Pathways to Prosperity: Canada

Like you North York Community House (NYCH) has become #suddenlyremote. We had to make decisions quickly to respond to the ever-changing environment. We have spent the last two weeks learning, exploring, managing differently. We are so proud of our amazing staff who are finding ways to keep serving our existing, and new, clients while working from home.

We are interested in how you are doing. How are front-line workers? How are leadership (managers, EDs, Boards)? How easily have you been able to transition your administration infrastructure to remote and virtual work?

Working in collaboration with the Department of Imaginary Affairs and sector freelance consultant Marco Campana, we’ve created this survey to check in with our immigrant and refugee-serving sector colleagues across the country. This survey will be useful for all of us to establish a snapshot of where we all are at right now. We plan on sending another survey in the future, when we are back in our offices, to see how it all went. This survey is not intended to compare our organizations or to be used for performance reviews. This is not a survey about the specific technology tools that you are using.

It is about the culture, mindset and structures in place that are supporting or hindering you from getting your job done. This is not an evaluation of how you are doing your job but a check-in to see how you are managing your new normal. You might have kids or other family members at home. You might be worrying about relatives overseas. You might be wondering how to connect with a client you saw last month, but they aren’t answering their phone. You might be supporting family or friends who are at-risk or already have lost their jobs. There is a lot going on right now.

We invite you to take this moment to learn together. We are hoping to be able to share what’s working, challenges, concerns, successes and failures. This is a moment where what we do individually impacts what we can achieve collectively.

Link to the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/settlementsectorsurvey

Who is this survey for?
This survey is intended to capture the perspectives of individuals who work in the settlement sector. We define the settlement sector as those providing any and all services to newcomers including, but not limited to immigration, employment, financial literacy, housing, language services.

 
Why does this survey matter?
Immigrant and refugee-serving organizations have suddenly started working and serving clients remotely.  This survey will be useful for all of us to establish a snapshot of where we are at right now.

 
How long will it take?
We suggest giving yourself ample time to reflect on these questions and answer them as needed. It may not happen all in one sitting. We recognize that finding one solid chunk of dedicated time to do this might be more challenging now then it might have been pre-March 13th.

We imagine this could take anywhere between 15 and 25 minutes.

 
The survey deadline: April 17, 2020

 
Sharing survey results
We will share the survey directly with all those who provide an email address (optional) in the survey. We will also distribute it widely throughout the immigrant and refugee-serving sector through various communication channels, such as mailing lists, provincial umbrella groups and other networks, as well as on the sector Community of Practice, SettleNet.org.

 
Privacy and Confidentiality
Privacy and confidentiality are important to us. We are not asking you to share identifying information. Any future publications will include only collective information (i.e. aggregated data) and all comments will be shared anonymously. Individual quantitative responses (i.e. raw data) will not be shared with anyone outside of the primary research team. The primary research team is made up of members of North York Community House and the Department of Imaginary Affairs. These organizations are working collaboratively to understand the current shifts being made in the delivery of settlement services.