Sponsoring Refugees Called a ‘Win-Win’ for Workplaces
Jim Estill, owner of Guelph-based Danby Appliances, has personally sponsored almost 130 families — 89 of them Syrian — since 2015. He said his employees’ participation is invaluable.
As soon as people at Danby learned about his sponsorship commitment, Estill said they started setting up workplace committees to organize volunteers to help with his arriving families’ health, education, housing and employment needs.
They volunteered to pick up the families, donated mattresses and furniture, organized clothing and sock drives, and offered job coaching. My employees would take the families to their appointments with doctors and for their driver’s licence. We have ESL (English as a second language) at work. We try to make our workplace friendly to those needs,” said Estill, whose company has 250 employees in Guelph.
“This has been a great team-building exercise for us at Danby, something you can’t pay somebody for. We have people from different departments working together, to problem-solve. Not everyone is involved with churches, synagogues and temples, but most people are involved in a workplace. This is a win-win for everyone and there is no downside.”
Kristine Remedios, KPMG Canada’s chief inclusion and social impact officer, said refugee sponsorship is just part of the voluntarism his firm and its employees have become involved in with local communities.
“When people hear about the refugee crisis, they want to help but feel it’s out of reach. If an employer can bring opportunities like this to its people, they will step up,” said Remedios, whose company hosts a regular refugee national roundtable led by Sen. Ratna Omidvar to engage employers in migrant issues. Since 2015, KPMG Canada employees have sponsored 10 refugee families.
Emilie Coyle, the uOttawa Refugee Hub’s director of national programs, said workplaces are a natural extension of Canada’s refugee sponsorship base and the backing of employers is as crucial as the buy-in of the employees.
“We have had a law firm, an accounting firm, a food bank and other employers sponsoring the Syrians. Workplaces are just a different way to expand our bases,” said Coyle, whose organization has raised $3.5 million to settle close to 700 refugees since 2015. “This is not about finding workers for employers, but it’s fine if it so happens and they are a good fit.”