Black History Month

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Private Sponsorship of Refugees

Refugees and newcomers need your help finding a safe home in our community.

If you are already part of a sponsorship group, please review the video training series.

Constituent Group Sponsorship Training Videos

Refugee Sponsorship Training Program

If you would like to sponsor a refugee, here are ways you can help:

Donate Now to Sponsor a Refugee

If You Know A Refugee Needing Sponsorship

If you would like to help a single refugee or a refugee family, ICA has an annual process to accept requests for sponsorship. This process is known as the Expressions of Interest.

Expressions of Interest

Our Expression of Interest process for sponsorships in 2025 will OPEN on 1st September 2024 with a 31st October 2024 submission deadline.

Download Expression of Interest Form

Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program
Email: psr@icavictoria.org
Phone: 250.388.4728

 

 

If You Want To Sponsor

If you would like to sponsor a single refugee or a refugee family, but you don’t know anyone yet, you can be matched through the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR)

The UN Refugee Agency identifies refugees for resettlement to Canada. These refugees are then matched to sponsor groups. This program is called the Blended Visa Office-Referred (BVOR) program.

ICA can match sponsors to a refugee or refugee family through the BVOR program.

To learn more about the BVOR program, visit

The Refugee Sponsorship Training Program

How To Sponsor

The Sponsorship Journey

Sponsor Videos

Private Sponsorship of Refugees (PSR) Resources

Explore PSR Resources

 

Make a difference in your community!

Support Immigrants & Refugees Today


History of Refugee Resettlement

UNHCR, 2016

 

ICA has a history of resettlement assistance in Victoria BC, beginning with the resettlement of Fujian Chinese in the 1990s and the Kosovar Resettlement Assistance Project in 2001. More recently, ICA worked with the Project Tibet Society that brought 50 Tibetan refugees to Victoria under a larger national resettlement program of 1,000 refugees across Canada.

In addition to supporting newly arrived Syrian refugees in 2015 and 2016, ICA is passionate about assisting and providing services to immigrants and refugees from a variety of backgrounds.

In February 2016, the Inter-Cultural Association of Greater Victoria (ICA) was approved by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to provide services to Government-Assisted Refugees (GARs) under the Resettlement Assistance Program (RAP). ICA began to deliver this program on February 29, 2016. During the first two weeks of March, over 150 Syrian refugees arrived to the Capital Regional District (CRD). We anticipate more individuals and families will be resettled in the region over the coming year, bringing the total number of Syrian refugees closer to 300. Many families have found permanent housing, but housing needs remain high and we encourage any communities members with housing leads to contact us.

In addition to supporting Government-Assisted Refugees, we have also been helping to coordinate the private sponsorship of refugees in our role as a Sponsorship Agreement Holder (SAH). In private sponsorship, groups of citizens come together to form a Constituent Group and support a refugee family. ICA and other Sponsorship Agreement Holders provide ongoing support for these groups.

 

Donate Stock or Mutual Funds

ICA's Private Sponsorship of Refugees program works with local sponsorship groups to support individuals and families coming to Canada through approved UNHCR and IRCC refugee programs

Ways To Give

Your tax-deductible donation helps ICA welcome, support and provide much-needed services for immigrants and refugees as they settle into the community. There are many ways to give a gift that has a direct, positive impact on the lives of newcomers. Donate or volunteer today!

Volunteer

We value volunteering as an opportunity to welcome newcomers and build a respectful and inclusive community. We appreciate the wonderful work of our volunteers for all that they do to make ICA what is today. For this we are very grateful!