International Student Connect is a service of COSTI Immigrant Services. It's a rare service from a large Immigrant and Refugee-serving organization that is mainly funded by IRCC. IRCC doesn't allow these organizations to serve international students. This, in spite of the fact that those students need services and are increasingly part of two-step immigration pathways to permanence in Canada.

This is where provincial funders have typically stepped in. In this case International Student Connect is funded by the Ontario Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services.

According to the site the "International Student Connect project offers information and orientation resources to international students found on the ISC website and in printed format. Resources include A Handbook for International Students in Ontario, Ontario International Students Guide, ISC webinars and fact sheets on various settlement topics."

What is particularly unique is that International Student Connect offers both online/virtual services and information, along with in-person services across Ontario through partner organizations. This includes a mix of educational institutions and settlement agencies.

The online services have expanded in recent times to include the above resources, the Orientation to Ontario chatbot, accessible on the site, as well as the ArriveON app, available on Android, iPhone, and Microsoft store (for PC download).

What makes this a good idea?

International Student Connect provides International Students with an authoritative information source along with connections in their community where they can get needed help and support. That alone makes it useful.

But from a technical perspective, International Student Connect is connected to the broader Orientation to Ontario program, which provides a glimpse of what an emerging omnichannel information system can look like. Whether an International Student accesses information through the chatbot, app, webinar, PDF downloads, or in-person at a service provider, they get access to the same consistent information.

That consistency and no-wrong-door approach to providing information and access to the information increasingly in seamless ways is essential for the future relevancy of the sector.

You can read more about International Student Connect on their website, or download this brief from the Sharing Settlement and Integration Practices that Work site, as well as watch their video overview.

The YMCA of the National Capital Region’s project, Wired: Evaluating Settlement Online (WESO), is a research-based program that addresses the challenges/barriers that service providers and newcomer clients face in delivering/using remote and hybrid services. The project is uncovering evidence-based practices that Settlement Service Provider Organizations (SPOs) find promising in delivering remote/hybrid services and engaging clients, creating a toolkit/framework and resources for SPOs to evaluate the effectiveness of your service delivery and adapt your models accordingly to improve services, and creating a network of knowledge and promising practice sharing.

The WESO team has created an evaluation tool for SPOs to assess the quality of your hybrid services and increase client intentions to use hybrid services. This toolkit also includes a data collection tool, in the form of a client questionnaire, that SPOs can use to collect client feedback.

Their Quality Assessment Toolkit for Hybrid Settlement Services provides a methodology and tools you can use immediately to evaluate the quality and effectiveness of your hybrid service delivery. It also highlights tips and best practices to support SPOs to adapt and improve your hybrid service delivery models. 

The WESO project defines hybrid services as:

Hybrid service refers to a service delivery mode where clients have the option to interact with service providers both offline or in-person and through online platforms. It combines the convenience of online access with the personal touch of in-person interactions, empowering clients to choose the mode that suits them best based on their specific needs at any given moment.

Why does it matter?

Like many SPOs, you may be struggling with questions like:

• How do you know that your hybrid service delivery is effective?
• What are you getting right?
• What do you need to improve?
• Most importantly, what do your clients think?

In February 2021 I moderated a panel that asked the question: How do I know my transition to virtual service delivery is effective? There were some great insights, tools, ideas, and discussions. 

But the question has hung over our sector during the pandemic and as we more or less formally shift to a hybrid service delivery model.

The WESO toolkit is helping to answer all of these questions (disclosure: I have a small consulting role on the project). 

Most importantly, the analysis you get from the Toolkit will provide you with specific areas where you need to take action to strengthen your service delivery and improve client performance. It will help you to prioritize your efforts, based on what your clients are telling you is important to them and where you perform or under-perform. 

Feedback from your clients is the most essential information you need to collect and analyze to ensure your services are meeting their needs and creating necessary outcomes.

The Toolkit will tell you where you need to improve. You'll know where you’re doing well. You'll also see where you may be over-focusing (i.e. you perform highly, but they’re not as important to your clients). As well, you'll identify areas that are not particularly important to your clients, where you don’t need to focus.

