One of the exceptional families in our community has written and self-published a book! Keep reading to learn more about Claudia, Amanda, and Alex.
Claudia and her family emigrated from the Dominican Republic in the summer of 2023 and they immediately hit the ground running! Within their first month here in Saskatoon they were registered with GGP and attending our programs.
One of the first programs was our creative writing workshop Weaving Words. “To me, it was like a group therapy session. It just created the time we don’t usually allow ourselves to have. Even if what we wrote was pretty or not, that was not the important part. We were there dedicating time to creativity,” Claudia recalls. Weaving Words helped Claudia realize that her dreams of authoring a book were possible. “GGP was key because I had wanted to publish a book but didn’t feel knowledgeable about this topic. With Weaving Words, I realized that to write a book you just needed to do it!” Claudia said. She also received additional support from our staff on grammar and writing as she began the creative process.
In the end, the book became a collaborative family project. Claudia involved her daughter Amanda as a co-author because she wanted to encourage her passion for reading and writing. Then, her imaginative son Alex had a dream about a dinosaur in trouble which inspired the plot. Little Bronto Can’t Dig is a wonderful story about perseverance and the importance of asking for help.
With support from GGP and our partner organizations, this family has already passed many milestones on their settlement journey. From employment to education to driver’s licences, they are well on their way. Claudia credits GGP with making their settlement journey “smooth and adventurous.” When asked what advice she would give to newcomers, Claudia has much to say.
She is a big proponent of the famous dictum “knowledge is power” and she knows that there are times as a newcomer where you feel disempowered, with little to no existing knowledge on the world around you. In those moments, she recommends relying on organizations like GGP. “GGP has been a big part of our settlement journey, compared to other settlement organizations that we have been in contact with, there is no other like GGP,” Claudia said. “A few of the programs I enjoyed and recommend to new immigrants from GGP are Winter Prep, Back to School, Employment Ready series, and Family Fun and Fit.”
She also emphasizes establishing a local social network: “Start building your community, you left family and friends behind, you’ll need some type of community here. In our case, we have to make an intentional effort to start trusting new people and for them to allow us into their world. This is only possible with time, dedication and vulnerability.”
Finally, she advises that success as a newcomer requires coming to terms with your new reality. “Adapt! If you came here, you knew it was going to be different than home. We need to embrace this novelty, see the good side of it and work around the not so good side,” Claudia said.
You can find Little Bronco Can’t Dig online here and follow their story at @LittleDinoStories on Instagram.
