Ottawa Newcomer Health Centre

Name

Ottawa Newcomer Health Centre

Legal name

Ottawa Newcomer Health Centre

Website

https://onhc.ca

Company type

Private

Founded year

2008

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Community Health Services

NAICS

Health Care and Social Assistance (62), Ambulatory Health Care Services (621), Social Assistance (624)

SIC

Services-Offices & Clinics Of Doctors Of Medicine (8011), Services-Health Services (8000), Services-Social Services (8300)

akta.pro industry

PRIMARYHLAFAGAN

Primary Care for Underserved Populations (e.g., migrant, homeless, refugee clinics)

Healthcare & Life Sciences/Healthcare Providers & Systems/Primary Care & Community Health Providers

Keywords

• Refugee health services
• Newcomer primary care
• Community health navigation
• Trauma-informed mental health
• Language interpretation services

Headquarters

HQ city

Ottawa

HQ country

Canada

HQ region

North America

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Government Healthcare Funding: Primary funding from Champlain Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) and provincial healthcare funding. Services are publicly funded and provided at no cost to eligible government-assisted refugees covered under OHIP and IFHP.
2. Social Enterprise - Ottawa Language Access (OLA): Fee-for-service language interpretation services offered to healthcare and social service organizations. Launched in January 2019 as a social enterprise model to sustain and grow interpretation services beyond initial government funding.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Ottawa Newcomer Health Centre delivers integrated healthcare and social services to government-assisted refugees and other newcomers in Ottawa, including temporary primary care, mental health counseling, multilingual health system navigation, and professional interpretation. Core services are publicly funded and provided at no cost to eligible clients under OHIP and IFHP, while the OLA interpretation social enterprise generates fee-based revenue from healthcare and social service organizations.

Product overview

Ottawa Newcomer Health Centre (ONHC) operates as a multi-service healthcare organization providing integrated health services to newcomers in Ottawa. The organization offers a portfolio of four distinct programs: (1) Bridged Primary Care — a temporary primary care clinic providing short-term medical services while clients transition to permanent providers; (2) Integrated Mental Health Services — trauma-informed mental health counseling and navigation for refugees in partnership with Jewish Family Services; (3) Multicultural Health Navigation — healthcare system navigation and education in multiple languages; and (4) Ottawa Language Access (OLA) — a social enterprise providing professional language interpretation to healthcare and social service organizations. ONHC primarily serves government-assisted refugees, with some services extended to privately sponsored refugees and refugee claimants. The organization functions as a coordination hub connecting newcomers to the broader Ottawa healthcare ecosystem including hospitals, community health centres, and specialist services.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Ottawa Language Access (OLA): A social enterprise offering professional language interpretation support to healthcare and social service organizations whose clients do not speak the same language.

Products and services

• Bridged Primary Care Temporary primary care clinic providing short-term medical services to government-assisted refugees while supporting clients to find an ongoing primary care provider. Includes initial medical assessments, physical examinations, vaccinations, TB screening and treatment, and referrals to specialized medical services.
• Integrated Mental Health Services Mental health services for refugees experiencing moderate to severe mental health challenges. Therapy delivered by psychotherapists specializing in culturally appropriate, safe, and trauma-informed care, with mental health navigators providing system navigation and referral support. Delivered in partnership with Jewish Family Services of Ottawa.
• Multicultural Health Navigation Program helping refugees navigate the Canadian healthcare system by providing knowledge, information, and tips in their own language. Services include home visits, OHIP application assistance, health system education, referrals to health/social/settlement services, and appointment accompaniment. Available in Arabic, Dari, Farsi, French, Pashto, Somali, and Swahili.
• Ottawa Language Access (OLA) Social enterprise offering professional language interpretation support to healthcare and social service organizations whose clients do not speak the same language. Provides face-to-face (Champlain region), over-the-phone, and remote video interpretation services. Serves over 50 local agencies and partners.

Quantifiable outcome

• Serving over 1000 new clients per year at the medical clinic
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Ten partnerships are on record, tiered core, important, minor and operational.

