A Lil’ Bit of This, a Lil’ Bit of That: What we do at CWICE

It is a rite of passage for each CWICE member to write an article about our experience I thought deeply about what I wanted to share. I joined CWICE in June 2025, however I didn't hone in on a topic I deemed worthy of discussion until closer to November 2025. This topic was borne from the conversations I’ve had with multiple colleagues and essentially boils down to: What do you do in CWICE?

When I first joined CWICE as a Flex Worker, I immediately hardened myself to my new reality of practically living at the airport. After all, it is a common belief that CWICE conducts the bulk of their work at Pearson International Airport and at any moment we could be called to support an Unaccompanied and Separated Child (UASC).

Now that several months have passed (and still being asked constantly how I feel about the airport!), I’ve learned the real work lies in all the things that people DON'T think about. CWICE staff are consistently addressing the many things that have yet to be addressed by others. Everyone thinks of the airport, but what many overlook are the hospitals, the schools, the shelters, and every system that does not include the children, youth and families in Peel with varying or precarious immigration status.

Systems set up to address social determinants of health can often omit those with precarious status, and this trickles down to impact children and youth. This can look like someone with a Temporary Visitor status giving birth to a Canadian citizen, but the newborn gets denied access to provincial health insurance; or like someone with a Study Permit who is pregnant and their private health insurance doesn’t cover childbirth. It looks like an UASC who is going through a refugee claim struggling to pay international student rates to attend post-secondary school; or a family not being able to access Active Assist for your Canadian Citizen children because the parent does not have Permanent Residence. Currently, this looks like navigating and addressing the impacts on our clients of rapidly changing immigration policy and processes.

So, what do we do at CWICE? I view CWICE as not only system navigators, but system humanists. We help our clients to navigate various systems, identify the gaps in service, connect with community and government services to fill those gaps, advocate for the elimination of said gaps and SHAKE. THE. TABLE! We meet our clients right where they are – moving through the individual to macro socio-ecological systems and back again – to deliver highly specialized, personalized and thoughtful support. Whether it’s local to the Peel Region, across the country, or across the Atlantic, CWICE has made partnerships with the sole purpose of supporting children, youth and their families navigate systems and where they have been pushed to the margins, disenfranchised, or overlooked.

Just as important as navigating systems, CWICE challenges systems to address policies that negatively impact those who access them. Re-centering the “human” in human services, with razor sharp focus on the intersection of child welfare and immigration, is equity work in action. Working in CWICE, I’ve been impressed by the depth of collaboration, advocacy, and involvement in policy development as well as capacity building activities across the sector in which CWICE leads.

So, yes, CWICE workers go to the airport, but much more than that, CWICE goes where we are needed. We go the extra mile to surround our clients with care, resources, support and advocacy – whether they are in the room or not. In conclusion, for me to be part of CWICE, means showing up for clients wherever they need me – whether it is at school, a shelter, hospital or airport - challenging oppressive systems in real-time, showing compassion and empathy to someone who may have just lost everything they know and love…and writing the occasional article!

About the Author:

Shaneika Bailey is a Child Protection Worker at Peel Children’s Aid Society in the Child Welfare Immigration Centre of Excellence (CWICE). Shaneika has over 20 years of experience in child welfare locally and internationally.