Settlement 2.0 & 3.0
PeaceGeeks received funding from IRCC to develop a vision and action plan for exploring how technology and innovation can best facilitate settlement outcomes for supporting newcomers.
Snapp summary report

In mid-2020, we delivered our Settlement 2.0 report to Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada. Settlement 2.0 encompassed an evidence-based strategic vision and action plan incorporating technology and innovative practices (online and off) to best facilitate positive settlement outcomes for newcomers to Canada.

Settlement 2.0 identified – through extensive interviews and focus groups with sector stakeholders at multiple levels – that innovation is already a crucial part of the DNA of the settlement sector at the community level. This finding couldn’t have come at amore critical time: the COVID-19 pandemic forced service providers to rapidly adopt a hybrid service delivery model to meet newcomers’ needs, within the constraints of the current sector landscape. IRCC recognized this complex situation and asked us to undertake a national expansion of the Settlement 2.0 project – Settlement 3.0 – to identify the sector’s needs in a perhaps permanently changed landscape.

Considering the geographic, cultural, and linguistic diversity across Canada, Settlement 3.0 offered an opportunity to evaluate and compare findings across communities, revealing a diverse set of perspectives while surfacing a common set of recommendations for IRCC.

With organizations having to innovate in new ways in response to COVID-19 – including embracing technology in order to continue delivering services –expanding the dialogue to a national level brought the potential to promote a whole-of-society approach to supporting newcomers in all steps of their settlement journey. We presented the Settlement 3.0 report to IRCC in August 2021.

Settlement 3.0 helped spur the creation of a National Steering Committee on Technology, comprised of 18 experts from across the country, and co-chaired byPeaceGeeks’ CEO, Jen Freeman and the Executive Director of Well and Heritage Council and Multicultural Centre, Janet Madume. Ahead of IRCC’s next Call for Proposals in 2024, the Steering Committee is tasked with creating a strategic plan for the sector, identifying the resources required to advance innovation, digital transformation, and cross-sector collaboration.

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Welcome to Canada
All encompassing
The app is a newcomer’s one-stop-shop for settling in Canada. Whether they're looking for a job, registering for the Medical Services Plan (MSP) or just even just researching where to migrate, the app gives users to the tools to successfully jumpstart their life in Canada, from making the decision to move to Canada  the point in which they feel confident in their status as a new Canadian.
Welcome to Canada is
Multilingual
We are working very hard to have its content available in English, French, and Arabic. PeaceGeeks is currently translating the app into Chinese Traditional, Chinese Simplified, Korean, Punjabi, and Tagalog
Welcome to Canada
Relevant
Through an anonymous questionnaire, the app helps newcomers identify their most urgent tasks and recommends them to their most relevant information and services.
Welcome to Canada
Actionable
We help newcomers navigate their settlement journey step-by-step by providing intuitive recommendations for their next steps, as well as offering Maps compatibility to get them where they need to go.
Welcome to Canada
Secure
We are passionate about protecting data security and privacy, especially for communities at risk. Users do not need to provide any personal information or create an account within the app, and they can delete their user data at any time. An optional questionnaire will tailor the wealth of information within the app to the user’s needs while respecting their anonymity, alternatively, users can navigate the app through its general organization of information.
Community Resilience Workshops
These workshops facilitate open dialogue among citizens in under-resourced, rural, and marginalized communities to deliberate local challenges and responses.
Capacity Building Workshops
These workshops equip content producers, activists, community-based organizations and civil society organizations with the skills, resources, and networks to create and amplify alternative narratives.
Artists-in-Residence
Meshkat Community works with a handful of artists every year who are funded and mentored to create art — fine arts, music, videos, performing arts, creative writing, and more — engaging with various themes of peace and prevention of extremism.
Peace Awards
The annual Meshkat Peace Awards recognize communities and organizations making outstanding contributions to the creation of content promoting critical, creative thinking, and constructive dialogue to strengthen social cohesion.
Digital Youth Network
The DYN provides young Jordanians between with the means, tools, skills, and knowledge to meaningfully engage in digital contributions to peace in safe, positive, and responsible ways.
Joint Action Plans
Developed by alliances within and across local communities, Joint Action Plans promote common objectives through community based activities, digital campaigns, awareness campaigns, and capacity building workshops for women and youth.
Website
The Meshkat Community website aggregates content promoting social cohesion in the MENA region, and creates a digital hub for people to share their content, observations, and reflections on effective responses to harmful online narratives.

Social Media
Meshkat Community creates, curates and shares content consistent with the objectives of Meshkat Community through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube to inspire online citizens to promote social inclusion and challenge hate.

Settlement 2.0 & 3.0 Reports and resources
Together, Settlement 2.0 and 3.0 provide a strategy for a brighter future for the sector that prioritizes empowering newcomers to be agents in their own settlement journey and offers actionable steps to build the overall capacity of the sector to embrace innovation towards more successfully and sustainably supporting newcomers over time.
Settlement 3.0
Innovations in our DNA (Full report)
Learning from the factors created by the COVID-19 pandemic and settlement experiences across regions, Settlement 3.0 explored how innovation and tech can best support newcomers in their settlement journey from pre-arrival to full and meaningful integration.
Download English
Download French
Innovations in our DNA (Executive Summary)
Learning from the factors created by the COVID-19 pandemic and settlement experiences across regions, Settlement 3.0 explored how innovation and tech can best support newcomers in their settlement journey from pre-arrival to full and meaningful integration.
Download English
Download French
Settlement 2.0
Innovations in our DNA (Full report)
The Settlement 2.0 Project strives to understand how the settlement sector can embrace tech and innovation in service delivery and strategic principles. Take a look at PeaceGeeks’ final recommendations.
Download
Innovations in our DNA (Summary)
As the immigrant and refugee-serving sector has gone #suddenlyremote during COVID-19, take a look at our Settlement 2.0 conversation starter on innovation and design to ensure positive newcomer settlement outcomes.
Download
Community consultations report
This report outlines the second phase of the Settlement 2.0 project, undertaken in partnership between SFU Public Square and PeaceGeeks Society.
Download
Situational analysis
This report provides a snapshot of the current state of the technological and innovative capacities of the immigrant and refugee-serving sector in Canada.
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