I recently presented at a workshop focused on innovative outreach approaches and thought I’d share my presentation here. My piece of the morning looked at how technology can help with that outreach.
In this episode, I spoke with Marc-André Séguin, an immigration lawyer with the firm Exeo, in Montreal. Earlier this year, Marc-André launched the first immigration chatbot in Canada. Immigration Virtual Assistant, or IVA, is a Facebook Messenger-based chatbot.
I asked Madison what it’s like to shift from a predominantly in-person service culture to an online-only service. She provides a refreshingly candid overview of some of the challenges they faced.
This is a new tool to help you create a quick proposal for a new service idea. The Nonprofit Service Canvas is a quick and easy, but comprehensive, way to capture your project idea. It’s useful for both front line workers and organization managers/leaders.
Strategy, strategy, strategy. That’s what you’ll hear when you read any good social media or technology in human service article. It’s an essential piece of getting started, doing it well, learning from your forays into technology use, and refining your approach.
In March of this year, PeaceGeeks was one of the winners of the Google Impact Challenge. They took home $750,000 to bring their “Services Advisor” mobile app/system to Canada (previously used in Jordan with UNHCR) focused on connecting newcomers to Canada with services, including service tracking, etc.
In Canada and the United States, most human service workers work in unregulated professions, such as immigrant settlement work and employment support professionals. You can turn to the Social Work field for useful standards, guidelines and protocols.
We already know that technology and social media, including pre-arrival services, are useful in client service. Getting into post-arrival, diaspora, uses of technology is also important to look at. But, what do we really know and understand about immigrant information seeking habits and technology use in human services?
In this episode, I talk with Heidi Fuentes, Online Services Program Manager at COSTI Immigrant Services. I learned a lot from Heidi about what it takes to move existing services online to meet the needs of clients who many never set foot in your offices. COSTI’s success is a great example for all human service organizations about what is possible, and desirable, when looking at online service. She shares many lessons and insights about what it took to make COSTI’s services successful.
In this episode, I’m talking with Joséphine Goube, Chief Executing Officer of Techfugees. In our conversation, I explore what Techfugees does and what they’re learned acting at the intersection of technology developers and human service providers. Joséphine shares a number of important insights for any civic techies or human service workers looking to collaborate to provide technology-based services or information solutions for refugees, and other vulnerable populations.