COVID-19: Virtual programs and virtual community development: A social work researcher-practitioner partnership to evaluate the community-based virtual settlement service programs

Community-based settlement service providers (CBSSPs) are on the frontline, equipping the newcomers with community-driven hands-on knowledge and skills, accelerating newcomers’ engagement in local communities in particular, and in Canadian society in general. In response to the COVID-19 public health protocols, most CBSSPs, transferred their settlement service programs online, in order to continually support the newcomers in building their social ties and community-based connections. A comprehensive examination of the challenges that newcomers faced and the benefits obtained in participating in these virtual services over the traditional delivery model, especially the influence of the virtual service approach on newcomers’ progress in establishing their social ties and community-based connections, has become a novel endeavour during COVID-19, that has rarely been addressed. 

Collaborating with Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House (MPNH), Vancouver, British Columbia, this project employs a mixed-method evaluation approach to contribute to a nuanced understanding of newcomers’ challenges and benefits associated with their participation in the virtual settlement service programs and the influence of these virtual programs on building the newcomers’ social ties and community connections during the COVID-19 pandemic. The goal is to identify scientifically-based evidence to enhance MPNH’s service interventions and advance the emergency response to better facilitate the newcomers’ community engagement in the context of pandemic and other potential extreme events.


Funder: SSHRC Partnership Engaged Grant (2020-2021)
Principal-Investigator: Dr. Haorui Wu
Co-Investigator: Ms. Vicky Li
Collaborator: Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House, Vancouver, British Columbia