Refugee Sponsorship Resources

Ready to get started? Here are some great links to help you take the next steps.

• Assemble a small group to take the new Canadian video training program for churches called Welcome Church. The EFC helped produce this training and updates its map of certified congregations.
• Alternatively, your group could meet to study Welcome the Stranger: A Canadian Church Guide to Welcoming Refugees.
• The Centre for Community Based Research has produced some helpful resources:
  • It collaborated with several Christian groups to make a congregational resource called Finding Our Way: Immigrants, Refugees and Canadian Churches. It’s a free 30-page PDF from 2015.
  • Its packet from 2017 on Syrian Refugee Research helps to describe the experience of Syrian newcomers and of communities trying to support them. The resources also include suggestions for better supporting refugees in our communities.
  • The CCBR also produced a Faith and Settlement Partnerships Research Packet in 2018.
• If you are sponsoring Muslim people, you may find it helpful to connect with the Fellowship of Faith for the Muslims. To find out if there is a network of people in your area working with Muslims, contact LovingMuslimsTogether.ca.

You can find refugee sponsorship resources created by individual denominations by searching their websites. For example this could lead you to:

• Mennonite Central Committee
  • Sponsoring a Refugee Family in Four Steps (video)
  • refugees webpage
  • article explaining causes of displacement
  • 2020 Peace Sunday materials A Refugee People: How the Church Can Choose Welcome in the Face of Global Displacement.
• The Alliance Canada (Christian and Missionary Alliance Church)
  • Refugee Sponsorship: Need to Know
  • Settlement Handbook
• The Salvation Army Canada and Bermuda
  • Do’s & Don’ts of Refugee Ministry (must register with site for free to download)
• World Renew (Christian Reformed Church in North America)
  • Refugee Sponsorship and Resettlement Handbook
  • the Christian Reformed Church refugee webpage
  • World Renew refugee page.

• Another Christian source of resources is the Refugee Highway Partnership

You may also find helpful these resources produced by the Canadian government and other non-religious agencies:

• Canadian Council for Refugees at www.ccrweb.ca
• United Nations High Commission on Refugees
• Government of Canada, Immigration and Citizenship
  • Sponsor a Refugee
  • Refugees and Asylum 
• Refugee Sponsorship Training Program
  • Landing page
  • Handbook for Sponsoring Groups
  • Self-Assessment Tool for Sponsors
  • Helpful Webinars for Those Interested in Sponsoring