Category: digital literacy - innovation - sector research

In this session with the Peel Newcomer Strategy Group, I was invited to speak about how organizations can advance the collective conversation on hybrid and digital service improvements regionally and where we might see opportunities to align with recent recommendations of the National Steering Committee on Technology (NSCT) focused on the Canadian settlement sector.

Mobilizing knowledge means that all SPOs are funded, supported, and encouraged to participate in formal and informal information sharing mechanisms to build, share, and replicate sector knowledge.

Enabling innovation means that Service Provider Organizations' (SPOs’) skills, commitment, and desire to innovate are supported with a shared innovation mindset, enhanced data skills and use, and continued funding.

Strengthening hybrid service delivery means that the settlement sector consistently fosters an enabling service environment characterized by a shared vision of digital transformation, and the baseline capacities, infrastructure and culture needed to achieve that vision.

Our sector has been having a lot of conversations and doing research on many broad and specific areas of digital transformation over the past 2 years. One of the things I've been thinking about are some specific technologies that don't typically come up in sector conversations about digital transformation, but I think we need to start thinking about and planning for.

Let’s reconceptualize what Settlement Services are from the newcomer viewpoint, with newcomers at the centre. It’s not agencies delivering programs and services. It’s a service designed to provide Immigrants and Refugees (and increasingly those with temporary or no status) with accurate, relevant information and supports, so that they can make informed decisions about their new life in Canada and begin the integration process - including preparation before arrival.

A couple of interesting reports on the digital and information habits and practices of international students provide some useful insights that reinforce what we should know and learn about all Newcomers.

Over the last decade, humanitarian organizations have digitized many of their systems, from registering refugees with biometric IDs to transporting cargo via drones. This has helped deliver aid around the world, but it's also brought new risks to the people it's meant to protect. Tech and human rights ethicist Aarathi Krishnan points to the dangers of digitization -- like sensitive data getting into the hands of the wrong people -- and lays out five ethical principles to help inform humanitarian tech innovation.

This presentation is from 2008. However, I still use these core principles in my own work, and in my consulting work with social service non-profits and charities.