In addition to continuing to support and be involved with the families and newcomers previously sponsored, FACES made an application for new sponsorship in 2022. We were excited to welcome Noor and Omar (a young Iraqi couple who were beginning their married life together as refugees in Turkey) to Canada, in 2023.

What’s Involved

A typical sponsorship is 12 months, but FACES’ involvement usually extends beyond the first required year of financial assistance and the individualized support that may be needed.

Here’s the initial process:

• Newcomers first stay with a welcome family and FACES helps start the process of being documented as landed immigrants.
• A volunteer team helps register newcomers for support services and benefits in Canada.
• Another team finds appropriate housing for the family, gathering furniture, clothing and staples needed by the family.
• Other members of the team offer language training, help any children get settled in school and potentially get them involved in extracurricular activities.
• FACES also supports adult newcomers prepare for employment.
• Social events are organized to help new refugees make new friends and contacts, and aid with integration into their new community.
• Individual Needs and Support

Each newcomer and each family have differing abilities and needs. Integration is not easy. Newcomers to Canada likely need to learn a new language. They may need to go back to school, complete a degree or seek re-training. Skills may need to be upgraded to become employable. At the same time, adult newcomers need to provide and care for their family. All of this needs to be done while dealing with their own personal challenges. Many newcomers require emotional support and medical help. Some may suffer from PTSD or depression or have mental and physical health challenges.

How to get involved

• Donate. Please consider a financial donation to help the group continue to make a real difference in newcomers’ lives. St. Matthew’s handles some administrative tasks for FACES. Please make cheques payable to St. Matthew’s Anglican Church, with “Refugee support” written in the memo line.
  
• Volunteer. It takes a large team to sponsor a family and there are many different activities and tasks that can make use of a range of abilities and skills. But it mostly takes just a kind heart to start!

Contact FACES

To volunteer or find out more about FACES, please contact refugeehelpstmatts@gmail.com.

Connecting with St. Thomas, Moose Factory

Moose Factory was founded in 1673, and is Canada’s oldest surviving English-speaking community with a population of 2,500. In the 17th century, Moose Factory was critical in the Hudson’s Bay Company developing it’s northern network of trading posts.

St. Matthew’s connected with St. Thomas Church in Moose Factory in 2009 as part of the Council of the North’s Suicide Prevention Program. The parish worked closely with Cynthia Patterson from the national church, and in 2010 we donated $30,000, an amount that was matched by the national church to support the development and roll-out of the River of Life Program, which provided educational and crisis intervention resources to several northern communities, including Moose Factory.

Our parish visited Moose Factory on two occasions, learning about indigenous culture and history, playing soccer with young people and camping out on the land during winter. St. Thomas parishioners and a youth group of drummers also visited St. Matthew’s and played for us in the Sanctuary. The Rev. Kevin Flynn, an honorary assistant at St. Matthew’s, also visited St. Thomas and led worship services during an Eastertide.

During our visits to Moose Factory we learned many things about their community, and came to understand that some leaders were active in developing local response capabilities to the suicide crisis. We began to appreciate how little we understood of indigenous culture, and we were amazed at how we were welcomed in their community with the simple request to ‘walk with us’. 

Over the years, our relationship with our northern brothers and sisters has mellowed into one of mutual prayer support. St. Matthew’s is looking into developing a relationship with the ‘All My Relations’ group in the diocese to strengthen our understanding of indigenous cultures, and to look for opportunities to take action on the path to reconciliation.

For more information, please contact the office at admin@stmatthewsottawa.ca or call 613-234-4024.

Primate's World Relief & Development Fund

PWRDF is the Canadian Anglican response for emergency relief, refugees, development, and justice. Parishioners support PWRDF through donations. To learn more about PWRDF and its recent projects, please visit its website at www.pwrdf.org.

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