Sessions to help Yellowknifers sponsor refugees begin at City Hall on Tuesday.
The city’s downstairs boardroom will be opened up to allow screenings of webinars hosted by the national Refugee Sponsorship Training Program.
The program aims to explain the basics of refugee sponsorship, which is a lengthy and often complex process.
“These webinars will give people the information that they need on what’s involved with applying to bring a refugee to Canada, then what’s involved afterwards,” said Lindsay Armer, a Yellowknife resident helping to screen the webinars.
The first webinar in the series begins at 12 o’clock on Tuesday and is set to last for 90 minutes.
If you miss it, there are future editions from 11am on Tuesday, October 6, and from 4pm on Wednesday, October 21.
Read: City will look for territorial action over Syrian refugees
“I’ve been following what’s happening in Syria for a while,” Armer told Moose FM. “With the photos that came out, it personally moved me to decide to take more action and see if we can get more refugees to Canada and possibly the NWT and Yellowknife.
“Our country has a good history of bringing lots of immigrants and refugees over. It’s just the right thing to do. I’m trying to get things started and get some momentum up in Yellowknife.”
Following an earlier meeting for concerned residents at City Hall, a working group has now been formed to help Yellowknifers with the sponsorship process.
Armer says the working group, in collaboration with other organizations already sponsoring refugees, will aim to provide long-term support for residents who decide to sponsor refugees.
“We’re hoping to tap into what already exists in Yellowknife, get things going and stick with it,” she said.
“It could be one family sponsored, it could be six families, it could be 50. It depends how many people are interested.”
