What is NSIIP?

The North Shore Immigrant Inclusion Partnership (NSIIP) is a coalition of community agencies and institutions focused on improving the settlement outcomes of new immigrants.

Originally known as the North Shore Welcoming Action Committee (NSWAC), NSIIP fosters engagement of local organizations and community assets to support research and planning, drive social innovations, and improve coordination of services to enhance newcomers’ prospects for settling and integrating into the North Shore community.

In 2023, NSIIP developed a Strategic Plan to focus on reducing systemic barriers to immigrant integration at local and regional levels. Its development was informed by extensive research and consultations with service providers, immigrants (including our Immigrant Advisory Council), community leaders, employers, and North Shore residents.

Our Vision

We envision an inclusive, anti-racist North Shore in which everyone has opportunities to thrive, contribute and belong.

Our Mission

We work collaboratively with organizations, businesses and community members to enable the successful integration and participation of all newcomers and im/migrants in North Shore communities

Our Values

The core values guiding the collective efforts of the partnership include:

Collaboration: We work together in a respectful, inclusive manner that builds on best practices and innovation while being accountable to the community.
Responsiveness: We strive to be flexible in our actions and responsive to the emerging needs and aspirations of newcomers and im/migrants in local communities.
Impact: We are dedicated to achieving change at community- and systems-levels that has a meaningful impact on the lives of newcomers and im/migrants.
Equity: We commit to applying intersectional, anti-racist lenses in our work and to creating space for diverse
wisdoms by centering newcomer and im/migrant voices.

Local Immigration Partnership (LIP)

NSIIP is a part of Canada’s nationwide coalition of Local Immigration Partnerships (LIPs). When the Department of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) repatriated settlement funding to the national level in 2014, 19 LIPS were funded across the province, with many more across the country. Since then, LIPs have been instrumental in building on local services to enhance collaboration, coordination, and strategic planning to make communities across Canada more welcoming and inclusive.

LIPs do not deliver services directly to immigrants. Instead, they foster local engagement of organizations that offer services to newcomers, support community-level research and planning and improve coordination of services that help immigrants settle and integrate. Membership in LIPs reflects a diversity of services within each community. Libraries, schools, hospitals, employment services, chambers of commerce, employers, local government, neighbourhood houses and women, child and senior services are some examples of typical LIP members, as they interact with newcomers regularly and can make recommendations about their needs.

The North Shore Immigrant Inclusion Partnership honors and recognizes that our collective work is carried out on the traditional, ancestral, unceded, and occupied territories of the Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Peoples.