The WESO Toolkit and approach take the guessing out of your evaluation work. Replace anecdotal perception of what is working with evidence from Newcomer experiences to focus on what is actually working.

What do you need to know?

The WESO toolkit is based on the findings of extensive research and engagement with newcomer clients and staff at SPOs across Canada. 

• A targeted literature review - 250 studies and reports from peer-reviewed publication venues, government guides, and surveys.  120 studies were chosen which underlined two major service delivery themes: conventional (traditional) service delivery and E-service delivery. 28 articles that include both models of service delivery were chosen and summarized in a table that included the dimensions of service quality utilized in each model.
• 260 settlement staff members from 112 organizations in 12 provinces and territories were surveyed.
• 15 focus groups with 60 SPO staff
• 240 Newcomer clients (120 remote/hybrid service users, 210 in-person service users), proportional to each province’s newcomer population, were surveyed.
• 2 focus groups with Newcomers

The survey focused on 5 dimensions that affect hybrid service quality and drive clients’ intention to use hybrid services in the future:

1. Acceptance of online services
2. Staff performance
3. Website content and Accessibility
4. Web security
5. Client barriers to accessing online services

A client experiment was created and implemented focused on Newcomers who had not or had not wanted to access online services. The goal was to find out if a small training intervention might help Newcomers. 40 Newcomers received digital literacy training and the WESO team evaluated their experience and feedback. 

Training covered areas related to everyday practical computer skills including:

• web search
• sending emails with attachments
• joining Zoom meetings
• filling and signing PDFs

It turns out even a small intervention makes a big difference.

Two-thirds of participants overall agreed that their knowledge and skills improved by taking our training. 85% of participants have had a positive experience accessing online Settlement services after the training.

A vast majority of Newcomers WESO surveyed and trained think hybrid services should continue (85.8%) and 86.3% of Newcomers surveyed appreciate a multiple service delivery mode.

We know that there is no one-size-fits-all-Newcomers approach to hybrid service delivery. We all know that our Newcomer clients are diverse. It isn’t surprising that this diversity should extend to how Newcomers want to access services.

We need to get the hybrid service mix right.

What you can do right now

Getting it right means knowing you got it right, where you didn’t, and how to learn from what you know and incorporate it into your service planning.

The WESO team has created not only the Toolkit, but training and tools to help you implement it in your work. 

The toolkit and training includes:

• self-assessment tools for organizational readiness and hybrid service quality
• a data collection tool, in the form of a client survey that SPOs can use to collect client feedback.
• a ready-to-use Excel template that SPOs can use to generate a report from your collected client surveys. An automated report directs the attention of the SPO to areas that need improvements, areas that have waste, and areas that they are doing right. 
• an action plan to implement the toolkit for SPOs
• a number of promising practices that support high- quality service delivery. You and your team and organization can use these to continue exploring and expanding your hybrid service delivery practice:

• Tips to Remove Barriers for Newcomers to Access Online Services
• Tips to Boost Settlement Sector Performance When Providing Online Services
• Tips to Improve Website Content and Accessibility

In addition to the existing toolkit and training, the WESO team has developed three self-paced learning modules to enhance your ability to evaluate hybrid services. These modules focus on key areas of data collection, research methodology, and statistical analysis skills. By completing these modules, you will gain the necessary knowledge to assess your services effectively and make informed decisions for service planning.

The WESO team is running training sessions now. You can attend one of their upcoming sessions. If you're on SettleNet.org, the sector’s Community of Practice, join WESO’s SettleNet.org group for info and updates. You can also access their toolkit materials and more on the Y website.

In this project, Norquest College "developed a series of self-assessment tools to streamline access to services in the settlement sector. The resources have also been designed to help measure digital literacy skills among newcomers, settlement service practitioners and LINC instructors."

