Community sponsorship

Community sponsorship programs empower groups of individuals — as opposed to governments or settlement agencies — to take the lead in welcoming, supporting, and integrating refugees into their new community.

There are different models of community sponsorship in countries around the world. Community sponsorship programs operate as an integration and welcome tool to support refugees admitted through many different pathways when they arrive in their new country.

Spotlight

For forty years, Canada has welcomed forcibly displaced newcomers from all areas of the world. Private refugee sponsors have played a pivotal settlement role.

In 2017, Eco-Ethonomics Inc. conducted a research project for a group of private refugee sponsors to identify the gaps in support around services in Ontario. The Eco-Ethonomics report findings and recommendations became the basis for the establishment of the Private Refugee Sponsor Network (Ontario) and its incorporation in 2021. The Network represents sponsors, settlement agencies and individuals from the business community.

PRSN’s Partnership Committee is tasked with gaining insight into how PRSN might build better relationships between private sponsor groups, settlement agencies and others in the sector around post-arrival issues.

In addressing the settlement agency/sponsor post-arrival
relationship, the Partnership Committee’s undertook this study to capture
promising practices and experiences in the sector. This study can be found below.

Updates on community sponsorship

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Summary of The invisibilised labour of diasporas as co-sponsors in refugee sponsorship: Lessons from Canada
The article examines the often-overlooked contributions of diaspora communities as co-sponsors in refugee...
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Reflections on the GRSI CSO Global Sponsorship Summit
At the Global Sponsorship Summit in Dublin, Pathways International Fellow Valeria Gomez was reminded...
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Information & data sources

Home Office (UK)