“I wish every day was Saturday”: Newcomer youth and program facilitators’ experiences of a community-based resettlement program during the COVID-19 pandemic in Montreal

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many crucial services for youth shifted to online delivery. Yet, little is known about the processes of providing online support to newcomer youth from the perspective of the service users. Say Ça! is a community-based organization in Montreal that supports newcomer youth through language tutoring and cultural activities. Photo journals by six newcomer 12–17-year-olds and group interviews with 11 program facilitators explored how the pandemic affected the youth’s experiences participating in Say Ça!. Findings highlight key elements of online learning program delivery essential to the youth’s engagement during the pandemic. Notably, adopting a relationship-centered approach that strengthened one-on-one tutor-youth relationships and a youth-centered approach that offered a space of self-expression, academic support, and leisure parting from the youth’s interests. Strategies developed by community-engaged organizations are essential to develop adequate services that respond to the changing needs of their populations in the context of a crisis.

Keywords:

• Newcomer youth
• resettlement program
• COVID-19 pandemic
• relationship-centered approach
• youth-centered approach

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the participating youth and volunteers for contributing their experiences, perspectives, and insights that are central to this research project. A special thanks to Say Ça!, the partner organization, for their openness to collaborate. We also extend our gratitude towards members of the first author's Master's Advisory Committee, Dr. Tara Collins, Dr. Natasha Blanchet-Cohen and Dr. Cécile Rousseau, for their guidance throughout the project and valuable input on drafts of this manuscript. A special thanks to Laura Gallo, for taking notes during the FGD and sharing insights during analysis, and to Nicole D'souza, for providing feedback on earlier versions of this manuscript

Ethical approval

The study received approval from the Ethics Review Board of the McGill Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences.

Disclosure statement

No potential competing interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Newcomer youth are defined as individuals under 24 years who have lived in Canada for <5 years (Statistics Canada, 2011).

2 A total of 11 volunteers participated in FGDs, including three volunteers who participated in two FGD that took place 10 months apart.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada under the Graduate Scholarship Master’s program, the Department of Psychiatry under the Graduate Excellence Fellowship in Mental Health Research, the Interdisciplinary Research Team on Refugee and Asylum-Seeking Families under the Master’s Excellence Grant, the Centre de recherche Sherpa-Institut Universitaire under the Bourse d’études Sherpa, the Centre d’expertise sur le bien-être et l’état de santé physique des réfugiés et des demandeurs d’asile (CERDA) du CIUSSS du Centre-Ouestde-l’Île-de-Montréal under the bourse d’études, and the Réseau de recherche en santé des populations du Québec (RRSPQ) grant supporting the dissemination of research.

Notes on contributors

Emilia Gonzalez

Emilia Gonzalez’s work explores migrant youth’s experiences of well-being and resettlement through a youth resilience and Children’s Rights framework. She holds a B.A. & Sc in Cognitive Science at McGill University and a MSc in the Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry at McGill University. Her thesis centers on the perspectives of newcomer youth through visual methods to understand how community-based support contributes to the youth’s well-being and experiences of resettlement in Montreal. Emilia has worked and volunteered with several non-for-profits serving immigrant and refugee youth in the city. Emilia was born in Colombia and currently calls Montreal her home. She enjoys connecting with young people, listening to their stories, and developing youth-led collaborative projects that have the potential to transform our society as well as the individuals involved.

Mónica Ruiz-Casares

Mónica Ruiz-Casares, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and at the Centre for Research on Children and Families, McGill University. She received her Ph.D. in Policy Analysis and Management/Human Services Studies from Cornell University and Post-doctoral training in Transcultural Child Psychiatry at McGill University (FRQS and Tomlinson Scholar). Her research program focuses on the well-being and protection of orphan, separated, and unsupervised children across cultures; children’s rights and participation; and social policy and program evaluation. Her research privileges the views of children and youth and is inspired by action research principles.