Our Full 2020 Newsletter is ready! Check it out and find information about the documentaries we are co-hosting during this season.

Learn more about the migrant workers mistreatment in Canada and what we can do together as a society to right the wrong.

Our upcoming webinar, “Housing Needs for Immigrants,” will focus on one of the main challenges for newcomers, housing.

Join us and find useful information related to this issue. Through this informative session you can learn about:

• Types of Housing
• Sharing a Budget
• Where and How to search
• Viewing the apartment
• Rental applications
• Signing the rental contract
• Moving supports
• Your rights and responsibilities
• Resources

You can also check the following document for more information:

We are getting ready for the fall! Read our Summer Newsletter and learn about the upcoming programs: cooking class, informative sessions, English Class, etc.

In this video session we provide information about:

1. Difference between expiration date and best-before date
2. Food safety once a food has passed the best-before date
3. Recognize the amount of food that is unnecessarily wasted in Canada and feel equipped to reduce waste at home.
4. Know the difference between the various date label terms
5. Understand when food is safe, or not safe to eat.

Many parents are worried about sending their kids back to school. During this session the FCJ Primary Care Clinic will walk you through some of the safety measures for kids, providing tips for the new school year.  We talk about new routines, the use of mask, physical distancing, social bubble, school transportation, etc

The FCJ Refugee Centre has been partnering with the Pro Bono Students Osgoode Chapter since 2011. Since September 2018, a group of students from the CARL U of T Chapter joined our efforts to support us as well. For this coming year, in September 2020 the Pro Bono U of T Chapter will be part of our program.

The Uprooted Peoples Protection Program provides information for refugee claimants and non-status people, including conducting research on country conditions and other immigration and refugee issues, assistance with filling out legal forms, conducting in-person sessions for people looking for immigration information.

Students focus their work in assisting clients to complete their Humanitarian and Compassionate Considerations applications for Permanent Residence. Another unique aspect of this program is the provision of information specifically to people who have had their refugee claim denied, but are unable to return to their country.

This comprehensive team works to support them in any and all ways possible with their refugee appeal.

 

 

During this webinar we will talk about the impact of the COVID 19 in young people. The FCJ youth network members will share their stories and also will talk about the initiatives/activities that they implemented during the last period.

Join us and find out how to get involve in more virtual events that will help you to survive the pandemic.

Webinar is scheduled on Thursday August 27 at 10:30 am

Registration: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/8877227493786003984

This session will allow you to find out if you can apply for a work permit and how to do it.

After identifying if you are eligible, we will provide a guide that describes the steps who have to follow in order to get or extend your work permit.

The information is based on the experience we have at FCJ Refugee Centre supporting our clients applying to a work permit.

Here are the links:

• Webinar in English
• Sesión en español

Our Annual Report is ready. You are welcome to read and download the document, and find out all the programs implemented during 2019 thanks to all our supporters.

 

We’re excited to announce that we’re beginning an exciting new fundraising campaign! Solidarity Steps for the FCJ Refugee Centre!

Take from us what you need, and give to each other what you can.

This is the guiding philosophy of not only the FCJ Refugee Centre, but is at the very core of our common humanity.

In recent months, we have seen an enormous shift in the ways in which we interact, live our daily lives, and see the world around us.

We have seen the turmoil that can be brought out in people when they are forced into situations of fear and vulnerability – circumstances so many of us who grew up in Canada with so many privileges have never had to face.

But we’ve also seen the generosity of the spirit of our community.

Our mandate is to support all uprooted people, and to keep our door open to the community. From our homes to yours, we stand with you in solidarity. Our door is open today as it will be tomorrow.

Please check out our page, and stay tuned for more updates, weekly calls to action, how you can stay engaged, and more information about our upcoming walk-a-thon!

Stay safe, stay well, and stay kind.

In solidarity,
The FCJ Refugee Centre Community

On the World Refugee Day  we prepared a special Newsletter to say thank you for your support! Every Action Counts!

At FCJ Refugee Centre we continue working in solidarity with precarious migrants. We understand that this is a difficult and uncertain time for many. We recognize that precarious migrants are severely affected already as racialized and marginalized persons. With the health and safety of our entire community in mind we did some adjustments to our daily work environment.

