World Refugee Day, 2018 in Prince Albert. (file photo/paNOW Staff)

By Brady Bateman

New Residents

P.A. welcomes new residents

Jun 27, 2019 | 5:01 PM

Prince Albert will soon be home to more than 100 new residents, as the city prepares for dozens of refugee families to immigrate to the area.

“In the next three months, I would say, we are receiving about 130 new residents to Prince Albert coming from all over the world,” Carolyn Hobden, YWCA settlement services manager told paNOW.

“It’s an assortment of people from different places where they had to leave their home country due to war or political unrest and had to go to a neighbouring country to seek refuge, then they applied to come to Canada.”

The families who will soon call Prince Albert home originate from a variety of countries according to Hobden, including Sudan, Uganda, Lebanon, and Burma.

Only two of the individuals arriving to the city are travelling as individuals. Hobden noted that she doesn’t yet have the finalized paperwork for everyone set to immigrate, but at this moment her demographics show roughly 40 adults and 80 children.

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“Luckily everyone is not coming at the same time,” Hobden added when asked if it is difficult to accommodate the higher number of newcomers.

“We’ve been in contact with various landlords and rental agencies within the city and have been trying to get housing for them, the larger families especially, prior to their arrival. We’ve been pretty OK so far. Right now we haven’t had a lot of problems finding housing.”

The YWCA’s Settlement Services operates the Settlement Workers in Schools (SWIS) program to help the families arriving enroll their children in school.

As well, a language program is offered to families, which starts at pre-literacy levels. Families participate in the program according to their ability to speak and understand English.

“We appreciate Prince Albert and how the service providers have been willing to help us out. The Cooperative Healthcare Clinic has helped us get doctor’s appointments for our clients, the Coronet Hotel has helped us set up temporary accommodations. Everyone seems to be willing to help out and partner with us,” Hobden said.

“We have a good team here who are willing to help out these families when they arrive.”

Hobden added there are two particular arrivals the Settlement Services team is excited to welcome.

“One family, who the mother and children arrived just over a year ago, through war and what happened in their home country, the family was separated from the dad. He is one of the single individuals who will be arriving, after being separated from his family for seven years,” Hobden said.

“Next month we have a child of a family, who was separated through war who will be reunited with her family. She is a minor and has been away from her parents, with other family members, for over five years. So, we are really excited to be a part of that reunification.”

Hobden noted it can be difficult for families who immigrate to Canada to come to terms with culture shock, especially those who have spent years living in refugee camps and in extremely different, often war-torn environments.

A number of culture classes are offered for families who will soon call Canada home, which are designed to teach traditions, Canadian culture, and about common infrastructure like police and fire services.

A call for volunteers has also been put out the public, according to Hobden, who noted that it takes a massive amount of people and time to help integrate Canada’s newest citizens into the community.

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Brady.bateman@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @TheDigitalBirdy