About us · درباره ما
Founded around a table that ran out of chairs.
Norooz Foundation Inc. started the way most good things in Persian culture do: someone hosted, everyone came, and the next year they needed a bigger room. Today the room is a cultural centre.
Mission statement · بیانیهٔ مأموریت
Norooz Foundation Inc. exists to benefit the local community — with a focus on the Iranian-Canadian and Iranian-American community — by providing relief to the poor, advancing education, improving social welfare, preserving culture, promoting human rights, and supporting the establishment of civil society.
Our purposes include, but are not limited to, these six. They are drawn from our articles of incorporation, and every program we run answers to at least one of them.
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Providing relief to the poor
Food, emergency assistance and practical help for Iranian-Canadian families in hardship — offered confidentially, with dignity, and without paperwork where we can avoid it. Relief & social welfare
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Advancing education
Persian language and heritage classes for children, adult literacy and conversation circles, homework help, and workshops that explain how things work in Canada. Farsi classes for children
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Improving social welfare
Settlement and employment support for newcomers and refugees, support for seniors living alone, and referrals to Persian-speaking health and mental-health professionals. Newcomer & refugee support
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Preserving culture
The festivals of the Persian calendar, the poetry and music that carry the language, and an oral history project that records the memories of our elders. Cultural programs · Events
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Promoting human rights
Education and public awareness on human rights as they affect Iranians and Persian speakers, and support for those who speak up — always nonpartisan and nonviolent. Human rights
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Establishing civil society
Civic education, training for community organizers and new nonprofits, and the everyday practice of a community that governs itself openly. Civil society
Our story
From a living room to a cultural centre.
Iranians have been arriving in Canada for generations, and each family carries the calendar with them: the sprouts started in early March, the pomegranates bought in December, the picnic on the thirteenth day. For a long time those celebrations happened behind closed doors, in apartments and church halls and whatever space could be borrowed.
Norooz Foundation was founded by Iranian-Canadians who wanted to open those doors. The festivals came first. Then the parents at Nowruz asked whether anyone could teach their children to read Persian. Then a newcomer at Yalda asked whether anyone could look at a résumé. Then a family quietly needed groceries. Each question became a program, and the programs became a centre.
We are a federally incorporated not-for-profit, run by volunteers and a board of directors, serving the Iranian-Canadian community across the country and working alongside the Iranian-American community across the border.
Three promises.
They're written into our founding documents, but you'll recognize them faster on the night.
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Unite متحد کردن
Iranians in North America come from every region, faith and political history. At our door those differences stay outside. What's left is the language, the food and the music, and that is more than enough.
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Celebrate life جشن زندگی
Persian culture has a festival for every turn of the year. We keep them all — because the point of a calendar is that there is always something to look forward to.
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Bring together گرد هم آوردن
The newcomer and the third-generation kid. The grandmother and the person who has never tasted saffron. If two people leave our building having met, we did our job.
Who we serve
Iranian-Canadians, Iranian-Americans, and everyone who keeps the calendar.
Our home is Coquitlam and Langley, British Columbia — the Tri-Cities and the Fraser Valley, in the middle of one of the largest Iranian communities in Canada. That's where our festivals and in-person gatherings happen. Most of our services are delivered online, via Zoom or Microsoft Teams. Our programs are open to anyone in the local community who needs them, Iranian or not.
Beyond the Lower Mainland, we serve Iranian-Canadians across the country online and by helping local hosts start gatherings where they live — in the smaller cities where a Nowruz can feel like the only one for hundreds of kilometres.
We share a language, a calendar and often a family with the Iranian-American community. Our online programs — Farsi classes, human rights education, the oral history project — are open across the border, and we work with sister organizations in the United States on joint events and shared resources.
Persian is spoken far beyond Iran, and Nowruz is kept from the Balkans to Central Asia. Afghans, Tajiks, Kurds and anyone who celebrates the new day are welcome, as are the friends and colleagues they bring.
How we're run.
Plainly, and by the people who show up.
- Nonprofit corporationNorooz Foundation Inc. is incorporated as a not-for-profit in Canada and governed by a volunteer board of directors elected by members.
- NonpartisanWe do not endorse political parties or candidates in Canada, the United States or Iran, and we take no money that would compromise that.
- Volunteer-ledEvery program is planned, taught, cooked, carried and cleaned up by volunteers. There is no head office; there is a group chat.
- Open booksOur bylaws, board list and annual summary are available to any member or partner who asks. Email info@norooz.ca.
- Safe programsEvery volunteer who works with children or vulnerable adults completes a vulnerable-sector police check and our safeguarding training.
- ConfidentialRequests for relief or newcomer support are seen only by the volunteers handling them. We never share names, and we never ask for immigration status.
Want to be part of the next chapter?
Volunteer, teach, mentor, sponsor, or start a gathering in your own city. We'll help.