Coronavirus has forced York Region Chinese charity to switch to remote services

COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for online services

Yorkregion.com
June 11, 2020
Scarlett Liu

Due to the COVID-19 lockdown, The Cross-Cultural Community Services Association  has closed all branches in Toronto, Markham, Mississauga and Scarborough, and only telephone and online services remain.

As a non-profit organization with a large scope and influence in the GTA, TCCSA’s history can be traced back to 1973.

“Our mission is to assist newcomers in adapting to Canadian life in their neighbourhood and to provide support to Canadians in building a stronger community,” its website reads.

The COVID-19 outbreak has impacted all industries to varying degrees, said Wendy Zhao, the settlement supervisor in York Region.

TCCSA cancelled one-on-one services due to the pandemic. All programs and activities can be accessed only via telephone or webinar.

Unlike other charities that organize donations for vulnerable groups during the epidemic, TCCSA focuses on providing settlement services for Chinese immigrants and passing on the policies and welfare information from government to the community on time.

TCCSA can help families apply for such things as: funding if they have children who are not in school or child care because of COVID-19; the emergency response benefit (CERB); and the Canada emergency student benefit. It also provides additional support for Canadian seniors, and offers services in English, Cantonese and Mandarin.

Even though all employees are currently working from home, Zhao said the team will try its best to solve problems for everyone.

“The inconvenience of not being able to provide service face to face is that many elderly people are not good at using electronic devices,” Zhao said.

Some seniors have never used Zoom or WeChat, so the staff have to spend a lot of time and energy to teach them to download, register and use the app before providing services.

“Many of our clients are not very good at English,” Zhao explained, adding a lot of programs launched are “hand-to-hand.”

For example, a mandarin webinar called “Hand-to-hand to help you to renew your Permanent Resident Card,” which will be held on June 12, is designed to provide detailed information to residents with poor English and internet skills.

From downloading application forms to filling them out and online payment, a TCCSA social worker will go through the process with clients step by step and answer all the questions at any time.

Some other Zoom live webinar topics hosted by TCCSA including tax returns, national student loans service, how to get in touch with Service Canada and so on, Zhao said.

“We usually have volunteers in different branches to help our clients, but for safety reasons, all the programs have been switched to remote seminars. Actually, we have more volunteers than we can use right now,” she said.

Since the outbreak, some key fundraising events have been rescheduled and many planned activities have been cancelled. The management of TCCSA has no clear idea on how to reorganize the events or restructure them into another form.

“What we are working on is that we’re trying to celebrate Canada Day online with the community,” Zhao said, while admitting that would be very difficult and had many limitations.

The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the need for online services, Zhao said.

In the long run, we should pay more attention to the diversity of online services, she added.