Arif Iqbal is the Director of Finance and Operations for Building Multicultural Communities (BMC), formerly Brampton Multicultural Community Centre and My Community Services (MCS), formerly Muslim Community Services, which have served the community in the Peel Region for the past 37 years. MCS provides English (LINC) and French (CLIC) classes and family violence support programs through their VAW program. BMC is a multiservice agency providing settlement, employment, youth engagement, mental health support, seniors’ initiatives, and newcomer services (their core work). Arif provides strategic and operational leadership across both organizations.
What’s your favourite thing about the services that the organizations provide?
How our services respond to real life and human experiences. Whether a client is learning English or accessing newcomer, youth or mental health support, I’m passionate about how our staff treat people with compassion and dignity. We try to provide real-life solutions to get people out of trouble without any end game. Our end game is ensuring that our clients get the service they need, regardless of their barriers. The way that we service our clients and welcome them into our community, and try to help them as much as we can, while empowering them to take control of their lives and see their own transformation. When somebody comes here (Canada), it’s a daunting task. Whether it was from a traumatic situation, or a personal choice they made for their families, they’re coming somewhere that they don’t know, and learning a new language and way of life. Our agencies help them rediscover, give them knowledge and confidence, and help build their future.
Where do you operate?
We regularly provide direct settlement services in over 80 schools and six libraries in Brampton, and we have five service locations in Brampton and Mississauga. We’re particularly proud of our multiple service delivery options and a diverse staff providing support in many languages, who enjoy working together as a team. It puts a smile on my face when I see our staff working together to solve a client’s problems.
How did you come to work in the sector?
I grew up in the settlement and community services sector, so it’s been ingrained in me. My parents worked in social services their whole lives, and I’ve always had a passion to help people, no matter what, from an early age. I try to portray that now in the organization and live by that model of “how I can help?” That’s my philosophy.
What about one thing that you love doing in your job every day?
The mentorship part is fun for me. I enjoy supporting our team’s growth and working with our management team to ensure an inclusive workplace culture. We’re collaborative and try to focus on solutions where we value everyone’s opinion, whether we’re launching a new initiative, trying a different service delivery strategy, or reviewing our policies and procedures, working with our staff, developing new programs, listening to ideas, developing new strategies, and being fluid. I love getting a chance to build leaders and the capacity of people and mentor our teams, organization, and staff, piggybacking off our strengths and trying to develop new ones while adapting to the changing environment of the social services sector.
How does your organization prioritize a “people first” or “bottom up” approach?
We are in the business of changing lives, so people have to come first. We don’t like to use the term “bottom up approach”. We like to use continuous feedback and incorporate that from our staff and clients into our strategies, whether at the strategic planning level or as simple as figuring out what time the offices are open or whatever it may be. We use a continuum approach where people act to provide input and impact in what we do and how we do it, regardless of whether they are service users, staff, or volunteers. We are all one big team. At MCS, our family support staff regularly discuss trends they see in the field. This has helped us refine how we support survivors of violence with safety planning and culturally appropriate resources while building resilience and capacity.
At BMC, our recent office relocations were guided by a strong commitment to enhancing client access and service experience. We took the opportunity to improve how programs are delivered—designing client-centred spaces that are welcoming, functional, and tailored to the unique needs of each program. For example, we created private counselling spaces for mental health support, open-concept employment services areas, and flexible rooms for youth engagement. These improvements were based on direct feedback from clients and staff, ensuring that service delivery isn’t just maintained—it’s elevated. Internally, we prioritize staff wellness, professional development, and creating safe spaces for dialogue and growth.
Putting people first is not just a concept—it’s how we operate.
Is there a snapshot of your typical clients?
It is diverse and inclusive, reflecting the community we live in, and we serve everyone. I don’t think there’s a way of saying that our client fits a mould. We have people coming from different walks of life. We might have newcomers who have different needs and may portray themselves in a certain way, and we also have youth and young adults who are coming in that look and dress differently, so their needs vary, and the language is different. We have seniors who come in who need an avenue to talk and have a cup of tea and some biscuits to reduce their social isolation and support their emotional, physical, and mental health. A simple conversation with their peers over a cup of tea can profoundly affect their well-being. We had a client who came in from a domestic violence situation. She got the support she needed, then went on to learn English, and now she’s become an entrepreneur. She spoke at one of our AGMs recently about her story and how she would not have become who she is today without us. Those kinds of stories where we have so many people working together and were able to help someone get them out of an unfortunate situation to grow and succeed are what we in social services are all about.
