Canada is home to more than 8.3 million immigrants—nearly one in four people living in the country today. As global crises grow more complex, Canada has welcomed record numbers of newcomers, including over 100,000 refugees from conflicts in Syria, Afghanistan, and Ukraine in recent years. Each arrival represents a story of hope and hardship—a leap of faith into unfamiliar territory in search of safety, freedom, and opportunity.
But resettlement is far from easy. Many newcomers face significant barriers: housing shortages, underemployment, language gaps, trauma, isolation, racism, and a confusing maze of paperwork. Refugees may arrive with few resources, fleeing war, persecution, or natural disasters. Even highly skilled immigrants can find themselves unemployed or underpaid due to credential recognition issues and discrimination.
While Canada’s immigration system has strong foundations, the real work of integration—of healing, belonging, and building a new life—often falls to nonprofits and community-based charities. These organizations offer far more than temporary aid. They provide stability, dignity, and pathways to full participation in Canadian society.
Below are some of the Canadian charities leading the way in supporting newcomers and refugees with compassion and action.
COSTI Immigrant Services: Settlement Support at Every Stage
With roots going back over 70 years, COSTI Immigrant Services is one of the most comprehensive and trusted agencies supporting immigrants and refugees in Ontario. They serve over 39,000 individuals annually with a wide array of programs including housing help, job placement, language training, mental health support, youth mentorship, and family counselling.
COSTI is often one of the first stops for newcomers who need immediate settlement support. They operate welcome centres for government-assisted refugees, provide interpretation services in over 60 languages, and run targeted programs for survivors of war, torture, and gender-based violence.
What sets COSTI apart is its holistic, wraparound model—meeting people where they are and walking with them as they rebuild their lives. Your donation helps fund housing placements, childcare for ESL students, refugee employment initiatives, and trauma-informed therapy that restores both safety and self-worth.
Romero House: A Home and a Community for Refugee Claimants
For refugees arriving in Canada without a support network or stable place to stay, Romero House in Toronto offers more than shelter—it offers community. Founded in 1991, Romero House provides transitional housing, legal support, accompaniment to immigration hearings, and a community drop-in centre for refugee claimants navigating their first months in Canada.
Named after Archbishop Óscar Romero, a defender of human rights in El Salvador, the organization follows his spirit of radical hospitality. Residents live alongside staff and volunteers in a shared model of mutual aid, storytelling, and solidarity. The house becomes a home—not just a place to sleep, but a place to belong.
Donating to Romero House helps provide everything from bedsheets and groceries to legal workshops and translation services. It keeps the doors open to families who arrive with little more than courage—and gives them a safe place to begin again.
Kinbrace: Building Belonging for Refugee Claimants in Vancouver
In Vancouver, Kinbrace is pioneering a unique model of refugee welcome. Since 1998, they’ve provided transitional housing and wraparound support to refugee claimants—people who arrive in Canada and must prove their asylum case before an immigration tribunal.
Kinbrace offers five safe and private suites for newly arrived individuals and families, but their impact goes far beyond housing. They offer legal orientation workshops, accompaniment, community dinners, and trauma-informed support that promotes healing and confidence during a deeply stressful legal process.
What makes Kinbrace exceptional is its culture of welcome. Residents are not seen as clients but as neighbours, friends, and leaders in their own journey. Your support helps Kinbrace offer stability in a time of uncertainty—and nurtures the sense of belonging that turns survival into hope.
Jumpstart Refugee Talent: Matching Newcomers with Meaningful Work
Employment is one of the most urgent—and frustrating—barriers for refugees and skilled newcomers. Jumpstart Refugee Talent is Canada’s first national refugee-led employment service, founded by refugees for refugees, to create equitable access to career pathways.
They focus on “talent over trauma,” helping refugees leverage their skills and education to find meaningful work that matches their qualifications. Jumpstart partners with employers, offers resume support and interview coaching, and runs specialized mentorship and hiring programs in tech, healthcare, trades, and finance.
