Refugee response team named for Thompson-Okanagan region

THOMPSON-OKANAGAN – A refugee response team tasked with helping Syrian refugees integrate and resettle will begin work immediately, after funding from the provincial government was announced today.

Kelowna Community Resources Society has been chosen to lead the response team. Secondary teams may operate in the Kootenays, the government says in a release today, March 22.

The team will work with refugee families in Kamloops, Salmon Arm, Vernon, Kelowna and Penticton. The teams will have representatives from various groups and organizations including churches, settlement organizations, private sponsors, educators and employers, according to the release.

In addition to the refugee resettlement fund, the government is waiving medical premiums and wait periods for refugees and is offering child care subsidies, the B.C. childhood tax benefit, the basic family bonus and student aid, the press release says.

Initial funding of $30,000 comes from a $1 million fund set up for refugee resettlement with more promised for the summer.

To contact a reporter for this story, email John McDonald at jmcdonald@infonews.ca or call 250-808-0143. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.

John McDonald

John began life as a journalist through the Other Press, the independent student newspaper for Douglas College in New Westminster. The fluid nature of student journalism meant he was soon running the place, learning on the fly how to publish a newspaper.

It wasn’t until he moved to Kelowna he broke into the mainstream media, working for Okanagan Sunday, then the Kelowna Daily Courier and Okanagan Saturday doing news graphics and page layout. He carried on with the Kelowna Capital News, covering health and education while also working on special projects, including the design and launch of a mass market daily newspaper. After 12 years there, John rejoined the Kelowna Daily Courier as editor of the Westside Weekly, directing news coverage as the Westside became West Kelowna.

But digital media beckoned and John joined Kelowna.com as assistant editor and reporter, riding the start-up as it at first soared then went down in flames. Now John is turning dirt as city hall reporter for iNFOnews.ca where he brings his long experience to bear on the civic issues of the day.

If you have a story you think people should know about, email John at jmcdonald@infonews.ca

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