• Jewish Family Services of OttawacoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 August 2018Partnership established for Integrated Trauma Care and Mental Health Support for vulnerable immigrants and refugees. Joint program where employees at either or both sites may be involved in providing mental health care.
• Access Alliance Language ServicesimportantStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 September 2017Partnered with ONHC to help remodel OLA as a Social Enterprise when OLA's demand quickly surpassed capacity and funds ran out halfway through the year.
• Centre for Social Enterprise Development (CSED)importantStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2015Provided active coaching and consulting support in developing the OLA social enterprise business plan. Profiled OLA's story in September 2019. Featured on CSED's Social Enterprise directory.
• All 6 Ottawa Community Health Centres (CHCs)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2014Designated primary-care hubs including Centretown CHC, Sandy Hill CHC, Southeast Ottawa CHC, Carlington CHC, and Pinecrest-Queensway CHC. During Syrian refugee crisis, all 6 CHCs joined efforts to become mini-hubs replicating ONHC services to ensure all GARs and PSRs received initial medical screening.
• Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2014Member of the Champlain Immigrant Health Network. Provides pediatric healthcare services for newcomer children.
• Ottawa Local Immigration Partnership (OLIP)importantStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2014Discussions at the OLIP Health & Wellbeing Sector Table led to the implementation of the Multicultural Health Navigator pilot project. OLIP has been a champion in supporting newcomer health initiatives.
• Bruyere Academic Family Health TeamcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 May 2008Founding partner that helped establish the initial clinic. Dr. Kevin Pottie from Bruyere was instrumental in creating the new clinic and founding the Champlain Immigrant Health Network.
• Somerset West Community Health Centre (SWCHC)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2008SWCHC is the host agency and committed partner of ONHC. Provides clinical and administrative services, hosts donations processing through CanadaHelps, and houses Ottawa Language Access under its umbrella. SWCHC was instrumental in establishing the initial clinic and continues to provide ongoing operational support and funding channeling.
• Catholic Centre for Immigrants (CCI)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2008CCI is the host location for the ONHC clinic at 219 Argyle Avenue. Government-assisted refugees receive practical advice for starting new lives in Canada at the same location. CCI renovated spaces to accommodate growing ONHC staff.
• Medavie Blue CrossoperationalOthersFederal government contractor that processes IFHP claims for healthcare providers. ONHC helps providers register with Medavie Blue Cross to claim reimbursement for services provided to refugees.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves11 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• COSTI Immigrant Services: Toronto-area settlement and newcomer services agency offering language training, employment, mental health counselling, and health system navigation — closely mirroring ONHC's integrated newcomer-support stack.
• Jewish Family Services of Ottawa: Established Ottawa social services agency that is itself a partner of ONHC for integrated mental health services. Comparable on trauma-informed refugee mental health delivery and a potential peer/forklift-partner for replication discussions.
• Mosaic Refugee Health Clinic: BC-based refugee health program providing initial medical assessments, primary care, and mental health support to newly arrived refugees. Comparable scope and target population to ONHC, operating under a similar CHC-umbrella model.
• Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture (CCVT): Toronto-based organization providing trauma counselling, mental health, and settlement support for refugee claimants and torture survivors. Comparable on the trauma-informed mental health and refugee-claimant segment that ONHC identifies as 'limited services' today.
• Access Alliance Multicultural Health and Community Services: Toronto-based CHC serving newcomers and refugees with primary care, mental health, settlement, and language services. Notably partnered with ONHC to help remodel OLA as a social enterprise, indicating close operational alignment.
• Calgary Catholic Immigration Society (CCIS): Provides refugee resettlement, language training, and health navigation in Calgary. Direct comparator on the newcomer health and settlement-services integration model that ONHC delivers at smaller scale.
• Vancouver Association for the Survivors of Torture (VAST): BC provider of counselling, mental health, and settlement services for refugees and trauma survivors. Directly comparable to ONHC's integrated mental health services delivered in partnership with Jewish Family Services.
• Refuge: Hamilton Centre for Newcomer Health: Hamilton's dedicated refugee primary-care clinic offering temporary bridged primary care, mental health, and health navigation to government-assisted and privately sponsored refugees. Operates a near-identical service model to ONHC in another Ontario community.

Broad incumbents

• Ontario Health — Health811: Provincial telehealth and health navigation service offering 24/7 nurse advice and system navigation in multiple languages. Represents the broad public-sector incumbent against which ONHC's culturally-specific navigation and interpretation stack competes and partners.

Emerging players

• AUA Multicultural Health Brokers Cooperative: Edmonton-based multicultural health broker organization serving immigrant and refugee families with culturally competent navigation and community health support. Comparable on the multilingual community-health-navigation model but smaller and more informal than ONHC.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/newcomer_health
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCoGXXBHDPDXKkgde8x6UZsg
• Facebookfacebook.com/OttawaNewcomerHealthCentre
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/ottawa-newcomer-health-centre

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Ottawa Newcomer Health Centre