Welland Heritage Council and Multicultural Centre

Piecing Together a New Tomorrow with Newcomers to Canada Since 1976.

The Welland Heritage Council and Multicultural Centre has helped thousands of immigrants overcome barriers to integration and watched with pride as they built new lives for themselves here in Canada.  Our greatest contribution to our community is in helping immigrants gain the necessary skills to live and work in Canada, so that they can become successful participating members of our society.

Many former clients are now our valued volunteers helping to build a stronger, more culturally aware community.  Our organization is a vital link to the economic growth of Niagara by assisting immigrants to settle in our communities and offering continuing support for their new endeavours in Canada.

We have continued our fund-raising activities to support needed programs and develop stronger partnerships.  Developing a stronger network with other organizations in the Region has proved to be one of our best strategies to continue to provide quality service to members of this community.  We have used fund-raising dollars to initiate a program to assist immigrant women build their networks through workshops with community leaders as speakers. The social interaction helps the women gain a better understanding of Canadian systems.

In keeping with our philosophy of diversity and inclusion, our network of community partners encompasses the public, private and non-profit sectors.  All of the community’s ethnic halls and cultural associations are partners of the Multicultural Centre.  We attend meetings with Regional, Welland and Niagara Falls inter-agency groups to share information and resources and discover ways to work more closely together and to avoid duplications.

Communication with our organizational members occurs both formally, through regular meetings, joint ventures and cross boarding, and informally, through the many casual-working relationships we have developed over time.

Our highly skilled, educated staff sit on many committees and participate  in professional development opportunities annually.

Our long standing partners since our inception are the cultural groups and the District School Board of Niagara. Since then we have added many more partners to the long list. We could not do our work without them as each is integral to the success of the people we work with.  We thank all our membership and partners for their continued support.