The Settlement Plan

If the core of sponsorship is financial support, the frame of sponsorship is a settlement plan. The settlement plan creates a heartbeat that is our group’s call to action for successful integration of an immigrant and refugee family into the Ottawa area.

When the decision is taken to sponsor a refugee (by any of the sponsoring group options), an application must be made to Citizen and Immigration Canada to apply for a sponsorship (Undertake/Application to Sponsor: Undertake to Sponsor Convention Refugees Abroad and Humanitarian-Protected Persons Abroad). In this application, a citizen or group must demonstrate financial support for 12 months (6 months plus start-up costs for Blended Visa Office-Referred groups) as well as settlement support for 12 months.

Part of that application includes a settlement plan.

The settlement plan of the Manotick Refugee Sponsorship Group is a fifteen-page document outlining our group members’ numerous and various roles and responsibilities.

Our Settlement Plan is divided into the following major roles (as there are quite a few other roles not listed!):

Group Coordinator
Housing
Finances/(Treasurer)
Orientation (airport welcome, temporary accommodation, shopping, community resources, transportation, clothing needs)
Cultural and Community Resource Coordinator (first step applications [OHIP, SIN, bank account], health assessment and immediate medical needs)
Education, Training and Employment (public school enrolment, language classes, after-school programs, skills assessment, community job services)

As the lead on our group, our Group Coordinator schedules meetings and ensures all responsibilities are being fulfilled. She is the main go-between with our Sponsorship Agreement Holder, the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa. She keeps all the other sub-role coordinators on their toes and shares information, resources and updates with the group.

The Housing Coordinator is responsible for finding permanent housing but also temporary housing should there be a gap between arrival and taking possession of more permanent housing..

Our Finance Coordinator has prepared a budget for a year, the first year, with intention that the family can adhere to this budget ongoing. She will help set up a bank account with the family and provide an orientation to Canadian banking if required.

Orientation is a simple word, but not a simple process. There are numerous Orientation coordinators in our group – someone organize the airport welcoming committee, to take them grocery shopping for the first time, to explain the transit system, to show the community resources available to immigrants and refugees, assess and help with clothing needs; right down to someone to plan a welcome dinner so that the family can meet its sponsors in a more inviting environment.

There are thousands of organizations whose mandate is to provide support to new Canadians. The role of the Cultural and Community Resources Coordinator is to find those most relevant and urgent to our family’s needs. Documents and paperwork, health assessments and appointments for immediate medical needs,

The role of the Education, Training and Employment Team is help the adults in the family prepare for work in Canada. Language training may obviously precede the urgency for employment. More immediately, school-aged children need to be enrolled in the school system. The roles associated with this group are separated into short- and long-term needs.

While we can look back on this list of major “to-do’s” and think it’s daunting and exhausting, many of us can only imagine what it would be like to do so without knowing the language or culture. What our group is presently focused on is settlement.  Integration is another chapter – perhaps another book – and will require the support of many citizens and communities!

When a door closes, a window opens …

There is so much excitement about moving to a new home. New beginnings start with a fresh coat of paint, maybe some new furniture, a new twist on décor and a whole new neighbourhood to explore.

But when that new home is 8,900km away, in a foreign country that will take the better part of two days to get to? Maybe – probably – there’s a lot more than ‘excitement’ to experience. Our refugee family has been living in a camp in Beirut, Lebanon, for how long we don’t actually even know. All we do know is that their move to Canada will take them thousands of miles away from what was their home.

Our group’s search for appropriate and affordable housing for our refugee family of four was ramped into overdrive when we learned that we could probably expect their arrival in December and not in January as originally believed. Susan and I have each spent hours sifting through property rental management company websites, Craigslist listings, Kijiji ads and tips from other group members, friends and family.

The budget is pretty tight, given our sincere hope that the family will not have to move after only a year because they can no longer afford what we’ve chosen for them. We are seeking a 2-bedroom apartment for $1,100 monthly inclusive of utilities. Of course, proximity to schools and services is of great consideration.

As the search for housing for the refugees continues, the Manotick Refugee Sponsorship Group has encountered the full spectrum from would-be landlords. There have been those unwilling to even consider refugees as tenants, cancelling viewing appointments, or simply not even returning messages. Then there are those that are truly inspired by our plans and inspired to great lengths to help us in any way possible.

And thankfully, this spectrum is heavily weighted on generosity. As our family will arrive with few material possessions most likely, the need for a vast amount of furnishings, towels and linens, kitchen goods, clothing is vast. The flood of contributions has been equally great.

We now have something to truly celebrate: thanks to some impressive searching by our wonderful leasing consultants at Minto we’ve now secured an affordable apartment for our family! A significant action item in our group’s Settlement Plan is complete. Of course, once the keys are handed to us we begin the formidable task of transforming an empty apartment into a home. This task too has recently been made easier for us thanks to a very generous anonymous donor who has offered to fully furnish the entire apartment. Living room furniture, dining room furniture, bedroom furniture, kitchenware, everything. I am still speechless!

We won’t dwell on the bias of a few when the generosity of so many is unshakeable.

By Astra Groskaufmanis

Our Contract has been signed!

