Farewell Patricia – Diocesan Refugee Resettlement Coordinator
After 7 years of helping to resettle former refugees, Patricia Cooper is stepping down from her voluntary coordinator role. We talked to Patricia about her time as Refugee Resettlement Coordinator.
In the beginning, Rev. Stephen King asked Patricia to head along to the Cathedral to represent the Anglican’s and help Catholic Social Services with receiving, sorting and distributing household goods for incoming families. At the time one of our priests was overseeing the process and after a year of helping out Patricia took over. “God put in me to see the need to do this. It was something I could do, and I knew that I was good at – I love organizing and talking to people,” says Patricia. “I have found a real joy in the task and in using the skills God has given me.”
Patricia shares about her time
The first intake was a huge task of providing for 26 families and the diocese stepped up, providing an amazing amount of household goods, toys and pantry packs. One of our key responsibilities is to make sure the goods are of good quality and appropriate for the incoming families.
We work alongside the Red Cross to provision a house for an incoming family. We don’t actually get to meet the families, that’s the job of the Red Cross Refugee Support Volunteers, who help the families settle into their new home and community. We occasionally get feedback about the families we are helping. Recently we heard how the parents were quite apprehensive about it all. They had two little girls who went to check out their new bedroom and immediately came out with their new toys, the parents’ anxiety disappeared when they saw ow happy their children were.
What have been your highlights?
People’s generosity never ceased to amaze me. Along with items we requested came handmade quilts for babies and ones for single beds. When there were babies arriving, as part of the family, we’d receive matinee jackets and crochet blankets.
I have loved the people contact and hearing stories of why people were giving. I looked for forward to Sunday afternoons when parishes delivered their donated items. Young children would come in with parents. They were always eager to show me what they had brought for the children. I heard about pocket money spent and toys out of their toy’s boxes being given.
I was recently asked if I ever felt God’s presences in all this. At the time I didn’t give it much thought but now looking back over the years he was there at every intake. It was in the people and children when they came in with their donations.
It makes me feel happy that we are helping people resettle into new country, without even meeting the people we’re helping. In my mind I saw our volunteer teams going into a house and leaving it a home.
I will miss meeting all the volunteers from our parishes, but it is time to move on and give others the opportunity to bless our former refugee families.
What’s next for former refugee resettlement?
A number of factors, including Covid and a housing shortage, have changed the way we settle the former refugees. We aren’t able to simply rehouse a family in a single week, so we are splitting the volunteer role into three separate roles:
Overseeing the collection of goods
Managing the goods warehouse
Overseeing the house set up
If you are interested in serving in one of these three roles, see our volunteer vacancy or contact Gendy.
