Canadian Immigrant Women’s Association

For more than 40 years, the Canadian Immigrant Women’s Association (CIWA) has stood with immigrant and refugee women and their families as they build new lives in Canada. Founded in 1982, CIWA is specifically designed around the unique needs, barriers, and strengths of immigrant and refugee women and girls. It is a significant and impactful gender-specific settlement agency in Canada, having strong relationships with its funders, including Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).
We believe that when immigrant women thrive, their families and communities thrive with them. That belief shapes everything we do, from our first conversation with a newcomer to the moment she steps into a leadership role in her new community.

Our Approach
CIWA’s work is guided by a simple but powerful theory of change: every woman who walks through our doors is on a journey from settlement to integration to belonging to contribution.

• Settlement — We meet women at their point of need, helping them navigate the practical realities of a new country: housing, language, employment, health, and safety.
• Integration — We help women build the skills, confidence, and connections to fully participate in Canadian life — in the workforce, in their communities, and in the systems around them.
• Belonging — We foster spaces where women feel seen, supported, and rooted — free from isolation and equipped with community and culturally grounded support.
• Contribution — We invest in women’s leadership so they can give back — as mentors, employees, entrepreneurs, and civic leaders — shaping the country they now call home.

What We Offer
CIWA delivers programs and services across the province, supporting women and their families at every age and stage of life from newly arrived youth to seniors, from single mothers to entrepreneurs. Our team and community of interpreters collectively speak 120+ languages, ensuring no woman is left without a voice in her own settlement journey. CIWA recognizes that childcare and first-language support can be important enablers of access to services. Childcare is available to eligible clients participating in our language programs, and CIWA works to reduce language barriers by providing first-language support where available.

In 2024–2025, CIWA served 26,772 clients and family members from 139 countries, supported by more than 200 staff (many of them former clients and volunteers) and an annual budget of approximately $16 million.

CIWA is committed to empowering immigrant and refugee women to settle, integrate, belong, and contribute - fully and on their own terms - to the country they now call home. We are proud to be a provincial and national leader in gender-specific, outcome-based settlement services, and prouder still of the tens of thousands of women who have used our programs as a launching point, not just for settling in Canada, but for truly belonging here.

To learn more, visit www.ciwa.org