On Friday October 20, 2015, our group’s coordinators, Susan and Jill, and our group’s treasurer, Geralyn, met with members of the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa in order to sign our contract (confirming our relationship with the Diocese as a Sponsorship Agreement Holder), discuss our Settlement Plan and the undertaking and sponsorship assessment.

This contract along with our trust agreements (between the group’s individual financial donors and the Diocese) are now on their way to Winnipeg where they’ll be processed at the ‘matchmaker’s’ office (who liaises with both the UNHCR in Lebanon and Citizen and Immigration Canada (CIC)).

David Selzer, Executive Archdeacon of the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa, reviewed the role of the Anglican Diocese in refugee sponsorships, both currently and historically. Their role has grown considerably since September 2015! Prior to then, it had eleven congregations supporting eighty refugees. Now they have sixteen more congregations involved in sponsorship than previously and Diocese is now helping forty constituent groups! Luckily, there will be three more volunteer support staff coming on board to start helping with this effort at the Diocese.

In addition to the individual financial contributions made by our sponsorship group, we may decide to do further fundraising should the need arise. Canadahelps is an online platform charities accept donations and conduct online fundraising. Donations raised would be deposited directly to the Diocese trust account. Roughly 3% is charged by Canadahelps.

As you have no doubt already seen and heard in news, an announcement is expected Tuesday from Minister John McCallum's office outlining the government's plan around its commitment to accept 25,000 refugees into Canada by year’s end. The Diocese suggested that families who have already been matched with sponsors, as we have been, will be among the first to arrive.

So house-hunting has gone into overdrive as we may very well be welcoming our family to Ottawa in December!

Written by Astra Groskaufmanis with notes from Susan Whitley

Kick Off!

Tomorrow in Ottawa an exciting kick-off takes place as our Ottawa RedBlacks will kick-off their first CFL postseason game since 1983. But on October 29, 2015, a group of roughly eighteen people gathered for a kick-off of a different kind.

On that night, a group of roughly fifteen people gathered in the living room of Susan Whitley and Peter O’Blenis’ home to drink some wine, nibble on some food and get to know one another. Yet this was not your average social soirée; this was the kick-off meeting of our refugee sponsorship group. 

Not everyone part of this group was able to attend and would offer support at a later time, but amongst those who were there, we represented a very diverse group of Ottawans, perhaps somewhat heavily weighted on the medical community due to Susan’s profession as a family doctor.

Our most important guest, however, was Mr. Donald Smith. Don is the chair of the refugee working group of the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa – the group that would be our Sponsorship Agreement Holder (SAH).

The Anglican Diocese of Ottawa has been working with refugees since 1979, with the influx of Vietnam families (the ‘boat people’) following the Vietnam War. There were about two million Vietnamese refugees who resettled around the world between 1975 and 1995. Now consider that there are 4.3 million registered Syrian refugees today.

In the past the sponsoring groups have generally come from within Anglican or other faith-based parishes. There are now other groups outside of the diocese who are interested in sponsoring (like us) and looking to the Diocese for assistance. The Bishop and Arch Deacon have supported this extension and though now sponsorship groups must sign an agreement with the Diocese which clearly identifies the role of the Church and the role of the sponsoring group.

Don provided us with a great deal of information but also an honest portrayal of the obligations of a sponsorship group. Our sponsorship agreement includes a financial obligation as well as commitment to a family. Financially, it’s pretty straightforward: the group must cover the start-up costs in cash or in kind for the family to have a household (i.e. furnishings, rent, insurance, hydro deposit, phone, groceries). It was suggested we budget for $3500 for start-up followed by six months of support (which we’ve currently budgeted at $2,400 per month (for rent, utilities, phone, internet, transportation, food and other)). It is anticipated that emergency health care costs (prescription med, vision care, emergency dental) will be covered by the Interim Federal Health (IFH) program which Prime Minister Trudeau has suggested he’ll reinstate.

Our commitment to integrating the family into the Ottawa community is a little less straightforward and will require the help of many. Navigating administrative requirements of government identification and programs is one thing, but also middle of the night trips to emergency and community integration need to be considered.

There are several streams of entry to Canada for privately sponsored refugees, but our best option certainly was with a Sponsorship Agreement Holder like the Anglican Diocese. The UNHCR identifies families for resettlement and refers them to Visa offices worldwide based on specific criteria. These international visa offices do admissibility and medical checks and Don stated have historically approved 90% of these referred families. An updated list of families approved for resettlement. In Canada, it is the Blended Visa Office-Referred (BVOR) program of the Canadian government who circulated these ‘lists’ of approved families for resettlement.

As the BVOR lists began to circulate our group, the first heartbreaking task became a reality – pick one. Circulating the list and soliciting input was a time-consuming and ultimately ineffectual, as families were often matched with sponsors across Canada before we had a chance to collectively discuss. The need is great as is the desire to help but ultimately, we decided upon just the basic criteria: a family of four (for ease of transportation) and to leave it to Susan, our group’s coordinator, to choose. Once a family is selected there is a 48-hour hold followed by 30 days of waiting until it’s been confirmed that the sponsorship has been approved. We were advised that with our new government, this process could be significantly sped up.