What limitations do you face in delivering services?
This sector is based on targets requiring you to serve a specific client type under certain banners. But if you walk into our organizations and ask for help, we’ll help you. For us, quality of service is the most important thing, and making sure everyone who needs help gets the help they need, regardless of their situation, because if we can’t provide the service, we can recommend where you can get it. Our service delivery model shared between two organizations means we’re pretty confident we can serve clients in the settlement, social, employment or youth sectors, for most of the services they need. And the word is spreading, and our volumes have reflected that.
How big a problem is it that organizations are limited by funding criteria?
Funding criteria provide the framework, and our service delivery approach enables success. I think most organizations help the client regardless. Certain guidelines are in place, for example, with our language classes, we can only serve PR card holders and refugees that have a certain status, versus if someone has citizenship and wants to enhance their English, they have to go to ESL and not our LINC program that may be just as good for them. There is that gap, and times are changing, and we have new people coming in, whether they’re asylum seekers or are leaving their countries to come here under different programs that the government offers. Sometimes they don’t fit into a criteria model, and you still have to help them. International students, for example, need help and services, and there isn’t funding available to provide those services because they don’t have the legal status. Organizations like ours and others still help as best we can. It’s in our hearts to help people, regardless of their situation.
What does the future of the sector look like right now?
There have been cuts across the social settlement sector over the next three years, which is highly documented based on the immigration levels being adjusted or brought back to the pre-COVID levels. And that’s resulted in some funding reductions across the board, affecting every agency. The state of the settlement sector is only predictable for three years at the moment, and settlement takes seven to 10 years, but at least we’re blessed to be part of being able to continue to provide much-needed settlement support services. As services are available to people, and people know about and access them, it’s crucial for them. It’s an honour and a privilege for us to provide that service, and we thank our funders for believing in our work.
Is there something that would surprise people about your organization or about the sector?
The amount of innovation that we have to come up with in changing our strategies, processes, data reporting requirements and ensuring that we’re staying current with the information that we need to provide our services, whilst balancing the breadth of client needs and capacity levels. We create original programs to tackle a diverse demographic group of individuals or families, providing flexible services, online services, and having a leadership team and a staff that’s willing to adapt. So much work goes into organizations to maintain positivity amongst the sector that’s changing quickly, including teaching staff members new ways of doing things. People may not realize the amount of work that goes into running a nonprofit and the amount of time we provide volunteering or in-kind contributions to make something happen, versus the funding levels some may receive.
How many people do you serve?
I think last year was about 15,000. We’ve been consistently growing because we’ve been adding different programs. Our settlement numbers are pretty consistent. We’ve seen a huge uptick in youth services and clients accessing mental health support services. We’ve also seen a reduction in the gender ratio. Before, service users were more women-dominated regarding who was accessing services, and now we’re seeing requests for those who identify as male or other. Our projections for this year are around 17,000 to 18,000, with a significant increase in youth clients.
How do people find out about you?
Our word-of-mouth referrals have always been number one. We have clients who have business cards from staff who worked here ten years ago, who don’t work here anymore, and they bring their business cards and say this person told me about the services. Community outreach and engagement are the second avenue. We’ve tried to dabble in social media marketing, which we’re implementing slowly over the next year, and increased participation in meetings, events, workshops and collaboration opportunities. But in the end, over our 37-year history, the community, industry, and government know of us, and agency partners know of us. BMC is referenced on the Peel Police website for youth services and our gang prevention/intervention programs.
How important is your partnership with the police?
It’s very important. Peel police, parole, and the other partners we work with in the law enforcement sector, and their trust in our ability to serve. That collaboration and opportunity, whether it’s through our Pulse program, our gang prevention/intervention New Direction program, or our Breakthrough Intervention program for human trafficking, guns and gangs, it’s important to have those relationships, because everyone wants to help clients. We can continuously work with them if they rely on BMC to support them. It’s a great partnership.
What is gratifying for you about this work? Where’s the satisfaction?
It allows me to work from the heart and do something that makes me feel good. Knowing that we are making a difference through our work in people’s lives matters to me and all of us at BMC and MCS. That is the main reason that I’m here.
