactive session created space for practitioners to name challenges they face and collectively strategize responses that center equity, foster genuine belonging, and sustain advocacy work against the backdrop of anti-immigration pushback.
Why This Conference Matters
The 2025 AAISA Conference addressed issues that sit at the heart of our work at CCIS. As Canada navigates shifting immigration policies, increased border enforcement, and changing public perceptions, settlement organizations must adapt while maintaining our core commitment to serving newcomers with dignity and compassion.
​Conference sessions explored rural settlement innovations, digital transformation, anti-racism practice, organizational wellness, Indigenous reconciliation, and support for vulnerable newcomers including youth, seniors, and those with disabilities. Plenary speakers including Amira Elghawaby, Canada’s Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia, and Debbie Douglas, Executive Director of OCASI and Member of the Order of Canada, provided powerful insights on shaping narratives, engaging reconciliation, and advancing inclusive practices.
​For CCIS, this conference reinforced that our work cannot be done in isolation. The collaborative approaches shared—whether addressing gender-based violence, supporting temporary foreign workers, or integrating newcomers in rural communities—demonstrate the power of partnership and shared learning.
Moving Forward Together
As we face an increasingly complex landscape of immigration policy and public perception, gatherings like the AAISA Conference remind us of our sector’s collective strength, creativity, and unwavering commitment to the newcomers we serve. CCIS is honoured to have contributed to these vital conversations and grateful to AAISA for creating space where practitioners can share knowledge, build relationships, and reaffirm our shared values.
​Together, we continue to navigate change—not with fear, but with the courage, collaboration, and compassion that have always defined this work.
