Follow us

Saint John Local Immigration Partnership

The Saint John Local Immigration Partnership (SJLIP) is a collaborative community initiative designed to improve newcomer settlement and integration outcomes, and to strengthen Saint John’s ability to better address the needs of newcomers. Launched in May 2017, the partnership brings together stakeholders from Saint John to develop a coordinated settlement, integration, and retention strategy.

Saint John Local Immigration Partnership is one of 77 Local Immigration Partnerships sponsored by Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). This federal initiative addresses the growing need for systematic community planning around immigration settlement, integration, and retention.

Underpinning the LIP is an understanding that:

  1. Immigrants play an important role in the Canadian economy and society.
  2. In the coming decade, some industries and regions will depend on immigration to fulfill their labour and skills needs.
  3. Municipalities and community groups are best positioned to improve settlement and integration outcomes for newcomers.
  4. The provision of basic settlement services is not sufficient to ensure success – consideration of newcomer needs must be incorporated into all aspects of community planning.

Purpose of Saint John Local Immigration Partnership

We can help improve and facilitate successful newcomer outcomes by creating and enhancing partnerships in a comprehensive, local immigration partnership and implementing collaborative strategies; this may be achieved through:

Coordination and information sharing, which includes:

  • Promoting and building partnerships;
  • Planning and strategically setting priorities;
  • Providing advice and direction on key initiatives;
  • Seeking input from various groups/sectors and newcomers;
  • Sharing between groups;
  • Communicating to the broader community; and
  • Speaking with a unified community voice

Problem solving and implementing strategies for change, which includes:

  • Problem solving about local newcomer issues;
  • Being a catalyst for collective and coordinated action;
  • Working for policy change;
  • Seeking out resources; and
  • Public education

Mission of Saint John Local Immigration Partnership

As a newcomer-focused and collaborative community, grass-roots initiative, the mission of the SJLIP is to improve newcomer attraction, settlement, integration, and retention in the City of Saint John.

Our Operating Values and Guiding Principles:

The SJLIP Council will:

  • Commit to a shared vision of an increasingly welcoming and inclusive city;
  • Operate with transparency, objectivity, and pragmatism;
  • Remain accountable to each other, to the SJLIP funder(s), to respective organizations and their mandates, and to the communities and individuals at the core of the SJLIP’s vision;
  • Maintain a supportive environment for partnerships and collaboration, by respecting each other’s diversity and autonomy, and maintain an environment of open communication, trust, reciprocity, and shared responsibility;
  • Encourage and support innovation and creative strategies which will enhance the delivery of services to new Immigrants;
  • Actions will be purpose driven and goal-oriented
  • Decisions will be based on best-practices and the best available evidence
  • Foster a collaborative process to achieve the best coordinated outcomes possible; and
  • Be a champion of SJLIP within your organization/association and in the community.
4998