Category: digital literacy - innovation - public interest technology

This December 2021 Code for Canada workshop shared their new Digital Capacity Assessment tool for government teams. Building on the work of Public Digital and the Harvard Kennedy School, the tool helps public servants identify the digital competencies that are most important in their unique contexts.

I wrote this article in 2020 elsewhere when we were all trying to figure out this online facilitation/engagement thing. It's still a pain point/struggle, so I thought I'd bring it back into circulation.

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.

On November 30, 2021, Simon Kemp celebrated a decade of the Global Digital Reports series with a lighthearted #NerdStream. He shared some of the stats and trends that have stood out for him over the past 10 years, and answered questions about the numbers, as well as how they produce the reports.

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.

On November 18th, 70 people working on Settlement and Language in the Canadian Immigrant and Refugee-serving sector came together informally to discuss digital literacy in our sector. This is a recap of the event, with panel video recordings, and breakout session summaries.

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.