Job program for young newcomers in Sarnia renewed for two years

Yelyzaveta Baranovych started looking for work in Sarnia before she left wartorn Ukraine.

The 21-year-old university’s student’s godmother, who arrived in Sarnia a year ago, told Baranovych about a YMCA Learning and Career Center program helping newcomers find jobs and she connected with it online while still living in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital.

“We had about three meetings with her, virtually, while she was still in Ukraine,” said Stephanie Bewski-Abrametz, co-ordinator with the federally-funded Youth Employment and Skills Strategies program at the Sarnia centre.

Baranovych got to Canada in late March and within two weeks, the program helped her get one job with a YMCA summer camp and a second one at Coffee Culture in downtown Sarnia.

“I was so proud and so impressed by her,” Bewski-Abrametz said.

Baranovych, who is living with her godmother in Sarnia, studied at university to be a teacher, is studying online for a master’s degree and has started working at the coffee shop.

“I’m very happy I had such a chance and that YMCA, and Stephanie and Edith (Kealy), . . . helped me,” Baranovych said. Kealy also works with the program. “I’m very grateful.”

Staying with her godmother has helped her with the transition to life in a new country, and the coffee shop job is helping her English skills.

“Really I love Canada. It’s a very nice country for immigrants and the Canadian government helps a lot,” she said. “For Ukrainians, it’s a really nice option. . . if they want to build their life in a new country.”

Baranovych, who lived in a city near the Russian border, said a building next door was hit by a missile when fighting broke out in February 2022.

“The first day of war, we decided to not go back and just wait in a safer place, so I lived in my grandfather’s house,” she said. Later, she moved to Kyiv and started studying for her master’s.

Life in Canada is “different, of course,” Baranovych said. “For example in Ukraine, we don’t get used to small talks and smiling all the time.”

Also, houses in Canada are “like in American movies,” she said. “But I really like the atmosphere of this country,” and working at the coffee shop “is amazing.”

After hearing her accent, customers have asked where she’s from.

“And when I answer that I’m from Ukraine, they express their support,” she said. “I think in Canada people treat Ukrainians well.”

The Youth Employment and Skills Strategies program, which began last June as a federally-funded pilot project for newcomers aged 15 to 30 in Sarnia, has just been renewed for two years, Bewski-Abrametz said.

“We achieved and overachieved our targets,” she said. “We worked with about 35 participants and 19 of those were successful in securing employment in fields like IT, hospitality, child care, legal services, customer service, health care.”

The program, which has worked with newcomers from countries including India, Iraq, Iran, Syria and Latin America, was scheduled to hold a job fair May 3, from 3 to 5 pm, at the YMCA center at 660 Oakdale Ave. Young people from Sarnia-Lambton are invited to attend and speak with potential employers.

Organizers encourage employers to reach out to the program, said Bewski-Abrametz, who can be reached by e-mail at [email protected] or by phone at 519-336-5950, ext. 5530.

“We have a roster of highly skilled, educated, hard-working, eager, resilient individuals who want to make an impact on the Sarnia-Lambton community,” she said.

The program works one-on-one with newcomer youth and employers, including checking in bi-weekly once individuals are placed in jobs.

“We have received rave reviews from all of our employers,” Bewski-Abrametz said.

“Everyone has said that their new hires are the most hard-working, eager-to-learn individuals, and we’re just so proud of the participants that we work with,” she added.

“We’ve come across really fantastic members in this community who are also willing to work with newcomers and help them transition to their new life in Canada.”