What is BVOR ?
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Are you interested in helping refugees start a new life in on safe soil in Canada, but don’t know where to start?
The Blended Visa Office-Referred (BVOR) program can match you with a BVOR refugee in urgent need for resettlement to Canada. This unique partnership between the Canadian government and community members in Canada has the potential of bringing an additional 250 refugees to safety in Canada every year, with your help!
The Canadian government provides up to 6 months of financial support through the Resettlement Assistance Program (RAP) while you would provide the remaining 6 months of support.
The involvement of Canadian community members is essential to the BVOR program. As sponsors, you’d provide newcomers with a sense of community and with much needed emotional, social and other supports that help to break the isolation of settling into a completely new country and often a new culture, alone.
Some of the practical settlement support that sponsors provide are things like:
- Finding housing
- Enrolling kids in school and adults in English language classes
- Assistance with getting to know the local culture
- Showing newcomers how to use local transit systems and other services
- Going grocery shopping, and sharing a meal
- Connecting the newcomer to a settlement worker to receive further settlement support
This special refugee matching program enriches Canadian communities by creating and strengthening bonds between existing neighbours, friends and family of different generations and backgrounds and by cultivating empathy and understanding for refugee related issues around the World.
Refugee sponsorship is a rewarding experience for the sponsor and sponsee. Many sponsorship groups and former refugees find themselves maintaining lifelong contact with each other, as friends and even sometimes come to consider each other as family.
We’ll help you get started!
At the Refugee Sponsorship Training Program (RSTP), our BVOR Worker and our regional RSTP trainers provide orientation, training and support to individuals in Canada who want to support refugees through BVOR sponsorship. Our services are free of charge and funded by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). The BVOR program is intended for community members who have no previous connection to the refugees that they will be sponsoring, who would simply like to volunteer their time and resources to have a positive impact on the global refugee crisis.
Please note: If you are a family member or a friend of a refugee who is known to you that you would like to sponsor, we recommend taking a look at the Private Sponsorship of Refugees (PSR) program instead.
More about the BVOR program:
- What to expect: the BVOR sponsorship journey, from start to finish
- BVOR factsheet
- Watch BVOR sponsor and refugee stories
Who are the refugees selected for BVOR sponsorship?
- Where do some of the BVOR refugees come from and why were they forced to leave their homes?
- Reasons why BVOR refugees are in urgent need of resettlement
Get started on your sponsorship training:
- Get started with a quick orientation on the BVOR program
- Request a one-on-one consultation or training session with our BVOR worker – email bvor@rstp.ca
- Live & Recorded Training Webinars
- Other ways to sponsor: Sponsoring BVOR refugees through your workplace
Ready to seek out and confirm a match with a BVOR refugee?
- Meet the BVOR refugees that you could match with now
- BVOR Application Forms
- Welcome Message Template for BVOR Sponsors (to be sent to sponsored refugee)
Please note: This program is only for previously selected and referred refugees by the UN Refugee Agency and the Government of Canada. Other partners cannot refer people to the program. If you know a refugee overseas whom you wish to sponsor, please check out the other Private Sponsorship of Refugees (PSR) program opportunities available.
Still have questions?
Contact our BVOR staff members at:
bvor@rstp.ca
Tel: 416.290.1700 Ext.2406
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