title: The Call-Centre: a child welfare liaison program with immigrant serving agencies.
abstract: Alberta, Canada, welcomed nearly 16,000 landed immigrants in 2003, of whom more than half came to the Calgary area. Approximately 200,000 immigrants of various ethnic and cultural groups now live in the region. Many of these new arrivals have no natural support networks while struggling with language, cultural, and economic barriers. Recognizing these difficulties, the Calgary and Area Child and Family Services Authority (CFSA) joined with several Immigrant Serving Agencies to develop guidelines and procedures to direct staff working with diverse cultures, including the Call-Centre pilot project, which provided CFSA staff with a one-stop telephone contact for information about an immigrant or refugee family, their culture, and available culturally-appropriate resources. The Call-Centre, which is currently being evaluated by researchers at the University of Calgary, will gradually expand to all CFSA sites in the region. This article describes the Call-Centre and the first phase of the evaluation.
authors.affiliation: University of Calgary.
authors.forename: Margaret
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: Cathryn
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bradshaw
authors.forename: Beverly
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Fournier
authors.forename: Admasu
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tachble
authors.forename: Rob
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bray
authors.forename: Fay
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Hodson
mesh_terms: D000416:Alberta; D002648:Child; D002669:Child Welfare / Q000208:ethnology*; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D018864:Cultural Diversity; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D015277:Hotlines / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D007253:Information Centers / Q000592:standards*; D007373:Interinstitutional Relations; D007802:Language; D011635:Public Health Administration; D018511:Systems Integration