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End of Year & Season’s Greetings from N4
As 2022 comes to a close, we’re celebrating many exciting milestones at the National Newcomer Navigation Network (N4). Here are a few highlights of our work:
- Welcomed 289 new N4 members
- Added 129 French and 479 English resources
- Added 126 courses to our e-Learning library
- Linked to 87 organizational partners
- Provided 57 data visuals
- Delivered 23 webinars and PD trainings
- Launched our N4 mobile app
- Welcomed 11 new N4 subject matter experts (SMEs)
- Celebrated the graduation of 25 students from the N4/SPU Newcomer Navigation Online Program
- Launched the N4/SPU IEHPs Online Program, with 57 candidates from 26 countries
- Kicked off registration for the Winter 2023 English/French N4/SPU IEHPs Online Program, with 250+ applicants
- Introduced the IEHPs RSS feed with 257 articles from organizations involved in the recruitment/retention of IEHPs
Our Community of Practice (CoP) developed 3 tools to address key barriers for newcomers – these included 2 toolkits, one for Afghan Refugees, and one for Ukrainian evacuees, to support professionals to provide equitable services. The N4 CoP also produced a position paper to address a key barrier to equitable care for newcomers through a proposed solution; Pan-Canadian Standards for Healthcare Equity: Case for Provincial Interpretation Services. We are currently in our advocacy phase of promoting this standard.
In March, we held the first N4 virtual conference, The Past Is Practice: Intersectoral Lessons Learned from the Dual Pandemics of Covid-19 and Systemic Racism, which brought together attendees and speakers from across Canada to connect, learn, and collaborate within an intersectoral space. All conference sessions were recorded and are available to watch online, anytime.
In April, we were honoured to be asked by our funder, IRCC, to expand N4’s mandate to address the inequities for newcomers in being optimally employed within healthcare. Specifically, we focused on internationally educated nurses and internationally trained physicians, among whom less than 40% of those who immigrate to Canada are employed in their profession. This is a key strategy in tackling the health human resource crisis in Canada. N4 has leveraged its network, platform and tools and has completed over 70 site visits to ensure broad engagement, including our strong commitment to co-design solutions with individuals with lived experience. Our CoP Working Groups will produce key recommendations, as well as an employer toolkit for recruitment and retention.
These milestones would not have happened without the support of many dedicated people. We’re very grateful to N4's Advisory Committee, members of the CoP Steering Committee and working groups, and N4’s Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) for sharing their time, energy, and knowledge with us. Thank you to our growing N4 membership, for serving as our ambassadors, and for sharing ideas, resources, and feedback. Thank you to CHEO for hosting N4 with great warmth and enthusiasm! Finally, a very large thank you to IRCC, without whose support and funding this work would not be possible.
We look forward to continuing our work towards a vision of equity for Canada’s newcomers in the health and social sectors, whether they are patients/clients or providers. As Canada now has the highest percentage of immigrants among all G7 countries, our collective work towards the equity and inclusion of our newcomers remains key to our success.
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