St. Columba Parish"I was a stranger and you welcomed me." For more than forty years Catholics in Toronto have taken those words literally, sponsoring tens of thousands of refugees through their parishes. St. Columba has welcomed seven families since 2016, from Syria, Eritrea, Iraq and, most recently, Afghanistan. Our eighth sponsorship is underway. This page explains how the program works, what it asks of sponsors, and how you can be part of it.
What ORAT is
The Office for Refugees of the Archdiocese of Toronto (ORAT) is the archdiocesan agency that holds a Sponsorship Agreement with the Government of Canada. That agreement lets the Archdiocese act as a Sponsorship Agreement Holder, and it means that parishes, religious communities and groups of parishioners can sponsor refugees under its umbrella rather than forming their own private group from scratch. ORAT identifies refugees in need of resettlement, prepares and submits the immigration paperwork, trains parish groups, holds the sponsorship funds in trust, and supports groups through the whole year of settlement. Since it was founded, ORAT has helped bring several thousand refugees to safety in the Greater Toronto Area.
Learn more at orat.ca.
How a parish sponsorship works
A group forms
At least five parishioners, with the pastor's blessing, agree to form a sponsorship group. Our standing committee usually seeds each new group with two or three experienced members.
The group chooses a case
ORAT presents cases it has assessed: sometimes a family referred by the United Nations refugee agency, sometimes relatives of people already settled in Toronto ("family-linked" cases). The group commits to one.
Funds are raised and held in trust
The group raises the settlement budget, currently about $30,000 for a family of four, and deposits it with ORAT, which holds it in a dedicated trust account until arrival.
ORAT files the application
ORAT staff prepare the sponsorship undertaking and the refugees' application and submit them to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. Processing can take from a few months to two years or more, depending on the country.
Training and preparation
While the file is in process, the group completes ORAT's sponsor training, finds housing, gathers furniture and lines up a doctor, a school and a settlement agency.
Arrival and the first year
The group meets the family at Pearson, and for twelve months provides financial support, orientation and friendship until the family can stand on its own.
What sponsors commit to
Under the government agreement, sponsors are responsible for the newcomers for twelve months from the day they land (or until they become self-sufficient, if earlier). In practice that means:
- Financial support at roughly the level of provincial social assistance: rent, food, clothing, transit and a start-up allowance for furniture and winter clothing.
- Orientation: applying for health cards, social insurance numbers, bank accounts, child benefits and English classes; registering children in school; finding a family doctor and dentist.
- Accompaniment: showing the family the neighbourhood, the transit system, the grocery stores and the parish; helping adults look for work; being there when the paperwork or the winter gets overwhelming.
- Respect for the family's own faith and choices. Many families we sponsor are not Catholic, and no one is ever asked to attend church.
How much time does it take?
In the first month, expect two or three group members to be busy most days. After that, a typical volunteer gives two to four hours a week: a weekly visit, a ride to an appointment, help with a form. The commitment is shared across the whole group, so no one carries it alone.
Our sponsorship committee
The St. Columba Refugee Sponsorship Committee is a standing group of about twenty parishioners, drawn from our English, Spanish, Tagalog, Italian, Portuguese and Tamil communities, which is a real gift when a family arrives speaking a language one of us knows. The committee meets on the third Tuesday of the month at 7:30 PM in the parish hall meeting room, and reports to the pastor and the Parish Pastoral Council twice a year.
Coordinator: Nadia Haddad · refugees@stcolumbatoronto.ca · through the office at 416-555-0142 ext. 20.
How you can help
Give
Gifts to the sponsorship fund are tax-receipted. Use an offertory envelope marked "Refugee Sponsorship," send an e-transfer to giving@stcolumbatoronto.ca with "refugees" in the message, or give online through the archdiocesan portal and choose our parish. The current campaign for our eighth family stands at $22,400 of the $31,000 goal.
Join
New members are welcome at any committee meeting, and there is a role for everyone: drivers, tutors, people who know the health system, people who are handy with a furniture dolly, people who cook. All members complete volunteer screening, and those who will work directly with children complete a police vulnerable-sector check.
Donate goods
Before a family arrives, the committee publishes a specific list in the bulletin. Please do not drop off furniture or clothing unannounced; we have no storage, and the family's needs are particular.
Frequently asked
Can we sponsor relatives of a parishioner?
Often, yes. ORAT handles family-linked cases where a Toronto resident's relatives are recognised refugees abroad. Speak to Nadia and she will arrange an intake conversation with ORAT.
Where do the families live?
We try to house families within reach of the parish so that support is easy, but Toronto rents mean we sometimes look further east or north. The family chooses where to move after the first year.
What happens after the twelve months?
Formal responsibility ends, and friendship usually does not. Several of the families we sponsored years ago are now parishioners and committee members themselves.
Questions? Contact Nadia Haddad at refugees@stcolumbatoronto.ca or the parish office at 416-555-0142.