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Templeton Sawyer is the Co-Founder of Alive House, a national nonprofit organization focused on supporting newcomers, refugees, and international students through employment, housing, education, and community connection initiatives across Canada. Through Alive House and the Belonging Tour, Templeton works to create spaces that bring together employers, community leaders, and newcomers to explore belonging, inclusion, leadership, and economic opportunity. His work focuses on community-building, systems collaboration, and empowering emerging leaders through storytelling, partnerships, and advocacy.
Templeton and I chat about:
The action-over-words rule that shapes how he leads
This year's workshop sessions with welcoming and grassroots organizations
How East Coast dinner tables became the blueprint for Alive House
Why he skipped Toronto and Alberta for an island off an island when he came to study in Canada
What the famous Atlantic Canadian warmth actually feels like up close
Chapters
0:00 Getting immigrants and Canadians in the same room
0:58 Intro
2:25 Choosing a small island over Toronto or Alberta
8:21 On hidden racism
14:20 The Belonging Tour
19:12 Taking the word immigrant out of the invitation
26:31 On leadership
35:21 What belonging means to Templeton
36:44 Scaling the tour without losing the point
43:21 "I'm going to walk away from Alive House"
47:30 Outro
Some takeaways
Proving the Canadian immigration system is broken has become its own trap. Every panel that re-establishes the obvious burns up energy that could go to a fix, and it quietly teaches the audience to see us as a problem. Templeton wants to get to the point where we focus on the work that needs to be done. For an immigrant who's tired of being cast as the victim, I want more of this, because it treats us as people with agency instead of a problem to be managed.
A guilt gathering changes nobody. When someone walks into a room expecting to be blamed, their defences are up before the first speaker finishes. A conversation that holds all sides accountable gives the guest a job-to-be-done instead of a verdict. Shame has always been a poor recruiter, and fixing Canadian immigration needs everyone.
The size of the place changes the size of the welcome. In a small town you can't disappear, which cuts both ways, but for someone starting over it means a professor learns your name and a neighbour knows that you exist. Templeton chose that on purpose, trading scale for being seen. A lot of us default to the big city for the jobs and the diaspora, and rarely ask what we give up when nobody is keeping track of whether we are ok or just coasting through the shadows that come with starting afresh.
Links
Where to find Templeton:
The Newcomers resources
Want to work with us? Check out The Newcomers Media Kit.
Want more immigrant interviews? Listen to The Newcomers Podcast.
Looking to find out what Canadian immigration program you’re eligible for? Check out our Who’s Eligible For series.
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