This webinar recording provides a useful overview of the project, findings, and outcomes:

Resources created by the project include:

• A self-assessment tool designed for Newcomers that allows them to get a better sense of which service delivery modality is best suited for them based on their needs and goals. This assessment is available in French, English, Tigrinya, Somali, Mandarin, Spanish and Ukrainian.
• A version of the self-assessment tool for Newcomers designed to be completed with the support of a settlement service worker to help them understand which service delivery modality is best for them based on their needs and goals.
• A digital literacy assessment tool for settlement workers and LINC/CLIC instructors. The assessment includes five different categories:
  • Information and data literacy
  • Communication and collaboration
  • Digital content creation
  • Safety
  • Problem solving
• An online asynchronous training module that provides settlement workers with knowledge of how different service delivery modalities can impact newcomers based on their needs and goals. The module is self-paced and takes approximately 60 minutes to complete.

You can download a literature review they conducted that synthesizes current and past research on how service delivery modalities impact different types of learners and a final report with their findings.

Highlights from their findings:

• Overall, service providers agreed that the assessment tools were easy to use and that the questions were easy to understand. In addition, they agreed that the assessment tools helped them better understand their own digital literacy.
• About 79% of Newcomers expressed that the assessment tools were easy to access online and that they understood the purpose of the assessment. The tools provided recommendations on the best service delivery modality for each respondent based on their personal circumstances and goals. Approximately 75% of those who tested the tools strongly agreed that the result of the assessment was accurate.
• Overall, Newcomers were satisfied with the assessment tools. Over two-thirds (67%) indicated that they were likely going to follow the suggested modality given to them (i.e., in-person, online, or blended learning). Almost the same number of respondents (64%) indicated that they were likely to use the assessment tools again in the future.
• The assessment tools were found to be helpful to Newcomers, and about 61% of those who tested them indicated that they would recommend the tools to their friends and family.

Recommendations and Further Research

• Additional research is needed to understand the impact of different service delivery modalities. While our tools were developed based on existing knowledge, it should be noted that this remains very limited, especially in relation to adult language learners. A longitudinal study that examines and validates our assessment tools would be necessary to understand the long-term impacts.
• Research on service delivery modalities and digital literacy among learners often covers results from post-secondary institutions and rarely focuses specifically on the needs of newcomers and/or adult language learners. Additional research is needed to understand how different digital literacy tools impact this demographic.
• Additional training, resources, and time is needed among settlement practitioners and LINC instructors to support them in adapting to emerging technologies and to assist them in acquiring the skills they need to support newcomer clients.

The Arrival Advisor app, created by PeaceGeeks, provides information and services Newcomers need to settle, such as finding a job, learning English, connecting with local community, and more.

Arrival Advisor in British Columbia is available in: English, French, Arabic, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Farsi, Korean, Punjabi, Tagalog, and Ukrainian

Arrival advisor in Manitoba is available in: English, French, and Arabic

In 2023 the app will launch nationally, through content collaborations with organizations coast-to-coast. It will rebrand as Welcome to Canada.

PeaceGeeks is a nonprofit organization based in Vancouver, Canada that builds digital tools to empower communities in the pursuit of peace.

Watch the video overview below from the 2021 Sharing Settlement and Integration Practices that Work project and download their full project backgrounder and brief for more information.

Sharing Settlement and Integration Practices that Work is a Pathways to Prosperity project "to share innovative promising practices in immigrant settlement and integration with an empirical basis for their effectiveness."

Six years in development, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Solferino Academy has launched the Data Playbook v1, "a social learning toolkit to help people along the data journey. There are 10 modules and 120 brief exercises, games, scenarios, slides, and checklists to help teams improve their data skills. We embedded data protection and responsible data use across all the contents.

The Data playbook is like a Swiss knife for any organisation that wants to strengthen its data capacity. It contains versatile and comprehensive building blocks to support your organisation’s data journey."

V1 was created for and by RCRC volunteers and staff. The Playbook cites the Responsible Data Forum, School of Data, Aspiration, Centre for Humanitarian Data, and Fabriders in the credit and on applicable contents.

What you'll find:

• 120 remixable exercises, games, scenarios, checklists and slides
• Sessions designed for 30 minutes to 1 hour team discussions & activities
• PDF and editable formats

Overview:

"The playbook approach uses a ‘pick-and-choose’ model rather than something to be ‘read and used’ from cover to cover in a sequential order. It is for teams to improve their data skills. There is a guiding table of contents for the whole Playbook. Each module also has a ‘cover page’ to give you guidance on how to use the content in the module, and sometimes, across modules. We also created some draft ‘curriculum /workshop templates’ to demonstrate how various teams might use the playbook as part of their planning for individual workshops or even over months at a time.

