Migrant Systems Change Leadership Certificate

RADIUS’ Refugee Livelihood Lab offers a welcoming and safe environment to help participants grow confidence and leadership, and provides access to tailored coaching support. A critical part of the work is in exploring the tensions and relationships of being newcomers and immigrants on unceded Indigenous lands, and our ties to Indigenous communities.

Together, we will embark on an enriching journey of growth and awareness with open hearts and minds. 

This certificate program consists of nine modules and is delivered via a hybrid in-person and remote learning setting.

You will share a virtual classroom with up to twenty other learners in weekly sessions over four-months.

Modules:

• MSCL 110 Voices from the Field
• MSCL 120 Locating Ourselves, Mapping Our Systems
• MSCL 210 Practicing Equity-Centred Design
• MSCL 220 Reflection & Generative Dialogue
• MSCL 310 Co-Creating the Future
• MSCL 320 Feedback, Iteration, & Failure
• MSCL 410 Co-Evolving: Influence, Engagement, & Partnership
• MSCL 420 Integration and Next Steps
• MSCL 510 Practicum, Coaching, & Integration

Learning Outcomes: 

• Discuss key tensions facing leaders in refugee and immigration systems.
• Discuss personal social locations in relation to how they benefit from, or are targeted by systems of oppression.
• Differentiate between internalized oppression and liberating beliefs in leadership mindset.
• Demonstrate using privileges to support equity as a systems leader.
• Map the conditions of systems change in a specific problem area facing migrant communities including: policies, practices and resource flows, relationships, power dynamics, and mental models.
• Apply an equity-centred design framework to a key problem in migrant communities.
• Capture community-generated themes relating to conditions of systems change such as: policies, practices and resource flows, relationships, power dynamics, and mental models.
• Generate feedback from networks of peers, impacted communities and influential stakeholders.
• Develop your own community-informed project prototype
• Prepare a public presentation on your systems change prototype.

The certificate cost is $1,000 (CAD). Scholarships are available. 

We recognize that inequitable structures have created many barriers that might prevent some from accessing this certificate. We are committed to removing any access barriers to this program (to the best of our ability).  As such, scholarships, income replacement, ELL support, transportation subsidy, dependent care support (childcare or elders), and more are available. If you are undocumented or don’t have a SIN number, or have difficulty applying, please contact us.

Information Session: Register: Tuesday, July 5, 2022, 5:30pm-7pm PST

We welcome everyone who identifies with the refugee or immigrant experience, including new and experienced leaders, settlement workers & managers, artists, activists, funders, employers, entrepreneurs, parents, community members and more. All applicants must be based in British Columbia and able to attend all online and in-person sessions, including the retreat.

Successful applicants must demonstrate prior commitment to addressing issues faced by migrant communities either through paid or unpaid work experience, community leadership, or other means. We recognize foreign-earned credentials and experience. 

If you answer YES to any of these questions, then this program is for you. 

• Do you have a passion to address challenges such as credential recognition, language barriers, racism, poverty, homophobia, anti-Blackness, Islamophobia, detention policies, access to health care, social and economic exclusion of refugee communities or other issues? 
• Do you have ideas for your community you want to put into action but have not yet found a way?
• Do you believe in the value of collaboration with people most affected by the issues AND people with access to institutional power? 
• Are you willing to invest in your personal leadership and growth? 
• Do you want to contribute to building diverse communities that can create and lead together? 
• Do you identify with the refugee or newcomer experience?

Applications for the 2022 cohort are now closed.

If you have questions, email us at mscl_rll@sfu.ca.

Can I still apply if I don’t live in British Columbia? 

Due to the program’s hybrid model, we are currently not accepting applications outside of B.C.

Do I need to have a final project by the end of the program? 

The Migrant Systems Change Leadership Certificate is an ideation program, which means we don’t expect a final, tangible product at the end. However, we hope that each participant leaves with an idea for a solution to a community problem that they can continue working on after the program ends.

Is this program graded or pass/fail? 

No. As an SFU, non-credit program, no grades or pass/fail requirement is assigned to successfully complete the certificate.

Will you give us assignments or exams? 

No. This program is less formal than a traditional university course. While we will ask you to complete some tasks outside of the sessions to help with advancing your idea, there will be no assignments or exams. 

Will I get a job placement if I do this program? 

Participants are exposed to a vast network of professionals throughout this program who could potentially help accelerate your job search and connect you with a potential employer. Although many past participants gained employment indirectly by completing this program, we can’t guarantee a job.

Some topics in the program can be potentially triggering and create tension. What will you do to provide a safe space for everyone?

While we cannot guarantee perfection, we do our best to provide the necessary support to participants as needed. Our facilitation team is skilled with mediating difficult conversations and conflict, and in grounding practices. We will collaboratively establish community guidelines at the beginning of the program with the aim of creating a safe space for sharing and challenging each other. It is a balance. We do not tolerate hateful, discriminatory, or disrespectful behaviour and are simultaneously inviting curiosity and learning into the space, especially with the diversity of lived experiences racialized migrants carry.