2022-2023 Annual report

I am pleased to present the Sault Community Career Centre’s 2022/23 Annual Report. As the Executive Director, it is with great pleasure that I reflect on our remarkable journey over the past year and share some of our significant achievements.

First and foremost, I want to express my gratitude to the staff and volunteers who allow our organization to impact people’s lives each day. Your dedication, commitment to excellence, and trust have been instrumental to our continued success. Our achievements would not have been possible without your commitment to our mission. We truly appreciate your partnership and look forward to continuing our collaborative efforts.

Over the past year, we achieved significant milestones and made substantial progress in our mission to improve people’s lives by helping them become and stay employed and to help employers find lasting solutions to their staffing needs. The following are remarkable achievements:

Our Resettlement Assistance Program served 152 Government-Assisted Refugees. This is the largest number of GARs served in one fiscal year in the organization’s history. Most of the 152 clients arrived in the year’s final six months, making this accomplishment even more impressive.

Our Employment-focused programs provided direct services and specialized programming to approximately 1,200 unique job seekers. These clients are distributed over five unique programs: our Employment Ontario program, Newcomer Settlement Labour Market Orientation, Transition to Independence Program, Build This City Construction Training Program, and the Apprenticeship Support Program.

We supported over 800 newcomers with the resources and guidance needed to settle in Sault Ste. Marie. We did this through personalized needs assessments, referrals to various community agencies, information sessions and events designed to help newcomers build connections with the local community, and Language Instruction to Newcomers to Canada to help them learn the English communication skills needed to live and work in Canada.

We supported employers to upskill over 200 employees through the various programs we offered. Many of these opportunities were provided in the skilled trades and construction sectors.

As employers continue to grapple with labour and skilled trades shortages, we successfully enabled and supported the applications of 31 new apprenticeship registrations in the local skilled trades. While we recognize there is still lots of work to be done in supporting apprentices, this number of registrations is a new record for the organization.

These achievements have not only strengthened our organization but have also had a significant impact on our community. We remain committed to our mission and vision for the future as we move forward. We are excited about the opportunities that lie ahead and are dedicated to addressing the evolving needs of our clients and community.

In the coming year, you can expect a continued emphasis on delivering client-centred programming focused on creating a thriving community where every person has reached their full potential through meaningful work, an expansion of our Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada program to include part-time evening classes which will allow clients who are employed or otherwise unable to study full-time to develop the language skills necessary to live and work in Canada, and a commitment to continuously improving our organization’s systems and programming to meet the needs of our clients while ensuring responsible use of government funds.

I want to extend my gratitude once more for the continued support of our staff and volunteers. We are excited about the journey ahead and are confident we will achieve even greater success in the future. Please do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions, feedback, or would like to discuss this report in more detail. Thank you for being a part of our journey. We look forward to another year of collaboration and success.

Adam Pinder
Executive Director