Techfugees Toronto Talk #3: A Conversation on Refugee Housing Challenges

Overview

As a first step in our housing project, we will be holding our third Techfugees Toronto Talk, which will be operating as more of a conversation than a lecture. The goal is to bring together a wide array of people including those who have experienced displacement as well as those in relevant settlement, housing, innovation, tech, government, policy and academic spaces.

How to Participate

This event requires a commitment to pre-participation as follows:

1. Commit about 1 hour to prepare for the conversation on December 10
2. Follow the instructions in the content pack to select 5 or more sources to read, listen or watch
3. Fill out a quick survey that we will send to you a couple of days in advance to let us know what you content you have covered. (This survey will help us create better break out rooms as we will match people who have read similar content)
4. Attend the event on December 10 from 7-9pm

Note: We are intentionally capping this event at 30 people so that we can better manage the conversation. so if you feel like you won’t be able to make it, please let us know at toronto@techfugees.com

Before the Event

To organize this conversation, we have created a content pack filled with articles, reports, podcasts, websites and videos addressing:

1. Current housing context for refugees in the GTA;
2. Housing policy challenges and strategies; and
3. The current role of technology in supporting refugees in the housing space.

Half of the event will be spent in breakout rooms discussing topics related to the above themes (conversation #1: Current Context & Challenges, conversation #2: Role of Technology) and during the other half, we will sharing back as a group, learn from each other, and co-create our actions and next steps.

December 10th Schedule

7:00-7:30 – Arrive, Introductions and Brief Project Overview

7:30-7:50 – Break-Out Conversation #1: Current Context & Challenges

7:50-8:10 – Share back to whole group

8:10-8:30 – Break-Out Conversation #2: Role of Technology

8:30-9:00 – Share back, Next Steps & Actions

Outcomes / Next Steps

• Techfugees Toronto is launching its working group in early 2021. This talk is a first conversation to help develop a stronger understanding of the current refugee housing situation in Toronto and the role that technology is playing in the space.
• From the December 10th talk, we hope to come away with some common themes or ideas that came up in conversation, some unanswered questions that we should be considering in our working group as well as some critical reflection on how technology could help (or not) with housing challenges.
• We will share further opportunities to support the settlement NGOs we are showcasing in this talk, which could take such forms as volunteering or social media promotion.

Contact Us

Have a question or have some recommendations for content we should be including?Please don’t hesitate to reach us at toronto@techfugees.com

You can also find us on Twitter, Facebook and our newsletter.