Founded in 1991, Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization of Manitoba (IRCOM) works to empower newcomer families to integrate into the wider community through affordable transitional housing, programs, and services. It operates two transitional housing complexes in downtown Winnipeg: IRCOM Ellen and IRCOM Isabel. In addition to housing programs, IRCOM offers literacy, childcare, after school, asset and capacity building, and other support programs.

Through an agreement with Manitoba Housing and Renewal Corporation, IRCOM’s House program offers secure, affordable, and clean apartments to newcomer families for up to three years after their arrival. In F2019, IRCOM also presented findings from a three-year survey in partnership with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and the Manitoba Research Alliance. This report highlights IRCOM’s wrap-around support model and demonstrates the essential need for newcomers to find affordable, secure, and good-quality housing at the beginning of their Canadian settlement process.

IRCOM’s Child Care Program offers play-based and child directed programming. In F2019, it provided over 1,900 hours of long-term on-site childcare at three different locations to 120 infants and toddlers. This supported parents and guardians attending English classes and settlement programs. These settlement programs include a newcomer literacy initiative, asset and capacity building programs, Access to Benefits programs, and more. In F2019, the Access to Benefits program helped 625 newcomers file their taxes and many more access their Canada Child Benefit and other credits. IRCOM reports that a total of $4.2m was leveraged from income tax refunds and benefits in F2019. Additionally, members of the Community Resource Program staff made 4,280 home visits, welcomed 6,100 drop-ins, and made 4,590 referrals.

Other support programs that IRCOM offers include an Early Childhood Development Hub, Greening Program, Volunteer a Community Services Program, and Common Ground, Stronger Voices. The Greening Program offers IRCOM tenants plots on the balconies of IRCOM Ellen. In F2019, IRCOM reports that 15 tenant growers who received garden plots harvested leafy vegetables as early as June.

IRCOM is a ­­­­small charity, with total donations of $723k in F2019. Administrative costs are 17% of revenues (excluding investment income) and the charity reports no fundraising costs in F2019. For every dollar donated, 83 cents go to the cause. This is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending. Funding reserves of $150k can cover less than one month of annual program costs.

­­This charity report is an update that has been sent to Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization of Manitoba for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on August 27, 2019 by Lauren Chin.