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!