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.

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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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.
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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.
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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.
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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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