Going Hybrid: Lessons from Quebec and Ontario Immigrant-Serving Agencies During the Pandemic
This workshop examines the hybrid service model combining remote and in-person service delivery that developed during the pandemic. Using survey data from managers and workers in Ontario immigrant-serving agencies, the presentations discuss the shift from in-person to online to hybrid service delivery in Ontario, the factors that facilitated the digital transformation, especially collaboration, advocacy, and flexible financial practices, and with a parallel survey of workers and management in Quebec, how and why Quebec agencies maintained some in-person services. Flexible funding and the dedication and commitment of all agency employees were key to agencies’ successful digital transformation of services.
The workshop will take place on November 21, 2023 at 11:45am and will take place in English. Register for the workshop here.
Chair: Damaris Rose, Institut national de la recherche scientifique, damaris.rose@gmail.com
Service models: From in-person to remote and hybrid in Ontario immigrant-serving agencies (Valerie Preston, Environmental and Urban Change, York University, vpreston@yorku.ca)
Collaboration and advocacy during COVID: Facilitating the digital transformation in Ontario agencies
(John Shields, Department of Politics & Public Administration, Toronto Metropolitan University,
jshields@torontomu.ca)
Lessons from a comparison of pandemic responses in Ontario and Quebec agencies (Jill Hanley, School
of Social Work, McGill University, jill.hanley@mcgill.ca)
Discussant: Stephan Reichhold, Table de concertation des organismes au service des personnes
réfugiées et immigrantes, reichhold@tcri.qc.ca)
Jill Hanley is Professor at the McGill School of Social Work and Scientific Director at the SHERPA University Institute. Her work focuses on access to social rights (health, housing, labour) for precarious
status migrants.
Valerie Preston is Professor Emerita and Senior Scholar at York University where she also leads the Building Migrant Resilience in Cities- Immigration et résilience en milieu urbain partnership. Her work focuses on international migration in Canadian cities.
Stephan Reichhold is Director of TCRI, la Table de concertation des organismes au service des personnes réfugiées et immigrantes. He is responsible for coordinating and representing 142 immigrant-serving agencies that serve refugees, immigrants, temporary visa holders, and people without status in Quebec.
Damaris Rose is an Adjunct Professor of Urban Studies at the Urbanisation Culture Société research centre of the INRS – Institut national de la recherche scientifique. Since her retirement as Professor at INRS, she has continued her research about immigration, neighbourhood change, housing, and gender inequalities in Canadian cities.
John Shields is a Professor in the Department of Politics & Public Administration at Toronto University. Immigration and settlement are one of his prime areas of research and publishing. His two most recently published books are Immigrant Experiences in North America (edited with Harald Bauder, 2015) Precarious Employment: Causes, Consequences and Remedies (edited with Stephanie Procyk and Wayne
Lewchuk, 2017).
