A Westlock-based group with the goal of bringing Syrian refugees to the area has formed an association in hopes of seeing that dream become a reality.
The group, known as the Westlock and District Refugee Resettlement Association, was originally spearheaded by the Westlock Trinity Lutheran Church, but now includes other area churches and members of the general public.
Church pastor and association secretary Rick Chappell said it was back in September, when images of a three-year-old refugee’s body washed-up on a Turkish beach appeared in the media, that he decided to take action.
“When I witnessed that on the news I thought we have to do something. These people are desperate,” Chappell said.
“That Sunday I just asked anyone who would like to sign a form at the back if they’re interested in being part of a team of people looking to bring refugees to Westlock.”
From there Chappell took it to the Westlock Ministerial Association where membership quickly grew to include St. Philips Anglican Church, Westlock United Church and Clyde Christian Bible Church.
“It’s just kind of grown from that in that whoever is interested to come together and see what we can do,” he said.
The group has met several times since then and has created a presence on social media where the word has spread throughout the community.
“I came to the meeting and got up to speed and then built a Facebook group for them and shared it around the community through various sites,” said member at large Stan Brooks.
“We’re up to about 150 members now.”
Currently, the group is in the midst of applying to the federal government in hopes of landing some of the 25,000 Syrian refugees they plan to take in.
The group has not yet been successful in its applications, but would like to bring as many refugees to the community as possible.
“A lofty goal would be to sponsor more than one family. Possibly two, you never know what the community support may be,” Brooks said.
“If we could afford to sponsor more than one family it would provide a bit of a support network right close to home for them.
“They’re not necessarily going to speak English … there are going to be challenges.”
At an approximate cost of $25,000 to $30,000 to sponsor a small family for one year, and with limited funds to draw from, the group first tried to seek a sponsor family that they would support as they could.
“We began working through the Anglican Church and they had a program where if there was a family who was willing to sponsor then we could just sign the forms,” Chappell said.
“The sponsor family would take on that job of providing for them and we could supplement a little bit if we got some money.”
When the group couldn’t find a family to take on that role, Chappell said they went through the next channel, the Blended Visa-Office Referred (BVOR) program, which is where the government helps cover some of the costs.
“That’s where we’re at right now, seeing about possibly getting a family through that program,” he said.
“At the same time, those are very quickly picked up.”
However, as the group has steadily grown over the past two months, Chappell is increasingly confident that refugees could be sponsored privately without the BVOR program.
“There are other programs and I think as we have finances, we could do it without government assistance,” Chappell said.
“We have some applications in right now for BVOR, but if we don’t get some of them … we’re optimistic funds will be coming available from donations.”
Brooks said the group has begun looking into provincial grants and other programs that would help facilitate the process.
“When it comes right down to the end of all of this it’s probably not going to be a pile of $30,000 cash sitting on the table,” he said. “There’s going to be commitments of gifts in-kind and so on.
“Everyone looks at fundraising on a really grand scale, $30,000 really isn’t very much money … it’s not a very difficult thing to get someone to give them a $500 clothing allowance and so on and so forth,” Brooks added.
The association will continue to meet in anticipation of one of their applications being approved. There’s no firm timeframe in place, but a rough estimate is to have a family settled in town by April.
Donation forms are available on the group’s page; it can be found by searching “I will help – Westlock, AB” on Facebook.
Anyone interested in joining can contact Chappell at 780-349-3638.