We have sequenced Data Playbook Modules from 1 to 10. A project team or trainer could follow this sequence if they were on a journey of discovering how to utilise data to strengthen the effectiveness of humanitarian action.

All the exercises, slide decks, and handouts are organised in the Data Playbook by topical modules. They are discreet pieces and each could be used on its own Each exercise and handout has a unique identifier to help you find them. Each item was created and reviewed by RCRC colleagues. Most of the content has been tested throughout the last 5 years."

5 steps to build a learning session with your team/organization

1. Talk with your team and make a plan
2. Download, translate and revise the content
3. Modify and add your own examples
4. Organize your team meeting or workshop
5. Give the IFRC team feedback on how you used the Data Playbook and how you modified it

More information:

• Blog post on Solferino for the Launch
• Web landing page on Solferino
• GPDC (the home of the product (American Red Cross))

Watch this overview to learn more:

and this video for information about how to get started: "There are multiple ways to use the playbook. You can use specific exercises or modules or you can review example workshop templates. We highly recommend you modify the content to suit your needs."

Download the entire Playbook (701 pages) (24 MB):

[pdf-embedder url="https://km4s.ca/wp-content/uploads/Red-Cross-Red-Crescent-Data-Playbook-v1.pdf" title="Red Cross Red Crescent Data Playbook v1"]

I've written about Digital Navigators as a Good Idea previously. A similar initiative out of the UK is Digital Champions.

Digital Champions help people to do things online like:

• connecting a device to the internet using the Wi-Fi settings, and putting in the password when they need to
• sharing documents by attaching them to an email
• understanding that not all online information and content that they see is reliable

Core Digital Champion training includes:

• Understanding and explaining the benefits of being online
• Understanding how to engage a new learner who has limited or no digital skills/confidence
• Demonstrating how a Digital Champion can support a new learner remotely
• Creating a structured approach for delivering digital skills support

The aim is that, with support from Digital Champions, learners will be able to use the internet safely, confidently and effectively.

As part of the ACS-Metropolis Institute's Envisioning the Future of the Immigrant Serving Sector project the Digital Champions pilot will bring this Digital Inclusion and Equity initiative to the Canadian Settlement Sector.

The ACS’ Metropolis Institute, funded by WES Mariam Assefa, is piloting a Digital Champions program for the purpose of promoting digital equity for newcomers and immigrants starting in Nova Scotia, with the intention to be scaled across Canada’s settlement sector. They are working closely with GEO Nova Scotia, which provides those in need with internet services and devices whenever and wherever possible, and the Mhor Collective based out of Scotland. The provide Digital Champion training through Connecting Scotland. These are a group of experts in the field of digital equity and inclusion for many types of social purpose organisations, and primary delivery practitioners and pioneers of the widespread Digital Champions model across the United Kingdom.

Watch an introduction and overview to the project:

The pilot program is co-designed with the Mhor Collective and representatives from the Canadian Settlement sector to ensure that client needs are being met and the material is relevant in the Canadian settlement context. It applies the evidence-based Digital Champions approach towards digital equity using a Train-the-Trainer approach, enabling service provider organisation (SPO) frontline staff and others working closely with newcomers, to deliver simple yet powerful training to their clients. They are also pooling together many crucial tools and resources. As per the Mhor Collective’s promise, Champions “don’t need to be digital experts, just patient communicators with a commitment to helping the people they stand alongside”.

The kinds of things that Digital Champions might help learners to do include:

• setting up their device
• setting up an email address
• showing them how to use video calling
• showing them how to shop online

 

The beauty of the idea lies in its simplicity and ability to be scaled. Participants are trained to become Digital Champions over the course of a 2.5-hour long core training session which covers topics related to safety, security and confidentiality, first steps for those new to the internet, overcoming fears and exploring new ideas, and the idea of digital inequality as a social justice issue. They then delivered  tailored learnings to clients in need and/or who may still have questions about internet usage. In some cases, clients receiving Digital Champions learnings from staff may be empowered to become trainers themselves, widening this network. In addition to learning core digital skills, modules tailored to the settlement sector include digital skills related to settlement sector priorities, sharing key, localized resources related to employment search, housing, access to health, education and more.

