Throughout August 2020, AHC's Settlement Team facilitated weekly in-person workshops to help clients learn about Alberta Works online reporting tool, teaching them how to report their monthly incomes, where to report, how to manages any changes in their information and more! In addition, the program held a workshop in the last week on August to help inform newcomer families about back-to-school during the COVID-19 pandemic, how the changes will impact their children's learning, what their options for learning are, and how to continue being able to support their children's learning during this time.

Staff and clients adhered to strict COVID-19 protocols, including social distancing and masks while in the building.

Images from these workshops are below.

On September 19, 2020, from 1 pm to 5 pm, AHC's Business Supports and IMPACT programs hosted an in-person market to celebrate local vendors from Edmonton. The event was attended by more than 300 people including 35 small business vendors, media, the AHC team, volunteers, and Edmonton Center Member of Parliament, James Cumming. Guests were able to take a mini "world tour" and shop from a variety of local goods including arts and crafts, cultural clothing, beauty products, jewelry, cuisine, pet accessories, community services and much more!

Guest speakers for the afternoon included AHC's Executive Director, Aftab Khan, MP for Edmonton Centre, James Cumming and Settlement & Integration Manager, Suzana Dumo, and included a ribbon-cutting ceremony to formally introduce the I.M.P.A.C.T project.

Local dance group, Folklorical Ballet Mexico, gave a colourful and entertaining Mexican ballet performance for guests. Diversity Magazine was present to cover the event.

Overall, the event was well-attended and a great display of the diverse array of new and existing local businesses. A special thanks to all the vendors, special guests, participants, performers and volunteers who helped make this event a great success!

Images from the event can be found below!

List of vendors who participated in this event:

Arts and Crafts:

            Yazmin Escobar, Solekankolor

            Tania Brito, Mexican Soul Crafts and Gifts

            Natalia Capacho, Morena Mia

            Jamelle Davis, JD Art

            Jonas Cameron, Urban Expression Customs

            Maria Rodrigues, The Creative Artisan

Beauty:

            Ashe Adekunle, House of Ashe

            Teddine Stanford, Vagikini Magic

Community:

            Vanessa Benavides, Vane Image Studio

            Amparo Gonzalez, Edmonton Hispanic Women’s Support Group

            Jiken Madhu, Rollout Technologies

            Cailenys Salazar, DryPod

Fashion:

          Maria Teresa Jimenez, El Closet De Tere

          Farhan Ali, Dusandi and Sons Trading

          Alèthe Kaboré , KYN Apparel

          Valentine Maposa, Perfect Pair Swimwear

          Nicola, Klassickoutique Fashion

          Jenny Serrato Ardila, Pawies Boutique 

Natalia Capacho, Morena Mía

Sara Awatta, Oonsie Boutique

Food:

            Dosi-rock, Korean Street Food

            Martha Vasquez, Tico Cheese

            Aimee Mpilidi, Wenze Market and Grill

            Maria Ramirez, Maguita Antojitos Colombianos

            Dongo Kouakou, Dongo Corporation

Yuchang Li, Byothers, Inc.

Doci* Rock, Korean Food

Sheeba Indian Street Food

Jewellery:

            Yamileth Gonzalez, Mexican Crafts

            Shiva Prajapati, Himalayan Jewelry and Handicrafts

            Joelle Kacou, Jean Wenceslas Jewels

            Sara Awatta, Onsie Boutique

            Donna Robillard

Like many other businesses within the food industry, Paraiso Tropical Latin Food Market is not immune to food waste.

“Food waste has always been a big problem in our store, because there’s a lot of confusion about what is actually consumable and what isn’t,” shares owner Jesus Gonzalez Rivas Jr.

“You have the expiry dates, the best before dates…a lot of the food that can still be consumed customers don’t wanna purchase ‘cause they think that they can’t eat it.

“So a lot of the time, we have been forced to just take those foods off the shelves when they’re completely edible."

In the last two years, Gonzalez Rivas Jr. has tried to approach a couple of organizations in an effort to help Paraiso Tropical reduce its food waste, but due to logistical issues, a solution couldn’t quite be reached.

“A lot of customers always told us, ‘You know, you guys should donate your food,’” says Gonzalez Rivas Jr. “But at the time, it was hard to organizations that could take our food.” READ FULL ARTICLE>>>

On Sunday, September 15th AHC's youth Art Club participated in the Art Family Festival where they participated in paper and card-making workshops and had fun watching a variety of performances.  View images from the event below!

On Wednesday, November 6th, senior participants from the Learning English For Daily Life (LED) program at Mill woods seniors association participated in an injury prevention workshop facilitated by Billy Smale from Alberta Health Services. Billy demonstrated safe exercise and lifting practices, safety tips for winter weather and more! Participants enjoyed some light refreshments and fun while engaging in light exercise and stretches.

View images from the event below.

On October 25, 2019, AHC hosted a youth Club parents' night which took place on Oct 25th. Parents and AHC staff shared a lot of information about AHC programs, the benefits of youth participation in various AHC afterschool programs, as well as the importance of parents' role in youth encouragement and motivation.

On October 19, 2019, AHC held a “Mental Health Fair”. At the same time, we did our third leadership training workshop on “Mental Health Matters in the Future”. The purpose of the “Mental Health Fair” was to create an opportunity for community members to raise awareness of mental health and healthcare resources and destigmatize mental illness. Most importantly, the event provided training for community leaders to take a leadership role in finding innovative community-based solutions to mental health needs for their communities.

