Moving Beyond: Lost in Translation - Community Knowledge Exchange Forum

Date: June 25, 2025
Time: 9:00 AM EDT - 1:30 PM EDT
Location: Sears Atrium George Vari Engineering & Computing Centre, 3rd fl Toronto Metropolitan University 245 Church St Toronto, ON M5B 1Z4
Open To: Invitation only

This half-day community engagement forum explores how language translation technologies can better serve older immigrant adults in long-term care and community settings.

Co-convened by Bridging Divides Immigrant and Well-Being Theme Co-Lead Josephine P. Wong and Affiliated Researcher Rosanra (Rosie) Yoon at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU), the forum will share findings of recent research and open the floor to a cross-sectoral dialogue on collaboration, innovation, and equity.

While 70% of immigrants report some ability to communicate in English or French as a second language, research shows that many revert to their first language as they age. This shift creates significant barriers for older adults in long-term care and community health settings.

The community engagement forum Moving Beyond: Lost in Translation will highlight findings from the project The use of communication apps with immigrant seniors in long term care homes: What is the state of evidence?, including a scoping review that revealed a critical gap in research and use of digital translation tools for immigrant elders in care environments.

This event brings together leaders, researchers, care providers, and community advocates to:

Explore human-centred communication and translation technologies to reduce socio-cultural isolation in care settings
Examine the current state of evidence on language translation tech for aging immigrant populations
Build networks and foster partnerships to co-develop responsive, inclusive solutions

This event is intended for stakeholders working with immigrant elders in long-term care and community settings.

Registration is required. Due to venue capacity, this is an invitation-only event. If you are interested in attending and have not received an invitation, please contact Anoushka Anoushka at aanoushka@torontomu.ca by June 20, 2025.

Forum Agenda
8:45-9:00 AM EDT	Coffee and networking
9:00–9:30 AM EDT	Land acknowledgement, welcome and opening remarks, opening activities Josephine P. Wong, Professor and Research Chair in Urban Health, TMU Co-Lead, Immigrant Health and Well-Being Theme, Bridging Divides
9:30–10:30 AM EDT	Rapid fire presentations Moderator: Rosanra Yoon, TMU Talitha Brush, Carmen Chan, and Wendy Kingsburgh, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre Leinic Chung-Lee and Abdolreza Akbarian, Bridging Divides Research Team, TMU
10:30 AM–10:45 AM EDT	Break
10:45 AM–11:45 AM EDT	Fireside chat with intersectoral leaders Moderator: Josephine Pui-Hing Wong, TMU Ron Beleno – Family and AI language translation technology perspective George Leung – Family and advocate perspective Julian Zapata –Language translation research perspective
11:45 AM – 12:45 PM EDT	Lunch and world café Working lunch with world café session Future collaborative partnerships
12:45–1:10 PM EDT	World Café Future collaborative partnerships
1:10–1:30 PM EDT	Closing remarks and next steps