D HYG 470 - Migrante Alberta

Who was your community partner, and can you describe the project objectives?

Our community service-learning partner was Migrante Alberta. Migrante Alberta is a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting migrant workers from workplace exploitation and discrimination by working closely with labor unions and community-based organizations to raise public awareness. Migrante has designed a course to help migrant workers and other immigrants to prepare to write the Canadian English Language Proficiency Index Program (CELPIP) exam. The exam entails students to provide proficient English competence in the categories of reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Our main project objective was to support and aid in the learning of the Migrante students through coaching and feedback to enhance their understanding and skills in these four categories.

What was the biggest takeaway from your CSL placement?

Throughout our time at Migrante Alberta and from the experiences and interactions that we had with the students, we gained a greater sense of cultural competence and cultural awareness. We learned that various social determinants of health impact the oral health of migrants. 

We learned of how migrants experience social exclusion. For example, we learned that migrants have to pay taxes in Canada yet do not receive access to social goods like health care services. - We learned that there are various routes to advocacy because we saw examples of how Migrante Alberta participated in them and how impactful they can be, such as digital advocacy with their websites and educational advocacy with their campaigns. 

We learned about the importance of cultural safety. For migrants to feel culturally safe, there needs to be people who are willing to have cultural humility and make decisions to help migrants that are grounded in empathy. 

Lastly, we learned about mentorship. Helping with the CELPIP exam, we learned how supporting someone required bidirectional communication and active listening skills to understand someone’s learning needs.

How can you apply any newly gained knowledge/skills to your future endeavors (courses/employment/volunteering)?

We believe that our time with Migrante Alberta was truly an eye-opening experience and will impact our future practice as dental hygienists. We have come to better understand our role in serving vulnerable populations like migrants and addressing the social determinants that affect their overall and oral health. Additionally, we witnessed firsthand the power of advocacy through Migrante Alberta's initiatives, inspiring us to address oral health inequities in our future careers.