Thunder Bay's Right To Refuge group creates website to help other sponsors
'I heart refugees' bumper sticker campaign grows into much bigger outreach project
A Thunder Bay group called Right to Refuge, which is in the process of bringing a family of Syrian refugees to the northwestern Ontario city, has set up a website to share their knowledge with others.
The group, which operates out of Grassroots Church in Thunder Bay, in cooperation with the Diocesan Office of Refugee Services (DOORS), under the Catholic Church of Thunder Bay, started the website simply as a way to track the sponsorship experience, said member Matt Denis.
"We started by just focusing on single family and then as that ball got rolling, we could see there was hole that we were filling, when people were coming and asking us 'how can I do this, how can I get involved?'" he said.
The hope for the website is that it becomes a jumping off point for other people and groups, which might want to sponsor refugees, he said.
"We felt we could offer a platform for other volunteers to get connected and maybe even provide a location where people can donate their time and money, of course, and individual items like kitchen items," Denis said.
The number of visitors to the Right To Refuge website and Facebook page is encouraging, he said, especially the interest from university students, and those in their early-twenties.
Combating negativity
"When they were drawn to that campaign, people starting seeing that there is more they can do, than just putting a bumper sticker on their car. They actually want to be involved with our group," he said.
Involvement doesn't have to mean a large expenditure of time or money, he said. It could be as simple as helping someone navigate the aisles at the grocery store, find childcare, or apply for jobs.
Right to Refuge expects the family they sponsored to arrive in Thunder Bay within the next six months, said Denis.