For settlement agencies:

• Provide newcomer parents with information to help them understand: the provincial school system, the complex pressures and challenges their children experience in schools (e.g. social, cultural, and language issues), the various and different expectations placed on children at school combined with those expectations at home, culture shock, the interplay between dependence and independence of parents and youth, the changing roles for both parents and children within the family in this new context, and the value of mental health supports for children and for themselves.
• Provide newcomers with learning opportunities on how to use technologies (e.g. cellphones, computers, and sending emails).

For schools, teachers, administrators, and school counsellors:

• Provide professional development opportunities for school personnel to learn about: the general experiences of youth with refugee experiences through hearing first voices of the youth, as well as the specificity of the needs of refugee youth (e.g., know the differences between newcomers and refugees); the general, yet unique past experiences these youth face, including possible trauma; language learning complexities (which requires assessment of individual language learning needs); family dynamics within refugee families, including the possible changing relationships between parents and children due to the changing social, economic, and cultural roles and the pressures and stresses they may be experiencing.
• Assess youths’ individual prior knowledge/ school credits to avoid making them take courses they may have already done. Find out individual students’ needs and future educational goals and help them explore other educational programs.
• Provide an orientation for youth with refugee experience to learn about the school system, what schooling is generally like in the province, the curriculum, some common pedagogical methods teachers use (e.g. group work, presentations), and how to get involved in extra-curricular activities, etc. before having to go into the school. Provide the same topics about schooling for parents of refugee youth.

For employers: 

• Give refugee youth employment opportunities, be understanding of their past experiences and try to find out their needs.
• Explain expectations clearly (including punctuality) and explain workers’ rights.