We Are Here to Help You: Testing a Proactive Outreach Approach to Settlement Service Delivery

Authors:Xiaoyang Luo Masashi Miyairi Sol Park Taylor Shek-Wai Hui

Settling in a new country often involves adapting to a new language and culture, navigating new systems, finding housing and employment, and establishing social and professional networks. While free settlement services are available to help newcomers to Canada achieve these goals, many newcomers are not aware of these services. In order to accelerate newcomers’ connections to settlement services, S.U.C.C.E.S.S. piloted the Community Airport Newcomers Network (CANN) E-Link project. CANN E-Link used technology to connect settlement provider organizations (SPOs) with newcomers proactively, instead of relying on newcomers to contact SPOs first. CANN E-Link employed an arrival e-notification and information sharing system that informs SPOs of newly arrived newcomers who are settling in their local community or region. Eligible newcomers who received services at the CANN kiosk at the Vancouver International Airport and consented to be part of E-Link were referred to up to three SPOs in their area based on their destination postal code. The referred SPOs would then contact the newcomer directly by email or phone.

As the research and evaluation partner for CANN E-Link, SRDC found that proactive outreach to newcomers by settlement providers increases their usage of settlement services among newcomers by 12.7 percentage points in the first six months of settling in Canada. E-Link clients are 14 percentage points more likely to get a referral to other settlement services, 4.3 percentage points less likely to not know where to find the settlement services they needed, and 7.5 percentage points more likely to know where to get employment services. E-Link increases the proportion of newcomers with a sense of hope about the future by 5.9 percentage points − suggesting that newcomers settled and integrated better in their first six months in Canada.

CANN E-Link’s proactive outreach to newcomers at the right time increases newcomers’ access to settlement supports and services. Applying behavioural insights to identify the best opportunities to engage and support newcomers along their settlement journey is the basis of E-Link’s success.

Discover more in the full Final Evaluation Report.

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Project Details

Published: August 2024
Capability: Experimentation - Program Evaluation/ Performance Measurement - Survey Design and Data Management
Policy Area: Immigration and Settlement
Population: Newcomers - Communities and Families