City of Stratford to help sponsor 5 Syrian refugee families

A volunteer committee in Stratford saysit plans to raise enough money to bring five Syrian refugee families to the city and support them for a year and a half.

• Region of Waterloo donates $25,000 for Syrian refugee support
• City of Kitchener donates $10,000 for Syrian refugee relief

With input from the Mennonite Central Committee and local churches and organizations, the steering committeeset a fundraising goal of $225,000, which works out to $45,000 per refugee family.

"That would allow us a yearanda half to get them settled and on their feet," said Kathy Vassilakos, a city councillor and chair of the committee. She said some refugee families will be able to "hit the ground running," while others may need some extra help.

Vassilakos says it will be community organizations, such as local churches, which will do the actual sponsoring.

"We do have a couple of churches that have...experience in settling refugee families and they've already done this before," she said. "They've come forward and said, 'We will be the group that takes care of all the on-the-ground activities.'"

'It's going to be a real learning curve'

The refugee families will be brought over oneatatime, as the funds are raised.

"You stagger their arrival so that you make sure each family gets settled and you've done everything you need to do and you can pool your resources," Vassilakos said. "Also, it's going to be a real learning curve for us. Once the first family comes, there are lessons that we will have learned that we can apply to the next one."

For its part, the City of Stratford will help the committee coordinate fundraising efforts around the community and will help developa protocol that will be used in the future when local organizations express interest in sponsoring refugees.

The city will also hosta public information session on Tuesday, Sept. 29 at 7:00 p.m. in the City Hall auditorium for anyone who is interested in learning more about sponsoring refugee families from Syria.