A Co-Sponsorship Effort of
Empowering Refugees in
Corvallis
Corvallis For Refugees
A grassroots, community based, co-sponsorship group of Salem For Refugees aimed at welcoming refugees to the Corvallis area.
What is Co-Sponsorship?
A community group that has accepted, in a written agreement with a local resettlement agency (i.e. Salem For Refugees), the responsibility to provide the majority of Reception & Placement (R&P) services in partnership with the resettlement agency.
Mission:
To bring people & resources together to empower refugees to thrive.
History:
In 2016, Salem For Refugees began as a community response to Catholic Charities, piloting resettlement in Salem. For the success of this pilot, it required the community to rally around families, form mentor teams, resource teams and work together to create systems that supported refugees. This approach is called co-sponsorship and work was done alongside the resettlement agency. This community support helped resettle hundreds of families. As Salem For Refugees grew over the first 5 years, the desire to see resettlement as a permeant fixture in Salem grew and led Salem For Refugees to become its own resettlement agency through an affiliate relationship with World Relief and contract with the State Department.
It is from these origin that Salem For Refugee was inspired to develop a similar model in Corvallis. Under the leadership of Chris McQueen, there now is an opportunity to see this effort expand into the Corvallis community. Although there has always been some interest from surrounding communities to engage more directly in resettlement, we have wanted to focus on a city that had an established resource network, job market and community support. There have even been a handful of families resettled in Corvallis over the previous years, giving some experience to community partners and potential volunteers.
Corvallis For Refugees intends to begin resettling families in partnership with SFR beginning in 2023.
