Vancity encourages other businesses to undertake similar private sponsorship initiatives with settlement agencies and faith-based sponsorship groups across Canada. TELUS was the first organization to take up the challenge.

To celebrate World Refugee Day, Vancity and TELUS will be helping refugees settle into Canadian life: Vancity over the next five years as part of a new privately sponsored refugee program. Meanwhile TELUS will help the government-assisted refugees with wireless access by covering costs for refurbished phones and digital support to help them stay in touch with their family abroad.

This program is part of the “Welcome to Canada” initiative. It’s a pilot project to help government-assisted refugees arriving in BC with their digital and communications needs, including mobility and Internet service, and smartphones. This project is in partnership with ISSofBC. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada provides a $30 monthly communication allowance to the refugee families.

More than 150,000 disadvantaged Canadians have already been supported by TELUS’ Connecting for Good programs.