ManitobaEastman Immigrant Services opens new building in Steinbach for more settlement workers in schools connecting kids from around the world with their new communities in southeast ManitobaImmigrants from around the world get expanded academic, social supportChristopher Gareau · CBC News · Posted: Oct 13, 2025 8:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 31 minutes agoEastman Immigrant Services takes new Canadian families to the Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg through its Settlement Workers in Schools program based in Steinbach. (Eastman Immigrant Services)Going to a new school can be intimidating, and even more so when it’s on the opposite side of the world in a new culture where people speak a different language.Iliana Dadabaeva, who moved to Steinbach a year ago from the central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan, says the settlement workers in schools (SWIS) program provided by Eastman Immigrant Services (EIS) helped her 10-year-old son David quickly make new friends in their new home.Those new friendships began with a SWIS-sponsored bike ride.“Now he has a lot of friends from different countries, like Filipino and Ukrainian guys and some others that he met at that program,” Dadabaeva said.The demand is high for EIS: Since January it has helped almost 4,000 people who came to the region from 35 countries with things including schooling, employment, learning English, preschool instruction and connecting the newcomers with volunteers who help them get acquainted with the community. And that’s why they have opened a second building in Steinbach, and are hiring two more SWIS staff, bring their number to 25, to help kids aged five to 18.Eastman Immigrant Services lead Tiffany Froese and program manager Olesja Schwabauer at their new second office on Brandt Street in Steinbach. (Chris Gareau/CBC)Funding for SWIS’s core programming comes from Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship Canada, but community partners play an important role.David got a new bike, helmet and bike lock from SWIS’s five-day program, thanks to support from Canadian Tire’s Jumpstart, Manitoba Public Insurance and the local RCMP. So did other kids who arrived from countries from around the world.“With our bike program, some of the participants never met each other before. They became good friends and then the week after, I was just out walking in the community and I saw three of them riding on their brand new bikes together,” said SWIS lead Tiffany Froese.David Dadabaev gets a new bike and helmet after taking part in Eastman Immigrant Services’ Settlement Workers in Schools five-day bike program with SWIS lead Tiffany Froese, left, and SWIS worker Bruce Gasmena. Steinbach RCMP gave safe riding tips. (Iliana Dadabaeva)In the works is a five-day team-up with coaches from the Prairie Basketball League, which was started by Steinbach Filipino community and open to anyone who wants to play. Filipinos make up the largest portion of new Canadians in Steinbach, comprising 42 per cent of the 960 immigrants who arrived in the city between 2016 and 2021, according to the last census.“A part we don’t want to underestimate is the need for that social connection. Education is huge — it’s super important — but the social side of things is equally as needed by our families,” Froese said.Help in schoolsSo far this year the SWIS program has helped 1,819 parents and children in two school divisions with everything from homework to helping parents figure out the grade their child is supposed to be in. Dadabaeva says Kyrgyzstan’s school system is quite different from southeast Manitoba’s Hanover and Seine River school divisions.“It was a program like it was [during the] Soviet Union. He started school at seven, and that’s why he had just Grade 2,” Dadabaeva said.She added her son really got excited about school after receiving a gift backpack from SWIS.The social work done by SWIS sets the kids up for academic success, according to Allison Tchir, vice principal at Arborgate School in La Broquerie.Ukrainian refugees adjusting in a small townThe village, 14 kilometres east of Steinbach, added to its population of 1,400 two years ago by welcoming several Ukrainian families escaping the Russian invasion.When the 10 new Ukrainian students arrived, a SWIS worker would meet with them at lunchtime, splitting time between learning English and other academic subjects with playing games to build up their social skills and confidence.“It was major culture shock,” Tchir said. “They’re dealing with having to leave when they weren’t planning on it. Families were dealing with that relocation, ‘can I find a job?’”Principal Todd Long saw one child in particular move away from violence on the playground to being a confident kid.“He’s attached himself to me,” Long said. “I think it’s really helped in terms of their ability to know that they’re part of a community.”Long and Tchir say the connection created is in large part thanks to the variety of experience among EIS staff.“The way SWIS helped with us is to help understand how some of the kids played, because they came from a country of war so playing with [toy] guns was not a problem. Well, you don’t do that at our school,” Long said.Arborgate School vice principal Allison Tchir, left, and principal Todd Long. (Chris Gareau/CBC)ABOUT THE AUTHORChristopher Gareau is a CBC Manitoba reporter based in Steinbach who covers the province’s southeastern region. He has previously covered southeastern Manitoba in print, and worked in radio and print in northwestern B.C. and southwestern Ontario. You can reach him at christopher.gareau@cbc.ca.
Manitoba settlement workers give new Canadian students an educational boost
