The pandemic has forced us all to interact and connect in a new way. Even as stay-at-home orders start to lift and provinces begin reopening in phases, life as we knew it may never be the same. As we enter into the new normal, we have to be more intentional about building community. Depending on where you are in your journey as a newcomer to Canada, your success is as strong as the connections you build.
Table of Contents
Building community with friends and family
You may think it is easy to keep up with friends and family during this pandemic with WhatsApp, Skype, and many other apps. However, forwarding more scary news headlines about covid19 and funny memes is not keeping in touch.
In the absence of making plans to spend time with each other, consider setting up dedicated zoom calls. Celebrate birthdays, milestones and holidays by setting up time with your friends and family. Some families have moved their movie nights and family dinners over to zoom. People without a Zoom Pro account are usually limited to 40mins. As much as possible, avoid putting your company in an awkward position by using your company zoom account.
Other free options allow you to spend as much time as you can, including:
- SkypeMeetNow allows you to create a free video meeting without needing to sign up for the service.
- Cisco Webex has a free version, and it can have from 50 to 100 participants and does not have a 40-minutes limit on meetings.
- Google Meet is the new Hangouts Meet and recently announced that it would be made available to all Gmail service users
- Google Hangouts can be used for video calls for up to 10 people.
A few fun apps have become more popular and recently launched to bring our favourite hangouts virtual. Check out thrillist’s Online Game apps, and paperlesspost for 12 ideas for virtual parties.
Family reunification programs temporarily on hold
As immigrants, we are used to spending time away from our families and friends from around the world. Not having the option to hop on a plane to visit friends or family for the foreseeable future is still a challenge. We have had to cancel our annual, or bi-annual trips overseas. In addition to our usual one on one video calls, we can adopt some of these group hangouts to deepen our relationships.
Canada encourages immigrants to reunite with their families through various family reunification programs. At the moment, all of those programs are currently on hold. We’ll be checking periodically online for when these programs resume and update our post Top 5 immigration updates you need to know for 2020.
Building community in the neighbourhood
As an immigrant in Canada, building a community in your immediate neighbourhood is essential to your settlement success. It takes a longer time to become a meaningful part of the city, and this should be a top priority. In these times of physical distancing, healthy communities are thriving as neighbours support each other and their community businesses. Canada is generally one of the most welcoming countries for immigrants with many multicultural neighbourhoods. We dive into the importance of building relationships in our post 11 mistakes newcomers need to avoid.
Many community centers, public libraries, schools and places of worship have been temporarily closed due to COVID19 stay at home orders. So many have taken their events online via virtual events and social media groups. As a new immigrant in Canada, it is more important than ever to strengthen your ties to the community. We are more isolated from friends and family and may not receive visitors from outside of Canada for a while.
Stay Engaged and Support vulnerable community members
As we move through the various phases of reopening, you want to be included as gatherings slowly increase. Take the time to engage with your local community on their social media pages, attend a few of their events and, if you are still financially able, to support their calls for donations. If you haven’t had a chance to engage with your local community centers before the shutdown began, you can start with your local public library and search for your community center. Check out the Community Centres pages for Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary and other cities in Canada.
Once we enter the second and third phase of reopening, there will be many communities decimated by the shutdown. If you can assist by volunteering or donating to a community food centre in Canada, please do so. Nothing builds meaningful connections, such as working in service to those who are less fortunate than you. As a newcomer, volunteering with others will help to form strong bonds quickly.
Building Community with professionals
The innovation in the business community to stay connected during this pandemic has been astounding. It is vital to continue to build these connections, or you will be even more isolated. Many flagship business conferences that would set you back thousands of dollars in ticket sales and travel have now been moved online for free.
- The well-known Adobe Summit moved online, and it offers a wealth of information that is now more accessible than before.
- Bizzbo’s IN Person virtual conference for marketers and event planners
- Microsoft’s Build conference
- Women in Tech’s Global conference on June 10-12
The content of these virtual conferences will be available even after the meetings are over.
Building a professional community also involves standing with those who have been most impacted by the pandemic. Many people have been brave enough to publicly tell their stories of job loss and hardship on LinkedIn. The people in the business community have rallied behind them.
In your own genuine way, I encourage you to do so if you are comfortable sharing your vulnerability online. I fully support positively telling your story, writing personal articles and inspiring posts on Linkedin. However, there is a fine line between rants, cries for attention and disrespecting others in your posts. You can check out this post to learn more on the dos and don’ts of Linkedin etiquette.
Take the time to launch your own initiatives
Isolation and staying at home also brings out the innovators in us all as human beings have an innate ability to thrive. There are a lot of people who are starting businesses online, launching blogs and other online communities. If you are thinking of launching something online, make sure the content and value you deliver is somewhat evergreen and can be related to general times of hardship. We’d also like to share your story on our social media pages, so do contact us to share your story.
I highly recommend these resources for inspiration:
Articles:
Building community with immigrants
Following the footsteps of the business community are the immigrant support services. As a new immigrant, you grow and learn from the success of other immigrants who have successfully settled here in Canada.
Being located in BC, at StartGrowPivot, we strongly support many of these services, such as MOSAIC and NewtoBC. The best places to find other immigrant support services are through the IRCC website, public libraries and community centers. As you build community in your neighbourhood and professionally, you will connect with other immigrants on the same journey.
Much of my success and the success of other immigrants were through the connections they made in the community. I make it a point to attend two to three immigrant focused conferences and events a year to stay connected to the community. I remain inspired by the success stories of other immigrants who we highlight on our social media. Take a bold step and reach out to successful immigrants that you admire to learn from them. Some of the immigrant services offer mentorship programs. The best people to learn from are those who have walked in your shoes.
There are a few resources that I highly recommended to stay informed of immigrant community events:
Stay in touch with other immigrants on the journey to find their dream careers in Canada by joining our StartGrowPivot SGP Achievers community.
"We're here for a reason. I believe a bit of the reason is to throw little torches out to lead people through the dark."
Building community with local businesses
Local and small businesses are the backbone of any economy, and Canada is no exception. As a new immigrant, you support and engage with local companies daily. A large number of small companies are immigrant-owned. Immigrants often start small businesses to bring a piece of their home country to Canada. By patronizing some international food stores, arts and crafts stores and other services, you are connecting with both the immigrant and the local community.
For the past three months, our neighbourhood restaurants, coffee shops, book stores, art galleries and various offices have been closed. Local businesses will be the hardest hit from this shutdown. Make it a point to frequent the local markets as things start to reopen in May and June. These businesses are still offering delivery, curbside pick up and gift cards for future use.
Go the extra mile to speak to the people in the local businesses and engage local businesses for your everyday services and needs.
Engage with local businesses
Here a few ways you can engage with local businesses:
- Host events at their venues: If you are planning on hosting a local event or meet up, start with local businesses first.
- Gift Cards: Purchase gift cards from their websites or through Groupon
- Referrals: Leave glowing google and yelp reviews whenever you have positive experiences using their services
- Part-time work: Approach them about part-time work or volunteering while you are searching for a job. You will be surprised at how strong the local business network is. By being a part of this robust network, you can share connections and referrals.
Engage with the local chamber of commerce of your city. At StartGrowPivot, we follow the BC Chamber of Commerce and the local chambers of commerce and boards of trade they support.
Following these tips will help you maintain and build strong relationships in all areas of your community life. Making genuine community connections is essential to your success, mental health and well being.