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YORKTON – The East Central Newcomer Welcome Centre celebrated Welcoming Week Sept. 13-22.

During the lunch hour of Sept. 22, the public was invited to an open house that featured music and displays from India, Nigeria, Philippines and Ukraine.

"We cater to immigrants, refugees and just about anybody who is moving from a different province or place to East Central," said Ruel Guthrie, Community Connections Worker with ECNWC.

"What we're doing is we're celebrating welcoming week because we cater to a diverse ethnicity or background of people. We want to make our community welcoming," added Guthrie.

Guthrie said the ECNWC is a "central hub" for newcomers and aids people in getting their children into school, themselves into school or people seeking employment among other things.

During the week-long celebrations, Guthrie said multiple organizations met with newcomer students at Suncrest College, including the Sask Health Authority who supplied the students with a winter package — with a Sask winter being something a newcomer may not have prepared for.

"We gave those brand new students at Suncrest a chance to meet and greet these agencies and people and to ask for help too," said Guthrie.

Guthrie said the ECNWC has multiple settlement workers on hand to help guide people, including dedicated settlement workers for schools, temporary workers, permanent residents looking to transition to citizenship and also an immigration partner who looks after East Central.