Refugee 613: Closing Information Gaps During COVID-19

When the COVID-19 pandemic started in Canada, it hit refugees, immigrants, and racialized populations really hard. Many racialized communities, including immigrant and refugee communities, became hot spots for COVID-19 infection, hospitalization, and death. As infection rates grew, newcomer populations made it clear to community leaders and service providers that they did not have enough information about the COVID-19 pandemic, as most of the information about the pandemic was either not produced in their languages or available in the communication channels they use the most.

Refugee 613 mobilized to fill this information gap, and created the Newcomer Info Hub. Funded by IRCC, the Hub’s main goal is to make multilingual, culturally appropriate COVID-related information for newcomers more available in the channels newcomers use.