SUMMERSIDE (PEI) October 3, 2013 –The Coopérative d’intégration francophone de l’Île-du-Prince-Édouard (CIF) recently confirmed two new partnership. It signed a memorandum of understanding with the RDÉE Prince Edward Island (the francophone economic development council of PEI) and became partners with the Collège Acadie Î.-P.-É. to offer its new French language assessment services.

The memorandum of understanding between the CIF and the RDÉE PEI clearly outlines the services each organization will provide to newcomers. The RDÉE will provide services related to job searches, business start-ups and employer awareness, and the CIF will provide all other welcoming, settlement, integration and retention services and will organize school and community awareness activities.

A partnership was also forged with the Collège Acadie Î.-P.-É. to provide language assessment services. The CIF recently announced its new free service to assess the French-language skills of immigrants living in Prince Edward Island who have obtained permanent resident status.

This project was launched in collaboration with the Collège Acadie Î.-P.-É. Hélène Duranleau-Reid, an experienced French as an additional language teacher at the Collège, took a training course at the Centre for Canadian Language Benchmarks and is the only CCLB certified French assessor in Prince Edward Island. The information on this initiative can be found on the new CIF website, www.tonile.ca.

The Coopérative d’intégration francophone de l’Î. P. É. (CIF) helps French-speaking newcomers to the province in order to ease their social, economic, educational and cultural integration. It also raises awareness among the public to cultural diversity, the benefits of immigration and the importance of Francophone immigration. The CIF is funded by Citizenship and Immigration Canada and the Prince Edward Island Office of Immigration, Settlement and Population.

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CUTLINE: Seen discussing their new agreements are, from left, Jacinthe Lemire, provincial coordinator of the CIF, Donald DesRoches, president of the Collège Acadie Î.-P.-É., Bonnie Gallant, executive director of RDÉE PEI, and Edmond Richard, president of the CIF.

For more information:
Jacinthe Lemire
Provincial Coordinator
Email: cp@cifipe.ca
Tel.: 902-888-1687