Thank you for join us at our virtual Open House. We wanted  to show you how we have kept the door open for precarious migrants.

We continue to remotely offer as many services as possible by phone, e-mail, or any other electronic means available to us. Due to the donations and help received we have been able to continue offering our services and supporting individuals and families who do not have access to emergency benefits.

During the Open House we launched our video “Borderless Humanity” to say thank you for your support through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Transparency is how we say thank you.

Count on us. We are open.

We are expanding our ways to connect with you. Now you can also find us through WhatsApp: 437 217 37 86.

For any inquiries related to your immigration situation or any settlement support you need during these difficult times, please feel free to contact us through our phone number 416-469-9754, or you can send us a message at our WhatsApp 437 217 37 86.

You can also contact any of the emails or extensions below:

• Loly Rico, Co-director: Ext. 224 lolyrico@fcjrefugeecentre.org
• Francisco Rico-Martinez, Co-director: Ext. 227 franciscorico@fcjrefugeecentre.org
• Diana Gallego, Associate Director: Ext. 225 dianagallego@fcjrefugeecentre.org
• Migrant Workers Mobile Program & Anti-Human Trafficking Program: 647 971 2153 (Whatsapp also available)

You can make a difference!

At FCJ Refugee Centre we continue working in solidarity with precarious migrants. We understand that this is a difficult and uncertain time for many, and we’re here to support and provide information to anyone who is in need. We provide information through our virtual sessions every Thursday or though our Borderless Voices podcast.

We continue to remotely offer our services you can connect with us by phone or e-mail. We are supporting families who do not have access to the emergency benefits, and we distribute food every week.

Your donation will make a difference to a non-status migrant, family, child, youth, that was not left behind… it will make a difference for that borderless humanity that we are dreaming to build… Your donation is making an immeasurable difference in the lives of all non status people enriching our community.

Thank you for your donation… It has made a difference for that one. For that refugee, for that non-status migrant, family, child, youth, that was not left behind… It made a difference for that borderless humanity that we are dreaming to build… Your donation is making an immeasurable difference in the lives of all non-status people enriching our community.

Since the last week of March, when we just started our campaign “From Our Kitchen Table to Yours: in solidarity with precarious migrants,” our Centre has received many donations, monetary ones in our Emergency Fund, a lot of grocery cards, art and craft supplies, games and books for children and youth; one-time donation, to provide rent support to 25 individuals and 25 families; weekly food donation from Second Harvest; many smiles, signals of solidarity and gratitude…

So far, it makes a difference for just under 150 individuals and families. The number is growing by the day. Thanks for donating to support one refugee… One migrant at a time.

Thanks for donating to support one refugee… One migrant at a time.

Thank you for acknowledging a population so often isolated, marginalized and forgotten… For walking with us… For walking together with uprooted people… For building a borderless humanity…by supporting one refugee or migrant at a time.

Thanks, just thanks.

FCJ Refugee Centre

We started collecting art supplies for non-status children and we were so happy to find these letters in each of the art bags. These letters defined our local neighbour… Canada. Keep doing what you are doing. Humanity need you. Keep safe, well and strong… We are together in this.

Special thanks to Maeve and Tate for your wonderful letters. They are 6 and 8 years old and send their beautiful words in solidarity with non-status children.

For decades, we as a community have gathered around our own kitchen table. To share coffee in the morning, to share lunch, have meetings, celebrations, birthdays, conversations and build connections. We’ve worked to support people as they build new homes around kitchen tables in their new lives here. But that process has been incredibly difficult in recent months, and this crisis has magnified those challenges for so many.

For too many people, the kitchen table where families want to gather to break bread and share a meal has become a reminder of the food security they don’t have access to.

With the initiative “From Our Kitchen Table to Yours” we have provided food security measures to 30 homes already just in the last week. In the coming days, due to the recent increase in your generous donations, we now have the capacity to reach another 40 families.

Your donation is making an immeasurable difference in the lives of precarious migrants (families, youth, adults and seniors) – all of the people who make up our enriched community. So this is a brief message of thanks to you.

Thank you for grace and solidarity.

Thank you for acknowledging a population so often isolated, marginalized and forgotten.

Thank you for walking with us…and for walking together with uprooted people.

Thank you for building a borderless humanity by supporting one refugee or migrant at a time.

Thanks, just thanks.