As they scale out to the rest of Canada, ACS-Metropolis welcomes as many enthusiastic partners as possible to begin growing their network of Digital Champions!

To contact ACS-Metropolis staff, please email Lisa, Sarah or Erika.

Some Digital Champion resources:

Digital Champions Network
Launched in 2013 and managed by Digital Unite, the network provides essential tools and accessible support to help Digital Champions wherever they are based promote confident and continued use of the internet across society.

400 technology guides you can use today with Newcomers
Looking for a specific technology guide to help a client or co-worker learn the basics? Don't reinvent, borrow! UK-based Digital Unite has over 400 technology how-to guides that cover a whole host of digital topics. Written by subject matter experts and updated regularly, the guides are perfect for supporting others with digital skills or improving your own knowledge.

Digital Champions Scotland
The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) resources and information for Digital Champions.

 

The Newcomer Research Network (NRN) at the University of Calgary is an interdisciplinary community of researchers from the Faculties of Education, Nursing, Arts, Social Work and Medicine who work to advance and advocate for research that will inform intercultural practices supporting newcomers across the University of Calgary and the surrounding communities, nationally and internationally, through interdisciplinary collaborative partnerships.

Find out more in this journal article.

More information from the article:

Abstract

"As immigration to Canada increases, so, too, do the complexities associated with serving various groups of newcomers, including immigrants, refugees, temporary foreign workers and international students. A range of stakeholder groups, such as grassroots community organisations, immigrant service provider organisations and academic researchers, have developed knowledge about how to best serve newcomers as they integrate into life in Canada. To date, there have been few opportunities for members of these and other stakeholder groups to work together to ensure that the needs of newcomers are being efficiently met. In this article, we describe a multi-step process of reciprocal knowledge engagement involving diverse stakeholders and led by the Newcomer Research Network at the University of Calgary. This engagement has the ultimate goal of developing a knowledge mobilisation hub focused on building capacity in community-engaged research with newcomers. In order to understand how we will reach this goal, this article outlines the efforts, priorities, challenges and important lessons learned that occurred as part of the multi-step process undertaken to establish a knowledge exchange with newcomer communities at its core."

Context

"At the University of Calgary, there has been a concerted effort to develop a strategy that encourages, recognises and rewards work in knowledge mobilisation, knowledge translation and community-engaged scholarship. Termed knowledge engagement, the university defines it as ‘a dynamic and reciprocal process in which multiple stakeholders (including diverse groups such as corporations, community organizations, health and social service providers, academics, policy and decision makers, government, and public at large) come together to address mutually identified problems. The purpose of this deliberate engagement is for the co-creation, synthesis, and application of knowledge and evidence to benefit the community at large.’ It is within this context that the work described in this contribution is currently taking place...

The Newcomer Research Network (NRN) at the University of Calgary is an interdisciplinary community of researchers from the Faculties of Education, Nursing, Arts, Social Work and Medicine who work to advance and advocate for research that will inform intercultural practices supporting newcomers across the University of Calgary and the surrounding communities, nationally and internationally, through interdisciplinary collaborative partnerships. Since its establishment in 2016, the NRN has signed memoranda of understanding with SPO partners, including the Alberta Association of Immigrant Serving Agencies (AAISA), Immigrant Services Calgary (ISC) and the Calgary Local Immigration Partnership (CLIP). The NRN has also put forward a multi-pronged vision, the central aspects of which include:

•  conducting research that is informed and endorsed by newcomer communities and community-based partnerships;
• contributing to cultural understanding as a form of literacy for collaborative and cross-cultural communication; and
• equipping the next generation with respectful and productive human interactions in a multilingual and multicultural society."

Find out more about the Newcomer Research Network (NRN) at the University of Calgary.