Family Reunions

This year, for Thanksgiving, instead of heading home to see my parents, I opted to join some of my extended family in Prévost, Québec. Nine of us travelled from different corners of the province (or another province altogether, in my case) to meet at a rented house in the Laurentians for the weekend. For geographical reasons, I don't know my family as well as I'd like to.  First, they're far away and second, there are so gosh darn many of them. Facebook has done much to narrow the gap between us, but there's nothing quite like sharing a meal together and being face to face to make you feel part of something. I went, not only because I thought it'd be fun, but because I felt it important to strengthen my bond with my family.

This evening, one night after getting home from my trip, the newly named PEERS group (People of the East End Refugee Support group) had its second meeting. While everyone knew at least one person in the room, many of us were still strangers to one another. In order for us to succeed we will need to get to know and trust each other very well, and if tonight's meeting is any indication, I have no doubt that we will succeed,

One of the first decisions we had to make was which approach we wanted to take in being matched with a refugee family.  The two options to consider were the Blended Visa Office Referred case (BVOR) and the Family Referred case.  In a nutshell;  BVOR cases are already deemed eligible by VISA post, are almost travel ready and therefore have a shorter submission time. The costs are also covered in part by the government. They are typically higher needs cases that will require a higher degree of support from their sponsors in their first year. A Family Referred case means that they have at least one family member or friend already in Canada who has flagged them as needing aid. These cases take longer to process and  receive no financial support from the government, but having at least some family here means they generally settle in more easily. How do you decide who to help? Personally, and maybe only because of my recent Thanksgiving experience, my heart sings at the thought of reuniting a family. But a strong argument can also be made for reaching out to whomever needs the most support or has the most immediate need for help. Tonight, we took a good look at our group and weighed our strengths and weaknesses to be realistic about who we could best serve.  As a group, we decided that while we are probably best suited to help a Family Referred case, should a BVOR case be offered to us, we would absolutely consider it as well. The will to adapt and do what it takes to help our  refugee family is already really strong in our group, and we don't even know them yet.

I am really looking forward to this experience and the bonds that will be forged by our group not only with each other but also with a family, yet to be named, but already, in our minds, part of our community.