Communities for Refugees: new campaign launched to demonstrate support for resettlement

Whilst recognising the limitations of a small set of data, we learnt so much: for the messaging of Communities for Refugees, for the training and support which Reset provides, and for ways to develop community-led welcome in the future. Some of what we learned included:

• Our interviewees are do-ers, they want to do good, and Community Sponsorship is hands-on.
• Choice is important, volunteers are not ordered to get involved, they choose to, and they do it for a range of reasons: a calling to support refugees prompted by media coverage and/or rooted in faith; a practical response to political discourses they were uncomfortable with; a change in their lives that gave them more time.
• Volunteers’ hands-on involvement increased sympathy and insight into the plight of refugees and a distaste for the treatment of people seeking asylum, especially when compared to the resettlement process (in which there was a sense of confidence and pride) and the Community Sponsorship scheme where interviewees saw so much opportunity to give time and kindness.
• We didn’t ask directly about barriers to ongoing motivation, but a theme that came through was much time spent agonising by Groups on how best to promote independence of refugees over reliance on the Group.
• Interviewees were universally interested in other ways in which community-led support could be adapted for other newcomers in their community, such as refugees arriving with work visas, asylum seekers and unaccompanied young people. They saw challenges in such potential schemes, but were not put off the opportunity to help other newcomers move their lives forward.

Over the past few months we’ve been working to collate data on the experience of Community Sponsorship volunteers to understand what they value about their journey and the factors that continue to motivate them. We’ve been emailing Group members with a short survey at the end of their one-year sponsorship agreement. Overwhelmingly, Community Sponsorship brings a sense of satisfaction and of community to volunteers. And they are learning about, for example, the difficulties that people face navigating life in the UK with limited English and accessing statutory services.

We’re incredibly fortunate to have contact with all Community Sponsorship Groups through our work, which puts us in a good position to learn from their experiences. Once resettlement restarts and we’re running our Part 2 training, we’ll be asking all Group members to answer 10 questions about what they learn when applying to sponsor a refugee family with the aim of growing our data set and our understanding.

We’re really interested to keep learning about what motivates Community Sponsorship volunteers. If you have thoughts and insights, from research or your own experience, do get in touch!