Bilingual symposium on official language minority communities

Nov 20, 2025 — 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.

The Groupe de recherche sur la formation et les pratiques en santé et service social en contexte francophone minoritaire (GReFoPS), in collaboration with several partners—including the CNFS-Volet Université d’Ottawa and the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Ottawa— is pleased to invite you to a bilingual symposium on social or health services for Official Language Minority Communities (OLMCs) on November 20, 2025. This symposium, entitled “Collaborating for inclusive and high-quality social and health services for official language minority communities’’, aims to optimize and enhance collaboration for inclusive, high-quality social and health services for official language minority communities.

This symposium will provide insight into the perspectives of various stakeholders, including students, practicum supervisors, educators and employers, on social and health services intended for OLMCs.

Photo of women smiling, listening to a conference

How to participate?

Register here

Cost: Free

Date: November 20, 2025

Time: From 4 p.m. in person and from 5 p.m. online, until 8 p.m.

Location: BMO Heart and LEE 142, Lees campus (200 Lees Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 6N5) and online

Food and refreshments will be provided throughout the event.

To learn more about the event, please visit the GReFoPS website.

If you have any questions, please contact us at [email protected].

Accessibility

If you require accommodation, please contact us as soon as possible.

Agenda

Time	Activities	Rooms
4 – 5 p.m.	Welcome & networking Research poster presentations Food and refreshments	BMO Social Heart
5 p.m.	Online platform opens (link to follow)	LEE 142
5:15 – 5:35 p.m.	Opening remarks by the Master of Ceremonies, Isabelle Giroux, Full Professor at the School of Nutrition Sciences, Lead of the Interprofessional Collaboration Working Group, Faculty of Health Sciences, and Co-Lead of GReFoPS Land acknowledgement by Lucie Thibault, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ottawa
5:40 – 7:30 p.m.	Sharing of stakeholders’ perspectives (in person and online) Jaquan Erythsee, Student in Nursing, University of Ottawa Melissa Chik, Student in Human Kinetics, University of Ottawa Sharon Johnston, Associate Vice President, Research and Scientific Director, Institut du Savoir Montfort and Associate Professor, Department of Family Medicine, University of Ottawa Manon Tremblay, Director, Santé Consortium national de formation en santé Antoine Desilets, Director, Société Santé en français Nikolay Slavkov, Full Professor, Faculty of Arts and Research Chair in Language Policy, Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute (OLBI) Cécile Paquette, President, Fédération des aînés et des retraités francophones de l’Ontario Roger Farley, Chair of Ontario SPOR Support Unit’s Patient Partner Advisory Council Krystal Kehoe MacLeod, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Bruyère Health Research Institute
7:30 – 8 p.m.	Closing remarks and acknowledgements Message from GReFoPS and its interprofessional team: Isabelle Giroux, Full Professor, School of Nutrition Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, and Co-Lead of GReFoPS, Sébastien Savard, Full Professor and Undergraduate Program Director, School of Social Work, Faculty of Social Sciences, and Co-Lead of GReFoPS, Jane Tyerman, Assistant Professor, School of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, Josée Benoit, Senior Research Associate, GReFoPS, Cris-Carelle Kengneson, Project Coordinator, GReFoPS Poster presentation awards Presented by members of the Scientific Committee: Bernard Pinet, Project Manager, Research, CNFS – Volet Université d’Ottawa, Bernard Pinet, Manager, Research, CNFS – Volet Université d’Ottawa, Charles Godbout, Manager, Research and Analysis, Consortium national de formation en santé, Sathya Karunananthan, Associate Professor, School of Interdisciplinary Health Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences and Ottawa Academic Health Network University Research Chair (OAHN-URC) in Language as a Social Determinant of Health Reflections on the event’s objectives Closing words

Partners and funding

This symposium is organized by the GReFoPS in collaboration with many partners including the Faculty of Health Sciences of the University of Ottawa, the CNFS – Volet Université d’Ottawa, the CNFS – Secrétariat national, the Réseau FORCES Santé and the Institut du Savoir Montfort.

This symposium is made possible through financial support from Health Canada via the CNFS – Volet Université d'Ottawa. It is also part of a project partially funded by the Government of Canada through the Work-Integrated Innovative Learning initiative. This project is also partially funded by ECAIT Canada's iHub Innovation Hub.