A new committee designed to help refugee families settling in town is taking shape.
The Okotoks and District Refugee Support Committee has been formed and the group formalized its governance rules and guidelines at its second meeting on Feb. 25.
The committee is open to all residents of the region and is chaired by Okotoks Mayor Bill Robertson. Becoming a voting member comes with a one-time fee of $5, but anyone can attend a meeting and speak to an issue.
The group consists of church leaders and members, representatives from the Town, Literacy for Life, Foothills Catholic Immigration Services (FCIS) and school divisions, as well as sponsorship groups and anyone interested in being involved. The group plans to meet on a monthly basis to prepare resources necessary to make refugee families feel at home in the area and settle them into Canadian culture.
Canada’s immigration minister John McCallum announced on Saturday the government reached the Liberal Party’s commitment to bring 25,000 refugees to Canada.
At this time, about six families are expected to arrive in the Okotoks area within the next few months.
“We will help provide financial resources by fundraising on behalf of sponsorship groups,” said vice-chair Julia Kimmett. “We really want to get into the community and provide education to residents to create a welcoming community for misplaced families.”
The committee has created a Facebook page – Okotoks Refugee Support Fund – to connect with the community whenever it requires volunteers, resources or items for families, she said.
Many members offer expertise in their field, said Kimmett, so the group can help organize translation and interpretation services and point resettled people in the right direction for finding employment.
“We’re really in our initial phase,” she said. “This may not be long-term, but we’re formalizing and organizing our procedures to be prepared in case it does become something that lasts.”
Ken Braat, chair of the Syrian refugee committee of St. Francis de Sales parish in High River and St. Andrew’s Parish in Vulcan, attended the meeting to provide an update on two Syrian families who have called High River home for the past two months and offer advice and support.
He said the Okotoks and District committee is off to a good start.
“When you’re building your committees, you start off and you’re not sure, you don’t have a direction,” he said at the meeting. “You guys have a pretty good group of people and everyone is focused, and you’ve got a lot planning, which is lucky.”
When they heard two families were coming to High River, the parish had just one week to prepare. They learned a lot of lessons along the way, he said.
One of the most important pieces of the puzzle, he said, is having a sub-committee dedicated to helping the adults find employment.
“You want to get those people lined up,” he said. “The committee we put together spent a week driving them around and filling out application after application.”
He recommended connecting adults with resources such as McBride Career Group, to help build resumes and learn where to search for jobs. But, he said, it is just as important to have someone who has been successful in business to help them complete applications and approach local businesses.
“The objective is to get people to work,” said Braat. “If you connect these people with community leaders to help them get out there, you’re going to accelerate their results.”
The Okotoks committee agreed, forming a sub-committee to aid refugee families in finding employment.
“I do see the need for this,” said Robertson. “When the refugees get here we want to get them out working as soon as possible.”
No families have arrived yet, but representatives from a number of local institutions said they are busy preparing resources to help the families adjust to life in Canada.
Literacy for Life is investigating ways to help the families learn English, while McBride Career Group is prepared to assist with preparing resumes and launching job hunts.
The Okotoks Public Library has taken steps to ensure it is a welcoming environment for the misplaced families, including ordering books in Arabic and providing Arabic-to-English dictionaries.
“We’re just trying to collect resources families might like,” said Lara Grunow, assistant librarian at the Okotoks Library.
The library has a Mango Languages program, an e-resource available to all cardholders, which will allow families to practice their English-speaking skills on the computer, she said.
In addition, she said, any residents interested in learning basic Arabic to help welcome families to town could access the program.
She said the library is hoping to partner with FCIS to ensure families are brought into the library and familiarized with the services it offers.
“We know Syria is quite a highly-educated and literate population, so we’re looking forward to having them come to the library and use our services,” said Grunow. “We’re happy to give them a free membership so they can come in and access everything we have for them.”
No date has been set for the next meeting of the Okotoks and District Refugee Support Committee, though Kimmett said will most likely be at the beginning of April. For more information, contact Julia at 403-938-4357.