Since launching in 2016, Jumpstart has worked with thousands of refugee job seekers and placed hundreds into sustainable careers. Your donation helps fund one-on-one employment support, expand mentorship networks, and challenge the hiring biases that keep refugees out of the workforce. Employment isn’t just income—it’s dignity and inclusion.
Matthew House Ottawa: Restoring Stability for Asylum Seekers
For asylum seekers, the first days in Canada can be disorienting and frightening. Matthew House Ottawa steps in to provide a warm welcome, safe housing, and critical case support for refugee claimants who arrive with no status, income, or shelter.
Their refugee services include a transitional home, furniture bank, and mentorship program. They also help residents access healthcare, legal aid, English classes, and community networks. Many of their staff and volunteers are former refugees themselves, offering lived experience and empathy.
Matthew House Ottawa is rooted in the belief that hospitality is transformational. Your donation helps furnish homes, cover emergency needs, and ensure that asylum seekers start their journey to status with security and support.
FCJ Refugee Centre: Advocating for the Undocumented
Many newcomers in Canada live without legal status—due to expired visas, denied claims, or systemic gaps. FCJ Refugee Centre in Toronto supports this invisible population with legal aid, shelter, case management, and community education.
They are one of the few organizations working directly with non-status migrants, including women fleeing domestic violence, LGBTQ+ refugees, and people working in exploitative jobs without documentation. FCJ also leads public education campaigns about migrant rights and access to healthcare for undocumented individuals.
Their commitment is unwavering: no one is illegal. Donations help FCJ offer housing, legal navigation, and emergency support to those who have nowhere else to turn—and ensure that basic human rights are upheld for all.
Where Do We Go From Here?
Welcoming refugees and immigrants is about more than just issuing visas. It’s about creating a society where people can heal, contribute, and belong. Canada’s immigration system opens the door—but it’s up to communities, charities, and individuals to make sure that door leads to real opportunity.
You can support this work by donating to the organizations featured here. Even small monthly contributions help cover housing costs, legal fees, groceries, language classes, and job training for people starting from scratch.
You can also volunteer: offer tutoring in English or French, accompany someone to an appointment, help with resume writing, or simply show up with kindness. Many charities rely on volunteers as the human bridge between systems and new lives.
Speak out, too. Fight anti-immigrant rhetoric. Support pathways to permanent status for undocumented people. Advocate for refugee housing in your city and for equitable credential recognition policies across Canada.
Above all, recognize that every newcomer is more than their paperwork or past. They are students, parents, artists, engineers, and neighbours. They come seeking safety—and bring with them resilience, talent, and hope.
Final Thoughts
Starting over in a new country takes extraordinary courage. It means leaving behind home, language, and sometimes even loved ones, to step into the unknown—with nothing guaranteed except the hope for something better. And while Canada has long been a place of refuge and renewal, that promise is only made real when newcomers are truly welcomed—not just with open borders, but with open hearts, systems, and communities.
The organizations featured in this article—COSTI, Romero House, Kinbrace, Jumpstart Refugee Talent, Matthew House Ottawa, and the FCJ Refugee Centre—are doing more than just meeting needs. They are building bridges. They are helping newcomers move from survival to belonging, from fear to confidence, from uncertainty to home.
When you support these organizations, you’re not just giving someone a bed, a meal, or a resume workshop. You’re giving them a chance to breathe again. You’re telling a young mother fleeing violence that she and her child are safe now. You’re telling a skilled newcomer that their talents are seen and valued. You’re telling a refugee claimant waiting on a legal decision that they are not alone.
In a world where so many are displaced by war, climate change, and persecution, the question is not whether we can make room—but whether we will rise to the occasion with compassion and solidarity.
Canada’s story has always been shaped by those who came in search of peace, freedom, and opportunity. That story continues today—written in dozens of languages, in hundreds of cultures, by thousands of hands. And with your help, it can be a story not just of arrival, but of welcome. Not just of survival, but of possibility.
Because nobody chooses to be a refugee. But we can all choose to be the reason someone feels at home again.