The event was sponsored by Community Standards & Neighbourhoods, City of Edmonton. We invited four knowledgeable and experienced experts in the field as our guest speakers to provide the training. Our speakers include Vanessa Iceton, a registered psychologist from Edmonton Oliver Primary Care Network. She did a presentation on “Introduction to Mental Health”. Mark Frederick, Mental Health Therapist from the Family Centre, gave us a talk with the title “Mental Health: A Therapist's Perspective”, sharing his firsthand experience from his daily work with clients.  With the topic “Reaching out to Mental Wellness: Exploring the Role of Community Leaders”, Isaac Cherian (a Registered Provisional Psychologist from Consciousness Studio) provided a vivid metaphor with wisdom about mental health and presented some helpful strategies on improving mental wellbeing to our participants. In particular, Prof. Bo Cao from the Department of Psychiatry, University of Alberta, through data analytics and predictive models, gave us a profound and positive speech on  “The impacts of Artificial Intelligence on human mental health in the future”. 

Besides the workshop, the event also included a mental health resource showcase for participants provided by Edmonton Oliver Primary Care Network and Edmonton North Primary Care Network. During the break, Midnight Rendezvous, a Chinese student music group from the University of Alberta, did a fantastic performance for the audience.

The event was a success, with over 60 participants. The feedback from our audiences was very positive. They reported this was a very knowledgeable, informative and helpful training. They felt they have learned a lot of knowledge and skills about mental health from the workshop. They also appreciated all the resources they got from the resource showcase In addition, they enjoyed the performance, food and social aspect. 

On Saturday, December 14th from 1-4 pm, AHC hosted our annual year-end celebration, themed "Communities in Action". This year's event was sponsored by the City of Edmonton and held in collaboration with the YEG Ambassadors.

The event was a great success with approx 500 participants including staff, volunteers, participants and guest performers. The fun-filled afternoon included speeches from MLA- Edmonton Centre, David Shepherd and City Councillor - Ward 6, Scott McKeen. Global TV Edmonton was on-site to capture the fun and festivities.

We had a number of special performances including an all Mauritian ensemble, Lakota Tootoosis - Hoop Dance, the Jhankar Bits Dance Group, the Horan (Syrian) Heritage Band, Qipao Club Women's Dance, and the Kurdish Children's Dance Group.

Guests were treated to a wide variety of ethnic foods courtesy of several local restaurant owners and caterers representing the middle east, Africa and Asia.

Guests were also able to visit several booths on-site and answer fun trivia questions and win prizes. Overall, the family-friendly event served as a way to bring various community members together and provide the opportunity to mix-and-mingle. This event showcased that communities supporting each other and standing together results in success across the board in building and unleashing the power of the community we live in. Communities in Action Year-end celebration is a way to celebrate a running history of contributions and achievements within the community.

View images from the event below!

To celebrate the achievements our participants have accomplished in 2019 and look forward to the future, the Adult Literacy and Skills Development Program at AHC held our annual “Celebration of learning” on Dec. 12, 2019. Over 100 participants including teachers, students and their families, performers and volunteers attended this event. Mr. Aftab Khan, AHC’s Executive Director, delivered a welcome speech to the audience. As the distinguished guest, Ms. Debbie Clark, Executive Director of Edmonton Community Adult Learning Association (ECALA), one of AHC’s founders, sent her warm greeting to the participants.

The celebration program was very rich, including presentation of certificates, learning experience sharing, teaching experience sharing, and multicultural performances - music, dance, and signing. The celebration also included door prizes, food, and Christmas gifts with Santa Claus for the Children. 65 students from our English, Computer, Senior English class and Leadership Training programs received their certificates.

Students shared their learning experience at AHC and felt very proud of themselves for the great progress and achievements they have made through participating in ALSD programs. For example, students from Senior English Class reported that many of them had very little, even zero English when they attended the class in mid-August, 2018. Only after more than one-year learning, they were able to speak some simple English daily sentences already and can do many things such as going shopping, participating in multicultural events in other communities and taking buses independently.  The class sang two English songs at the celebration. Everyone was very impressed by their progress.  Instructors who worked for ALSD program were very happy to see many of their students receive certificates and made incredible progress and improvement. All the participants and their families enjoyed the celebration tremendously and liked the performances presented by FV music group from University and Alberta and from our partner organization- Immigration Community Alberta Network (ICAN). In particular, the children were very happy to receive gifts kindly donated by Santa's Anonymous and have the photo with Santa Clause.

View images from the event below!

AHC's English Conversation Program - Learning English for Daily Living (LED), held a special year-end potluck/wrap up event for participants across its 6 locations. Participants enjoyed the opportunity to celebrate the festive season, practice their English conversational skills, and enjoy a variety of multicultural dishes. View images from the event below!

On Saturday, June 22, 2019, AHC's Youth soccer team participated in AHC's annual Community Soccer Tournament. The boys (ages 16-30) won first place in their category. Other winners of the event included the Nepalese under 16 team and the Latino Lions, who took the Masters title (over 30). View images from the event below.

On Saturday, June 15th AHC newcomer youth took a field trip to Royal Alberta Museum. For the majority of the youth, it was the first time they had the opportunity to visit a museum. They were able to learn about Canadian and Albertan history, science and interact with their peers.

View images from the trip below!