[ About ]

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Kingston NetworkBuddy (KNB) is a small, peer-led mutual aid space for people crossing precarious transitions in Kingston—international students, newcomers, denizens (people living here without full citizenship or permanent‑resident security), and the local allies who walk beside them. It is here so no one has to enter a room alone, and so the hard parts of crossing—things like permits, work, loneliness, and so on—can be named out loud with others who are living the same thing.

KNB began in 2023 as a small, grassroots response to a felt need: people going through cultural transition needed rooms where they could stop performing and be seen by others who "get it." Over time, that impulse has become a practice of peers learning how to navigate the same transition together—sitting as equals and building trust from shared lived experience.

Instead of fixed programs, KNB tests short experiments: backyard and house gatherings, coffee chats, pub nights, festival volunteering, Zoom sessions, and gatherings where people share what they're trying to figure out and help each other with what's available. At each gathering, the focus is on finding emotional anchor in one another by sharing experiences, realities, and small triumphs in the middle of transition, not on "fixing" anyone.

KNB is community service, not a nonprofit. There is no budget, no fees, and no guaranteed schedule; KNB appears when the people holding it have capacity and rests when work, health, or immigration status demand a pause—treating that ebb and flow as honest design instead of failure.

Belonging comes before performance here.

KNB exists because cultural transition does not have to be survived alone, and it is one small node in a wider community of people trying, in different ways, to make crossing less lonely.

Group of nine people at outdoor gathering, standing in front of a pool and greenery, smiling and posing for the photo, some holding drinks, two women wearing striped shirts, some wearing name tags.
Four smiling people taking a selfie at a crowded indoor event with colorful graffiti art on the wall behind them. 
[ HISTORY ]

How Kingston NetworkBuddy began

In 2022, while studying International Business Management at St. Lawrence College, Gail and her team built a short-lived WIX forum called ON Foreign Student for a project management course. The assignment ran for about two weeks and then closed, but one exchange stayed with her: a Filipino student wrote about feeling alone and anxious in Kingston, and in a separate post a local community member in Brockville offered practical help. That moment made visible both the depth of isolation many international students carry and how support can appear when people have even a tiny space to speak.

By early 2023, Gail was still an international student at St. Lawrence College, working part‑time as a commercial cleaner—a job she had started in January 2022. Her husband and son were still in the Philippines, and she was navigating immigration uncertainty for them. For Professor Kathy Patterson’s Digital Marketing Communications course, she was required to conduct informational interviews, volunteer, attend networking events, and invite people for coffee chats.

She volunteered as a photographer with her classmate Parth D. Advani at the launch of the Black Entrepreneurship Ecosystem for Southeastern Ontario, where Norman Musengimana, a Business Development Manager at Kingston Economic Development Corporation (KEDCO) and BEE‑SEO board member, coordinated the volunteer photographers.

One snowy afternoon during a volunteer orientation in Norman’s office at KEDCO, he told her something that stayed with her: “If you don’t make time to show up for networking, you won’t survive here in Kingston.” It didn’t land as generic advice. It felt like a serious warning about Gail’s future—about what would happen if she only focused on school and cleaning shifts and never tried to step into any rooms in the city, especially when she still didn’t really know what “networking” was supposed to look like or where a newcomer was even supposed to find those events.

Later, Norman’s colleague Sara Giraldo Hoyos, who was helping with the launch through Kingston Economic Development, invited Gail to a monthly newcomer networking night hosted by KEYS, becoming the first person to show her that those rooms even existed. Seeing people move so freely in those spaces was new and startling in a good way. With Sara’s promise that she would be there, Gail finally felt she could walk into that room—and she brought three classmates with her.

From that point, she began inviting others: “Come with me so you don’t have to go alone,” approaching each event with beginner’s curiosity and a quiet urgency she couldn’t fully name yet—the fear that if she didn’t keep moving, didn’t keep connecting, and didn’t bring others along, none of them would make it. The simple promise that “you’ll know at least one person in the room” is what quietly became Kingston NetworkBuddy.

Over the rest of 2023–2025, that promise turned into a series of small experiments: acting as networking buddies at KEYS Welcome Nights and city events, supporting KNBees’ personal projects and interests, and hosting backyard, house, café, and pub gatherings.

  • A woman with blonde hair, light skin, and blue eyes looking at the camera.

    Prof. Kathy Patterson

  • Portrait of a man with glasses, a beard, wearing a black suit and tie, smiling, with a dark background.

    Norman Musengimana

  • A woman with shoulder-length dark hair, wearing glasses and a grey knitted sweater, smiling while sitting on a green chair against a grey wall background.

    Sara Giraldo Hoyos

  • A man with glasses and a beard standing in front of a brick wall, wearing a light blue button-up shirt and brown pants.

    Parth D Advani

A group of seven diverse adults standing together indoors, smiling at the camera, in front of a brick wall with a neon sign that says 'Curious People Drink'.
Group of five diverse people smiling and standing together indoors at a social event or party. 
[ ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ]

People Who Held This Work

This part of the site is for the people who treated my first website attempts as something worth their time. In 2023 and 2024, when I was still experimenting with rough forums and service directories for international students and newcomers, they listened, asked questions, and pulled the work into their classrooms and projects. Their care helped me stay with the work long enough to build the version of Kingston NetworkBuddy you are reading now.

