Being a newcomer to Canada can have both positive and negative effects on your well-being. Here, you can find wellness tips that may help you cope and thrive in your new country.
Click on the image to download a PDF of Kids Help Phone’s top 3 wellness tips for newcomers!
Kids Help Phone’s top 3 wellness tips for newcomers
Are you new to Canada? The wellness tips below can help you take care of yourself while you transition to a new place. You can choose to try the tips that make sense for you.
Tip #1: Learn about wellness
Whether you know a lot about wellness, or it’s a new topic for you, it can be useful to expand your knowledge. Keep in mind that your emotional health is just as important as your physical and spiritual health. And experiencing things like change, uncertainty and common settlement issues (e.g. culture shock, racism, discrimination, language barriers, isolation, grief/loss, trauma, etc.) can be difficult.
We all deserve to feel well, but figuring out how to nurture your wellness takes time. Everyone needs different things to be well, and it’s important to find what works best for you. You’re probably already doing things that help support your wellness, such as connecting with important people in your life, being creative, playing sports or doing hobbies. You can browse information online to learn more about wellness and how it can affect your life here:
Wellness basics: Tips, tools and resources
Tip #2: Connect with available supports
Asking for help can be challenging, especially if people around you hold stigma or negative beliefs about it. But reaching out for support can be an essential part of wellness. You can connect with available supports if you’d like. You can find people, services and resources across Canada that are free and don’t require ID to access. You can talk about school, money, jobs, experiences with racism, housing, friends, missing home, family, health care or anything else on your mind. Having a list of people and places to turn to may be helpful. Here are a few examples:
- support services at your school, job, community centre, library and/or place of worship
- friends, family members, settlement workers, community leaders, classmates and/or neighbours
- settlement agencies, immigration partnerships, newcomer centres and/or newcomer youth programs
- Resources Around Me
- Kids Help Phone
- Citizenship and Immigration Canada
Tip #3: Get involved with your community
Community is an important part of wellness. It can be powerful to interact with and learn from fellow newcomers and people from your country of origin. Getting involved with a community group, club, library, place of worship, settlement agency, school team and/or volunteer organization can be inspiring. It can also help you build relationships and self-esteem. You can use virtual tools (e.g. video chat, email, social media, apps, peer-to-peer platforms, etc.) to participate and keep in touch. Remember, you’re never alone! You can start by reading stories from newcomers to find connection and community here:
Real-life stories about being a newcomer
Wellness is an important piece of everyone’s life. If you’d like to learn more or get support, you can contact Kids Help Phone. We offer free, confidential help in English or French 24/7. You can also visit KidsHelpPhone.ca/Newcomers for more tips and info.
