Webinar: Turning the smartphone into a powerful tool for integration.

Refugee 613's Digital Messaging for Settlement and Integration (DMSI) team will deliver a webinar for the Immigrant and Refugee Mental Health Project.

This webinar will discuss the learnings from the Afghan Digital Service, which uses a private moderated group on Telegram to provide key settlement information to almost 800 Afghan newcomers. The presenters will share how the service works, its strengths and challenges and how service providers can benefit from it. They will also talk about Refugee 613's Multilingual Information Bank, which gives newcomers and service providers access to hundreds of translated resources and allows them to submit their content to reach new audiences.

Description:

Many newcomers struggle to find information to help navigate their first months and years in Canada. Refugee 613's Digital Messaging for Settlement and Integration (DMSI) project has explored the benefits of addressing this challenge by offering newcomers free, easy and fast access to settlement information in their own language and customized to their needs, via off-the-shelf apps on their smartphones.

This webinar will discuss learning from the latest DMSI pilot, the Afghan Digital Service, which uses a private, moderated group on Telegram to provide key settlement information to almost 800 Afghan newcomers. The presenters will share how the service works, its strengths and challenges and how service providers can benefit from it.

Speakers:

• Louisa Taylor: Co-founder and director of Refugee 613, a Canadian non-profit organization dedicated to improving the welcome and integration of refugees through better communications. Previously a writer and editor for Canadian and international publications for more than 20 years, Louisa also provides strategic communications advice to people and organizations working for social change.
• Wazhma Frogh: The Community Manager of Refugee 613's Afghan Digital Service. A former human rights lawyer from Afghanistan, Wazhma came to Canada with more than two decades of work in supporting women and children in Afghanistan and the South Asian region. Wazhma is a trained practitioner in Women, Peace and Security issues and, for the past 5 years in Canada has shifted her focus to providing settlement and system navigation support to newcomers and refugees.
• Nargis Ehsan: A Digital Content Specialist with Refugee 613. She creates settlement content in Pashto and Dari for Afghan newcomers and responds to their questions through the Afghan Digital Service. Nargis is also a Core Team member of the CCR Youth Network. With her role in the external operations, she helps support the engagement, outreach and communication of Youth Network with migrant youth across Canada.