{“type”:”block”,”srcClientIds”:[“9ad0d3e1-aea4-466b-8a84-11bd896a82c9″],”srcRootClientId”:””}Today we launched our formal journey to create a Social Enterprise within Ottawa Newcomer Health Centre. This is an exciting phase, a phase that has been brought about by our success. We are extremely lucky to have the support of our principal funding partner, and absolutely one of the biggest champions of newcomer health in our community, the Champlain Local Health Integration Network.
We created Ottawa Language Access (OLA) to bridge the language barrier gap faced by Limited English and French Proficient (LEFP) clients requiring access to a range of extended health care services. By facilitating increased access for LEFP clients to professionally trained health interpreters, we hope to achieve accessible and equitable health services and continuous care for these population groups.
Started in 2019, our social enterprise is co-located in the same building as the Catholic Centre for Immigrants (CCI), a building which houses various social and settlement services designed to assist newcomers integrate and settle into the Ottawa community. This unique setting has aided our program as we can work collaboratively with other agencies and programs to support newcomers and increase advocacy and awareness around the challenges faced by newcomers, language being amongst the key challenges.
OLA was implemented in 2015, and steadily grew over the years. We went from providing interpretation services to 10 programs to currently supporting 32 programs in the region. By 2017-18 we experienced an increase in demand so much so that we ran into a deficit six months into the fiscal year. We reached out to our funders and requested a one time grant to sustain services, but understood at the same time that we had to think creatively to find a viable solution. Understanding that we needed professional help to bring financial sustainability to OLA, we decided to seek help from the Centre for Social Enterprise Development (CSED). We connected with CSED who helped us develop a feasible business plan to remodel OLA as a social enterprise. We needed to think creatively and establish a model which would help us grow and scale services on the one hand but at the same time not jeopardize the quality of services we provided in the community. Since then we have been slowly and continuously working on the strategic blueprint that was developed through CSED’s support.
Please do not hesitate to reach out to us at any time if you want more information about our social enterprise or if you need an introduction with CSED.
