Settlement services workers in Manitoba came away with a renewed sense of unity, after representatives from 11 centres across the province met in Portage la Prairie Thursday. The group met to discuss ideas and strategies to improve new immigrant services in each centre.

Provincial Minister of Education and Training Ian Wishart was at the meeting. The Portage MLA handles Manitoba immigration as part of his portfolio and says settlement services offices play a vital role in integrating newcomers to the province.

"The services they supply to the new immigrants and refugees to the province is absolutely essential in getting good settlement into Manitoba," Minister Wishart says. "...They can be the critical touch point for a new immigrant. They're the one that helps tie them into the community."

"We fund, they work with the immigrants that we are responsible for bringing in. It's kind of a whole link in the chain, but it's one of the critical ones."

Laurie Sawatzky, chair of the Manitoba Association of Newcomers Serving Organizations -- an arms-length umbrella group that serves 60 settlement offices -- says service offices left the meeting with the goal of working together more closely.

"We're looking at newcomers settlement in the province as a whole, and connecting all of the resources and supports that our agencies need that are helping newcomers," Sawatzky explains.

Portage Newcomers' Welcome Centre settlement services coordinator Don Boddy says it was valuable to learn from each centre, and hopes to apply ideas to improve services locally. Building more partnerships with other community organizations is one initiative Boddy says will help benefit newcomers in Portage.

"Some organizations do that much better than we do. So we want to learn about that."