Settlement, Orientation and Language

From the document: “This needs assessment provides a snapshot in time of urgent newcomer needs in Toronto during the COVID-19 pandemic. The information was collected with a survey that ran from April 15 to April 22. Eighty five surveys were completed by representatives of fifty one organizations located throughout the GTA. Survey respondents were representatives of community service organizations (settlement, health, mental health, employment etc…) and school boards. They were asked to note specific emergent newcomer needs in the categories listed below.

Based on discussions from last year “Talk About” forum, there was emphasis that it’s imperative for organizations to partner and work together to avoid duplication and provide complementary services that are responsive to the needs of newcomer population.

Goal:

To document promising practices and lessons learned around building successful inter-sectoral partnerships; with the aim of creating more efficient and sustainable service delivery models for the newcomer population.

Objectives:

This resources list contains information from reliable governmental and Non-governmental sources. As the situation evolves, the information rapidly changes. Therefore, please frequently visit the source websites for up-to-date information. We’ll continue updating this list with new resources. 

The purpose of the third “Talk About” forum organized on March 27^th, 2019 was to enhance participants’ awareness to mobilize equity objectives into action with the intent of improving newcomers’ access to health and social services. 

The forums was focused on following equity themes.

• Equity informed policy and programming for agencies serving newcomers
• Providing equitable services for newcomers

TNLIP piloted the family health ambassadors model in 2019. The project aims to enhance newcomer access to family health services by recruiting and training frontline workers of interested member organization as ambassadors to educate clients about availability and confidentiality of family health services in Toronto. The project was evaluated at the end of 2019 and the attached report outlines the findings of the evaluation.