Category: innovation

When I started working in the Immigrant and Refugee-serving sector many decades ago, one of the things I was trained on was Paulo Freire's Popular Education approach. Part of my introduction was Educating for a Change. It became our guide for community development. For running workshops within our sector as well as with others. And how we approach our work with Newcomers and the communities we served.

This October 2021 Migrant Worker Hub webinar on looked at how frontline workers and service provider organizations responded, were innovative and agile during the pandemic, providing both online and in person services to newcomer immigrants, migrants and refugees.

We have an opportunity to rethink how we create events and learning experiences moving forward. Simply jumping back into the way we always did things is not the way to do it.

This December 2, 2021 event was an invitation to share what it would look like if you could wave a magic wand and change the way we meet the needs of Newcomers and to shift the way your organization, funder, sector are serving Newcomers now. We are imagining a new way for our sector to come together and imagine equitable futures. We call this community the Futures of Settlement.

Welcome to the first speaker in the Knowledge Mobilization for Settlement Series. Nick is a longtime friend of the Immigrant and Refugee-serving sector. You probably know him. And if you don’t, you should. His most recent projects should be of immediate interest to you and your newcomers clients. In this conversation he shared what he's working on and you’ll want him to become your organization’s best friend.

In this October 2021 webinar, speakers from the IWK Health Centre discussed the N4 Network and the N4-SPU Program, highlighting examples of how the Newcomer Navigation lens has applied to the different department roles within IWK, and illustrate resources available through N4 that clinicians can use.

Presented at the P2P 2021 conference, this panel looked at Immigrants who arrived or settled in Canada during COVID-19 and their unique path compared to their predecessors. The session provided insights on the latest immigration and immigrant employment trends, as well as examples of how the settlement sector has adapted to support the COVID cohort. The composition of immigration classes has changed. In addition, Newcomers faced significant employment challenges as the pandemic had a disproportionate impact on certain Immigrant-intensive sectors, such as accommodation and food services. Settlement service providers had to pivot and leverage new virtual and hybrid models to support this new cohort.

In presentations and meetings about developing digital/hybrid services in the Immigrant and Refugee-serving sector, I often point out that we can borrow much from other sectors that have already done far down this path. In particular sectors with regulatory frameworks, where getting it right isn't an option, it is expected. It's based on ethical frameworks and standards, as well as laws around things like personal health information, etc.

Jennifer Chan and Alysha Baratta have developed distinct yet aligned projects to co-design services with newcomers as a community development tool. Presented at the P2P 2021 Workshop Series, they introduce how their projects challenged assumptions within settlement services, and focused on co-designing approaches for newcomers to thrive.