Past Projects

Group of women lined up behind each other, smiling

Since its beginning in 1975, PIRS has led projects that responded to the emerging needs of immigrants and refugee women and their young children.

Our past projects include:

Anti-Racism Data Legislation Consultations

In October 2021, BC government reached out to the Indigenous and racialized community organizations asking for input on the Anti-Racism Data Act, a legislation that would help identify and address systemic racism and other inequities in provincial government programs and services.

PIRS became one of almost 70 organizations to facilitate community sessions where participants could share how they prefer to identify or represent themselves, their experiences of providing personal information to government agencies, and how they would like their data to be used so that the government can work towards advancing racial equity. We facilitated six community sessions with program participants, volunteers, our Childcare and Outreach teams to gather input to share with legislators.

In June 2022, the Anti-Racism Data Act became law. We are grateful for the opportunity to contribute and proud to have the voices of immigrant and refugee women inform decision-making in BC!

Learning Journeys: Pathways for and with Immigrant and Refugee Women

Learning Journeys was a 2-year participatory research project funded by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to increase knowledge and deepen understanding of immigrant women’s experiences and perspectives to inform settlement programming in Canada. It was completed in March 2021.

Immigrant Women Advisory Committee (IWAC) was born out of Learning Journeys informed.

More about our Learning Journeys Project