Community Refugee Sponsorship Australia

Community Refugee Sponsorship Australia (CRSA) is an independent, national charity leading efforts to establish and grow ‘community sponsorship’ of refugees as a common practice in Australia. Inspired by the successful Canadian model and other similar programs taking root around the world this approach benefits refugee newcomers, everyday Australians and local communities alike.  Our mission is to lead in encouraging, developing and supporting programs that expand and improve refugee settlement in Australia by harnessing the generosity, goodwill and social capital of everyday Australians. We believe this approach also builds understanding, compassionate consensus and social cohesion in local communities and improves political discourse with respect to refugees.

CRSA is developing ideas, creating shared visions for the future and delivering programs that empower small groups of everyday Australians to take local action by wrapping support around one refugee household at a time, as part of a growing global movement responding to the unprecedented scale of the global refugee challenge.

CRSA co-designed the innovative ‘Community Refugee Integration & Settlement Pilot’ (CRISP) with the Federal government in 2022 and is now delivering the groundbreaking ‘CRISP’ program in communities all around the country. The government has announced that the CRISP will become permanent in 2026 but this successful and innovative approach is just the beginning in terms of what the community sponsorship model can do. CRSA is leading an ambitious program of work to scale and innovate labour pathways, education pathways as well as ‘named’ and ’emergency’ community sponsored pathways to safety for refugees.

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