Our History

Year	History
1950	The Catholic Immigration Bureau (CIB) was established under the Catholic Family Services of Toronto.
1970s	New Canadian Immigration Policy – Increasingly diverse immigrant and refugee arrivals. CIB program and services expanded.
1982	Catholic Immigration Bureau became a department of Catholic Charities and was renamed Department of Immigrant and Refugee Services; began delivering services in Peel Region.
1984	Re-established Catholic Immigration Bureau as an independent agency.
1985	Began managing the Refugee Sponsorship Program for the Archdiocese. Increasingly diverse newcomers arriving in Canada.
1995	Name change from Catholic Immigration Bureau to Catholic Crosscultural Services.
2006	Began period of significant expansion of programs, services, and locations.
2009	The agency delivered services through nine locations (including two kiosks) in Brampton, Mississauga and Scarborough, in addition to 60+ community locations in the Greater Toronto Area. The organization had increased almost threefold since 2006.   The Toronto East Quadrant Local Immigration Partnership (TEQ LIP) was developed; CCS took on the role of lead agency of the program.
2011	Due to Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) funding being reduced, both mall kiosks closed.  Continued to provide services through seven office locations and over 100 community locations.
2013	Newcomer Mental Health program launched.
2014	The 18-month Culinary Training for Youth Project and one-year Financial Literacy Project launched.
2015	CCS had experienced six years of funding cuts from CIC, resulting in program downsizing, closures and staff lay-offs.  Many austerity measures were put in place to reduce overhead and fixed costs.
2016	Demand for Refugee Sponsorship Training Program (RSTP) services skyrocketed in response to the growing interest in Private Sponsorship of Syrian refugees.
2017	RSTP trainers are now located in seven major cities: Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Winnipeg and Halifax.   CCS opened a third language (LINC) site in Peel Region and also started the Crisis support counselling and Financial Literacy services in Toronto.
2018	RSTP expanded its services further out in Ontario and placed trainers in Peel and Ottawa.