On November 6-9, 2008, the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC) will hold a Canada-wide research conference on Filipinos and the Filipino community at the University of Toronto, Toronto Ontario. It will showcase the accomplishments of its three-year project in partnership with Canadian Heritage and Multiculturalism called “Filipino Community and Beyond: Towards Full Participation in a Multicultural and Multi-ethnic Canada”. It will also be an opportunity to share community-based research papers using mainly participatory-action based models some of which had been presented at international conferences.

Cecilia Diocson, executive director of NAPWC stated that “this conference will bring forward the most important issues confronting Filipinos and their community and how they address them in the course of their settlement and integration in Canada.” The project which started in January 2006 focuses on four major areas of concerns: enhancing Filipino women’s equality and human rights; making the Filipino youth count in the community’s future; combating systemic racism; and overcoming economic marginalization.

The conference will prominently figure the project’s enduring impact on community development; skills and capacity building; community-based research and collaboration with the academe and other research bodies; and public policy engagement. At this conference, NAPWC will underscore over two years work of educating, mobilizing and organizing around these four areas of concerns.

The conference will report on the major activities of the project starting with its formal launching in a 2 ½-day conference in May 2006 that brought in delegates from various parts of Canada and invited guests from outside the Filipino community. It will highlight some of NAPWC’s major accomplishments in the last two and a half years:

* National and echo-consultations on “Making the Filipino Community Count” hosted by local community groups in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.
* Community-based researches and studies on youth, racism, violence against women, settlement and integration; economic marginalization and social exclusion; and immigration.
* Community’s collaborative research with academics and other research agencies on various subjects related to community participation, settlement and integration.
* Public policy engagements with various government bodies at federal, provincial and municipal levels.
* Formation of various community groups to enhance social participation and assist in settlement and integration of Filipinos in a multicultural society.
* Community economic development initiatives that enhances the success and sustainability of volunteer community-based member organizations of NAPWC.
* Skills and capacity-building programs that helped develop community leaders and resulted in employment and gainful opportunities for some members of the community.
* Networking and broadening links with other communities, groups and individuals outside the Filipino community.

The conference will have speakers and resource persons who had been involved in the project’s various programs and research. These are mainly community leaders, community-based researchers, academics and scholars. The workshops will explore in-depth concerns on women and youth, economic marginalization and systemic racism – issues drawn largely from the community and its members’ lived experience and daily reality. The conference will also include a cultural component which is an important tool for community development and social participation.

Besides showcasing the project’s accomplishment, the conference is also an effort to generate continuing research collaboration among academics, other research bodies and community-based researchers. This collaboration will be based on the participatory action model which requires direct involvement of members of the community and further develops tools for social analysis, community-based research and community action.

It will encourage production of publications that can be useful for dissemination as part of NAPWC’s broad work of educating and informing the larger public about the Filipino community and its efforts at settlement and integration. It will help construct an analysis of Filipino migration into Canada that incorporates gender as integral in its framework and it will initiate the building of a structure that will facilitate this continuing research collaboration between academics and community-based researchers.

“Ultimately, this conference is a result of the continuing assertion of Filipinos and their community to enhance full participation and integration in Canadian society by making efforts at overcoming economic marginalization and combating systemic racism” confirms Diocson.

Registration for this 3 ½ day conference is now open. Registration fee is $150.00. For students, community organizations and activists the fee is $75.00. It will cover meals during the conference and the conference materials.

Cecilia Diocson
Executive Director
National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada

For more information or to register, contact:

Joy C. Sioson,
pwcontario@yahoo.ca
416-519-2553

Cecilia Diocson
pwcofquebec@gmail.com
514-678-3901