Without their time and willingness to treat rough ideas as worth holding, Kingston NetworkBuddy would not exist in this form. Below are some of the people who helped hold the early versions of KNB’s gatherings, online‑forum ideas, and evolving website vision.

  • A smiling woman with curly dark hair wearing a blue top and colorful earrings.

    Prof. Julie Fossitt

    MANAGER, MARKETING AND REVENUE DEVELOPMENT

    CITY OF KINGSTON

    In 2023, Prof. Julie let me share an attempt to revive my earlier online community forum idea for international students—building on my ON Foreign Student course project—and helped connect me with people who could support turning it into a consolidated information site.

  • A man with dark hair and a beard smiles in an outdoor wooded area during late fall or early spring.

    Arjun Vasudevan Dev

    CLASSMATE, DIGITAL MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS (SUMMER 2023-2024)

    Listened patiently to my early online‑forum ideas and offered concrete suggestions to improve the user experience, sharing example layouts and approaches that could make the international‑student forum and evolving KNB site easier to navigate and use.

  • A woman with blonde hair and a neutral expression.

    Prof. Kathy Patterson

    AMC/DMC FACULTY MEMBER, PROGRAM COORDINATOR

    ST. LAWRENCE COLLEGE

    In 2024, showed strong interest in KNB’s online community platform for international students and proposed involving her DMC students to help with the marketing and branding.

  • Portrait of a woman wearing a pink patterned top and a black turtleneck, with earrings, smiling in front of a grey wall.

    Charity Emeh

    KNB CORE TEAM

    Charity helped shape KNB’s early website vision in 2024 by meeting with Kingston Immigration Partnership to explore a shared online hub where international students could find the resources they need in one place.

  • Person in a large red monster mascot costume with blue hair and white eyes talking to a smiling woman at St. Lawrence College event.

    Prof. Jessica Bredscheneir

    AMC/DMC PROFESSOR, PROGRAM COORDINATOR

    ST. LAWRENCE COLLEGE

    Met with me in 2024 to discuss an evolved KNB site as a changemaker‑focused online community forum, giving time and attention to the idea and exploring how AMC/DMC students might support its marketing strategy.

  • A woman with short dark hair, glasses, and earrings, wearing a pink blazer and a lanyard, is drinking coffee or tea from a paper cup.

    Prof. Victoria Condlln Smallridge

    AMC/DMC FACULTY MEMBER

    ST.LAWRENCE COLLEGE

    In 2024, Prof. Victoria and her AMC students, with support from Prof. Jessica, chose my project and helped shape early branding for SEN‑Kingston—a grassroots support and empowerment hub where newcomers and local changemakers could turn networking into collaborative projects for community impact, even though the concept never fully launched.

[ RECOGNITION ]

Since 2023, Kingston NetworkBuddy has slowly become part of the local ecosystem of community service providers, including invitations to be present at the International Student Symposium in both 2024 and 2025, alongside established organizations serving international students and newcomers.

Working with Community

International Student Symposium

International Student Symposium – invited community service provider in 2024 and 2025, thanks to Sonia Verjovsky, who welcomed KNB as a partner and held online debriefs with our core team to help shape conversations on networking and building connections.

Working Group Committee

Working Group Committee on International Student Transitions – a planning table convened by the City of Kingston, KEYS, and Kingston Immigration Partnership, where Gail participates as a community voice helping shape how information, connections, and care are offered to international students and graduates in Kingston.

Gratitude to SLC alumni

Kingston NetworkBuddy is deeply grateful to the St. Lawrence College Alumni Department and to Elizabeth Gorman, Director of Development and Alumni Relations, who nominated Gail for a CBIE 2024 Excellence Award, and for their financial support for food at 2024 KNB gatherings. This care made it easier to welcome international students and newcomers into rooms that felt a little warmer and more hospitable. They also provided SLC alumni swag to share with alumni participants in those rooms, adding a small touch of home to the space.

Three women standing behind a table at an event, smiling at the camera. The table displays a sign that says "Kingston NetworkBuddy," pamphlets, and brochures. To the right, a colorful spin wheel is set up next to a large banner that reads "Kingston Community Health Centres" and "Immigrant Services Kingston and Area." The women are wearing yellow shirts, and one is wearing a black jacket. The setting appears to be indoors, possibly at a health or community event.
Group of women smiling and holding a yellow sign that reads 'Kingston NetworkBuddy' at an indoor event.
Two smiling people standing behind a table with QR codes at an indoor event. A boat named 'Phoebe' is visible in the background, along with flags and informational displays.
People standing and discussing in a large indoor event space, with tables and booths in the background. 
[ SUPPORT ]

In 2024, Kingston NetworkBuddy’s team leadership and facilitation practices have been strengthened through coaching support from Elizabeth Hesp Coaching & Consulting. She stepped in with team coaching when we needed it most, offering her time, energy, and wisdom, and helped us feel more grounded and supported while we figured out how to hold this work together.

Team Leadership Support

Group of five women smiling indoors, with diverse appearances, two sitting and three standing.
Three women sitting around a conference table, smiling and laughing, with papers, notebooks, pens, and a laptop in front of them, in a bright room with a television on the wall and a shelf with a globe in the background.