We were told by Don that the family will get a travel loan to get to Canada; they will sign a promissory note with the government to repay this travel loan on their own. The International Organization of Migration (IOM) helps arrange travel and gets them started on their journey and IOM staff will be available along the way. When they land in Canada they become permanent residents, processed in Toronto.

The group was advised to cover additional contingency such as private counselling as many are survivors of torture and would need immediate treatment rather than waiting for publically funded programs.

We will be given one weeks’ notice with flight numbers and arrival information. We were told the first few weeks would be busy and overwhelming especially 9a-5p. It was recommended that the family stay with a member of the group at minimum the first night they arrive, but at least until accommodations have been secured. This helps ease into the process and show them the simplest of tasks like how Canadian appliances and plumbing work!

The family will be responsible for managing their own funds deposited into their bank account from various government support services and the sponsorship group. Families with children are eligible for child tax benefit from the first full month they are here (Form RC66 to apply but takes about three months for it to start, though is paid retroactively). We would advance them for these government funds and expect repayment from the family once funds begin to arrive.

Then we set to divide the many major tasks – many hands make light work – among our group. Chair, Treasurer, housing, school registration and ESL training, furnishings coordinating, connecting with Ottawa Immigrant Services, OHIP and SIN applications, community orientation (shopping, bus, telephone, etc.) and immediate medical care need coordination.

In addition to setting the above small army in motion, our next critical step was to get our contract signed with the Diocese, established a settlement plan, arrangement for police record checks for those working directly with the family, and begin the housing search.

AS this is posted, we’ve all just learned that our Sponsorship Group has been matched with a refugee family from Syria. They are currently in a refugee camp in Beirut, Lebanon. The family consists of a single 39-year old mother, her 16-year old son, 10-year old daughter and a 21-year old male relative. At this time, this is all we know but we are extremely excited to get our Settlement Plan into action.

(photo credit to Magnuss Wennman)

According to the UNHCR, of those 4.8 million Syrian refugees worldwide, there are over a million Syrian refugees in Lebanon. Soon there will be four less.

by Astra Groskaufmanis with notes from Alexa Ives

Our Journey to Sponsorship - The First Step

Along with my friends and family, I felt helpless as I watched events unfold in Syria and neighbouring countries. In the past I would have made a donation through a charitable organization and hoped it would be well used. 

This time was different. 

I knew that my family and community could make a tangible difference in the life of a family forced to flee Syria for a refugee camp. Having worked for several years in a community health centre, I had the opportunity to get know many new Canadians and the struggles they face, both with the immigration process and upon arrival in Canada. With our pooled resources and broad collection of skills, I knew we would be able to welcome and support a family as they made a new life in Canada. 

I sent a "putting out feelers" email to my friends and family and was immediately rewarded with dozens of replies from people who were looking for a way to make a difference. Some offered generous financial support while others offered time, specific skills, donations of furniture and clothing as well as help with settlement in the community. Those who offered help included friends who were immigrants themselves or adult children of refugees fleeing earlier conflicts.

After researching the Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) site, I thought of completing a "group of five" application. In the meantime, I contacted the Ottawa United Way for any information or assistance they could offer. Fortunately, I connected with Joan Highet who suggested we also consider working with an existing Sponsorship Agreement Holder (SAH). 

My next fortunate connection was with Donald Smith, the chair of the refugee working group with the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa, a sponsorship agreement holder. Donald welcomed our group as a constituent group of the SAH. He provided us with huge amounts of information about the sponsorship process and agreed to meet with our group for an evening. Following that meeting, we knew that this was the particular path to sponsorship that we would take. 

Next, we contacted the sponsorship support group at the University of Ottawa for pro bono legal assistance; however, the sponsoring process is much more streamlined working through a SAH and little was needed in this area. 

We have organized ourselves based on the information provided by the Diocese as well as that on the CIC site and have come up with a detailed settlement plan for when the family arrives. These details include arranging housing and medical care, registering in schools and English as a second language programs, helping with OHIP, SIN and bus pass applications, helping with a job search and even details such as stocking a pantry. An even larger responsibility will be the social and psychological support we will need to provide for the family upon arrival. Many refugees have been victims of, or exposed to, violence and torture. Experiencing these horrors and also being uprooted from your home is difficult to imagine. Members of our group have offered to welcome the family into their homes in the early days after arrival as well as to orient them to the community and available services. 

We are now at the point of being matched to a blended visa office refugee (BVOR) family. As soon as we are matched and have an approximate arrival date, it will be time to put our plans in action. We realize that the ground work we have done is just the tip of the iceberg in the sponsorship process and anticipate many challenges to come. We have also come to realize how many refugees from other countries are in camps and on waiting lists for Canadian sponsorship. Our hope is that their applications will not take a back seat to the Syrian crisis. While our official responsibility as sponsors will end at 12 months, we foresee a long lasting relationship with the sponsored family members in the years to follow. As Don Smith of the Anglican Diocese put it: "Refugee sponsorship is a life changing event." and we feel privileged to be a part of it.

by Susan Whitley

Co-ordinator, Manotick Refugee Sponsorship Group