Meet Lenya Wilks, manager of Surrey LIP

After a busy few months — which included hosting the first in-person Surrey Local Immigration Partnership (LIP) council meeting post-pandemic and organizing the very successful Surrey World Refugee Day! — it’s time to officially introduce Lenya Wilks, the new manager of Surrey LIP, convened by DIVERSEcity Community Resources Society.

Lenya comes to this role with many years of project development experience, in managing projects aimed at developing career potentials in the vocation educational field specifically working with youth in the BIPOC community.

Lenya is a Jamaican native who migrated to Canada in 2016 to pursue her undergraduate at Brandon University in Manitoba. She brings with her experience as a local immigration partnership project coordinator from Brandon, Manitoba. Over the years, Lenya has developed a track record of building strong relationships with community stakeholders, post-secondary institution, the Indigenous community, the newcomer community, rural communities and youth.

As a lived immigrant herself, she understands the struggles and challenges a newcomer experiences when trying to navigate a new system, especially now since having to do that twice by making Surrey her new home.  Lenya hopes to bring all her experiences, challenges and successes into the work that she will be doing with the Surrey LIP.

Here’s one of her favourite quotations:

“In every community, there is work to be done. In every nation, there are wounds to heal. In every heart, there is the power to do it. —Marianne Williamson

Author: SurreyLIP