For inquiries specifically about the newcomer navigator toolkit please contact:
Sahar Zohni
Project Manager,
The Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario SZohni@cheo.on.ca
For inquiries specifically about the CHEO Experience please contact:
Suelana Taha
Project officer - Newcomer Navigator,
The Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario STaha@cheo.on.ca
Page Specific Resources
Links to a variety of resources which may be helpful executing the five-step decision making tool and crafting a navigator program in your organization.
Newcomer Programs
The following resources provide more information on navigator programs:
Harold P. Freeman Patient Navigation Institute
This patient navigation program is an intensive two-day training program that prepares individuals and organizations for successful implementation.
The following resources provide more information on refugees and immigrants:
Refugee law and policy: Canada
Canada describes its refugee screening process as thorough, rigorous and multi-staged. It includes requirements for criminal, security and medical screening.
How Canada's refugee system works
A refugee is different from an immigrant. An immigrant is a person who chooses to settle permanently in another country. Refugees are forced to flee.
A SMART objectives Template
A template to walk you through the process of developing specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-based objectives.
“On my father’s land we had 500 olive trees, enough to supply my extended family for a whole year.” Khaled AlBalkhe with his wife Jehan and their children, Sedra, Kenan, Besan, Rayan and Hassan.
Additional Resources
Additional resources that you may find helpful in crafting a navigator program:
Research Articles
Health Profile on Immigrant and Refugee Children and Youth in Canada
Pottie, K., Dahal, G., Hanvey, L. & Marcotte, M. (2015). Health Profile on Immigrant and Refugee Children and Youth in Canada. Section 1: Immigrant and Refugee Children and Youth in Canada. In The Health of Canada’s Children and Youth: A CICH Profile.
Immigration Newcomer Navigator at Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia
A newcomer navigator has been hired for Yarmouth County. Some of the navigator’s duties will include connecting immigrants with settlement services and arranging monthly newcomer club events.
Family Navigation Project (Mental Health), Sunnybrook Hospital
A non-profit program designed to provide expert navigation of the mental health and addictions service system for youth aged 13 – 26 and their families, who are living in the Greater Toronto Area.
United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat)
Working mainly in developing countries and in countries recovering from conflict and disaster, UN-HABITAT helps governments create policies and strategies aimed at strengthening management capacity at both national and local levels.
Health of refugees and asylum seekers in Europe
A special collection of articles to provide guidance to people attending refugees and asylum seekers, and to help the development of community programs and policies.
Refugee 613
A coalition of citizens, settlement organizations and community partners dedicated to providing refugees with the elements needed for successful integration: a warm welcome and access to essential services, opportunities and support.
Ottawa Refugee Stories
The stories of how the people of Ottawa welcomed Syrian refugees in 2016.
Caring for kids new to Canada
Assisting health professionals to provide quality care to immigrant and refugee children, youth and families. Developed by the Canadian Paediatric Society with experts in newcomer health.
“In Syria, I had a shoe factory. I employed 23 people. Now my wife and I have a small catering business. We will grow.” Abdel Raouf Salloum with his wife Amani Al Kesh and their daughters, Ghina, Mona and Maria
CHEO Resources
Below is a list of resources that were developed at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario and may be of use in creating your navigator program.
Interpreter Algorithm
A workflow to identify and address interpretation needs of families at CHEO’s Emergency Department.
Job Description
CHEO Syrian Refugee Navigator job posting, March 2016.
Refugee Algorithm
A workflow to ensure that the CHEO Newcomer Navigator is informed of all patients arriving in the Emergency Department who are newcomers to Canada.
Syrian Refugee Family Survey (English)
A survey to measure the satisfaction of Syrian children, youth and families with CHEO interpretation services, health-care services and the navigator program.
Syrian Refugee Family survey (Arabic)
A survey to measure the satisfaction of Syrian children, youth and families with CHEO interpretation services, health-care services and the navigator program — in Arabic.
Pain Location Diagram (English-Arabic)
A visual aid to help health-care providers understand the location and severity of pain suffered by Arabic speakers.
Pain Scale (English-Arabic)
A chart showing a numeric face pain scale to help health-care providers understand the location and severity of pain suffered by Arabic speakers.
Navigator Program Logic Model
The inputs, activities, outputs and expected outcomes of implementing the navigator program at CHEO.
National Resources for Immigrants and Newcomers
Below is a list of national organizations and their web addresses. This list is intended to serve as a starting point and not an exhaustive list.
Immigration and citizenship
Apply to travel, study, work or immigrate to Canada. Apply for citizenship, a permanent resident card or refugee protection, check the status of your application or find a form.
For new immigrants
Apply for a permanent resident card or Canadian citizenship and find out how to start your life in Canada. Also find out what services are near you and what to expect for your first tax year.
Canada Council for Refugees
The Canadian Council for Refugees is a national non-profit umbrella organization committed to the rights and protection of refugees and other vulnerable migrants in Canada and around the world and to the settlement of refugees and immigrants in Canada.
Acknowledgements
This website is the collective creation of an incredibly dedicated team from Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO), who set out to accomplish this task, and produce this resource, hoping it will be of such benefit to organizations throughout Canada.
Our project would not have been possible without the support we received, we would like to specially acknowledge some of the individuals and organizations that have helped us:
We are forever indebted to Employment and Social Development Canada(ESDC) for making this possible through generous funding. We would like to recognize Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) for sharing their knowledge, insight and continuous generous support.
We wish to express appreciation to our leadership and all our colleagues at CHEO. We are enormously grateful for your collaboration.
Our families who trusted us with their stories and experiences. Without them, this project would not have been possible. Their resilience and optimism is inspiring.
We are enormously grateful to Lenz Studio for kindly volunteering to host our families for the production of high quality videos.
Many thanks to all our community partners who provided general support, and to all their leaders for sharing their wisdom and experience along the years through interviews conducted by our team.
Finally, we would also like to thank all our reviewers for their generosity providing feedback. Their keen eyes were essential for the completion of this project.
We used to conduct paper surveys to collect data in rural areas with limited internet connectivity. Thanks to QuestionPro's offline mobile app, collecting offline data is a piece of cake now, especially when you don't have to deal with paperwork anymore..
This project is funded in part by the Government of Canada's Social Development Partnerships Program - Children and Families Component.
