History

In October, CICS's newest location, the Immigrant Women Resource Centre (IWRC) funded by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, started operating. It provides resources, education and services that are specialized to meet the needs of immigrant women.

In June, the Agency was renamed Centre for Immigrant and Community Services on its 45th anniversary, to better reflect the nature of its mission, programs and activities. In January, a commercial- grade community kitchen was completed to allow for food, nutrition and health-related programming.

In May, the Community Garden came into fruition after considerable planning and ground breaking by a small group of very resourceful staff and committed volunteers.

In June, the Immigrant Resources Centre was officially inaugurated, with the completion of the Sing Tao Youth Development Hub (consisting of a Multi-Purpose Hall, Youth Studio and Youth Loft). Funded by Citizenship and Immigration Canada, and as a part of the Welcome Centre system in York Region with four partners, CICS started operating the Markham South Welcome Centre (MSWC) in August, with a new service model of providing the whole spectrum of settlement and other related services under one roof with multiple service providers.

In September, supported by Citizenship & Immigration Canada, the Immigrant Youth Centre opened its doors for services in Markham.

In March, the Immigration Resource Centre at 2330 Midland Avenue opened its door to its first clients. In the same year, CICS celebrated its 40th anniversary of serving the immigrant community.

Supported by Ministry of Citizenship & Immigration and others, in October, CICS bought a 44,000 square-feet property at 2330 Midland Avenue to be converted into an immigrant resource centre. Phase I renovation began.

In partnership with Sing Tao Canada Foundation and CICS Foundation, CICS launched a joint fundraising campaign to establish an immigrant resource centre with a youth hub as its centerpiece.

In October, CICS was awarded the 2001 Citation for Citizenship. CICS Foundation was incorporated with a mandate to raise funds to support the charitable activities of CICS.

Selected as one of the lead agencies to manage the "Settlement & Education Partnerships in Toronto" (SEPT) Program to provide multi-lingual services for newly landed families in North York area schools. In September, Early Years program for pre-school children was launched.

In anticipation of changes in community demographic and service needs, the Agency changed its name from Chinese Information and Community Services of Greater Toronto to Centre for Information and Community Services of Ontario to reflect its then and future program directions.

CICS opened its first office in York Region at the Markville Shopping Centre with the support from the mall management.

A new language training centre with child-minding services was set up in Scarborough.

The Agency was renamed Chinese Information and Community Services (CICS) with a focus on serving the grow-historying number of immigrants from Asia. Later in the year, the Agency purchased a permanent office in Scarborough to accommodate service expansion.

This service component became independent and known as the Chinese Interpreter and Information Services (CIIS).

A number of enthusiastic Chinese students volunteered to provide information, interpretation and translation services to the Chinese residents under the auspices of University Settlement House in downtown Toronto.