.svg){kind=small}
As a former Empower Me Energy Mentor, Ghazal witnessed how practical, culturally relevant energy education helped newcomers better understand their homes, reduce energy costs, and access available support.
Trusted community relationships often determine whether newcomers access the programs and services available to them. When Ghazal Sadr joined Impact North Shore as a Settlement Worker, she brought firsthand experience with Kambo's Empower Me program and a deep understanding of the value multilingual energy education can provide.
As a former Empower Me Energy Mentor, Ghazal witnessed how practical, culturally relevant energy education helped newcomers better understand their homes, reduce energy costs, and access available support. After identifying a need for energy and home safety education among the newcomers she supported at Impact North Shore, she invited Empower Me to deliver a Being Safe at Home workshop so participants could benefit from the same trusted information and practical resources she had once shared herself.
The workshop was part of Empower Me's longstanding partnership with FortisBC, whose ongoing support has helped thousands of households across British Columbia build energy literacy through multilingual education and practical energy-saving resources.
The session was delivered in English, with Ghazal providing live Farsi interpretation to ensure participants could fully understand the information, ask questions, and take part in the discussion.
Participants learned about two programs designed to help households save energy and improve home safety: the BC Hydro–FortisBC Energy Saving Kits, which include simple energy-saving products, and the Energy Conservation Assistance Program (ECAP), which provides free energy-saving upgrades for eligible households.
As the workshop concluded, many participants stayed behind to ask questions about their utility bills, the Energy Saving Kits they had received, ECAP eligibility, and practical ways to make their homes safer and more energy efficient.
"This workshop was so useful," one participant shared.
Several settlement workers, along with the Manager of the Settlement Team, also attended the session to observe. Seeing participants actively engage with the Energy Mentors and continue the conversation after the workshop, the Settlement Team immediately invited Empower Me back the following day to introduce the program and its services to 17 settlement workers.
The invitation reflected more than a successful workshop. It demonstrated the value of equipping frontline staff with practical energy knowledge they could confidently share with the newcomer families they support every day.
For Ghazal, the response from both participants and her colleagues reaffirmed why she continues to champion Empower Me.
"I returned to Empower Me because the workshops provide valuable, up-to-date information that helps me better support my clients. I also appreciate the practical resources that I can share with temporary foreign workers and their families," she said.
For Kylie Valle, Empower Me's Western Canada Program Manager, the workshop illustrates what collaboration can achieve.
"Partnerships like this allow us to reach more households with practical information through organizations they already know and trust."
Sometimes the greatest measure of a partnership isn't the number of workshops delivered or Energy Saving Kits distributed. It's what happens afterward. In this case, one workshop strengthened an existing relationship, equipped 17 additional settlement workers with practical energy knowledge, and created new opportunities to connect newcomer households with trusted programs and resources.
It is one example of how continued investment in Empower Me helps expand the program's reach by working through the community organizations people already know and trust.
To request an Empower Me workshop, visit https://www.empowerme.ca/workshop.
