I was first involved in Community Sponsorship in 2017, working with a brilliant group in Gloucestershire who welcomed a family. This was still in the early days of Community Sponsorship, before there were very many groups and before we had the Community Sponsorship networks that we do now. It’s been incredible to see how many more refugees we’ve been able to welcome through this scheme since I was first able to see it in action.

My experience of Community Sponsorship is what first brought me to Reset. And working as part of the team, it’s been great to see how this scheme has changed and progressed over time, as we’ve learnt from experienced groups on how to better prepare future groups to welcome.

Thank you to communities across the UK for helping to advance Community Sponsorship!

I joined Reset at rather unfortunate April 2020. The flights to the UK were stopped, the number of those welcomed through Community Sponsorship stood at 449 and for months it felt like it’s never going to increase again.

What struck me back then and strikes me now looking back at that time as we celebrate arrival of the 1000th person is the amazing energy, resilience determination of the communities to keep going despite the challenges. There really is nothing that could stop those groups doing what they set out to do. I feel privileged to be able to play a small part in those 1000 lives being changed for the better and even more privileged to have met so many incredible people along the way– both in communities and those who have been welcomed to the UK by them.

Although I just recently joined Reset, my passion for the Community Sponsorship programme has flourished rapidly from the start.

The impact this programme has on refugee families and community groups is truly inspiring and evident in the stories I have read. Bringing together cultures, experiences, knowledge, language, and diverse communities is incredibly powerful and lies at the heart of Community Sponsorship.

I am grateful to be a part of the team that supports these amazing community groups!

This is a brilliant moment for the Community Sponsorship programme, and community-led welcome in the UK as a whole. It’s a privilege to be involved with a programme that has such positive impacts on both those being welcomed, and the communities welcoming them. It’s a real testament to the amazing volunteers that have put in such hard work and dedication.

Community Sponsorship has proven to be an incredible platform for community connections to be established and to flourish. Seeing long lasting friendships develop between families and groups, and between group members, has been very special.

It’s been fantastic to see families become settled in their new homes and communities and go on to do wonderful things such as pursue their interests and their education and employment aspirations. What I feel best exemplifies the positive impact that the programme has is a phrase I hear very regularly when I meet with families – “we feel safe here and our children are happy.”

I started my journey with Community Sponsorship in 2018 when I worked with ‘For Refugees’. I was helping groups in the East Midlands progress through the application process and then befriending the families that arrived. I met refugees that were happy to have a front door again they could lock for the first time in year. I also met people here in the UK that just wanted to make things a little easier for someone.

I started working for Reset in 2022, as Project Coordinator, I now make sure that the systems that help this amazing work are functional. 1000 refugees is an incredible number, but I know we can do so much more. People in the UK are kind, compassionate, and welcoming. I am continually amazed by the way groups work together and overcome barriers and then help families that have come from difficult situations.

The number of times I think ‘wow, if this happened the other way round, I’d hope there were people waiting and willing to help me’. We are all human beings just trying to live a happy and safe life.

I came to work for Reset amidst the war in Ukraine and was primarily focused on the Homes for Ukraine Programme. Having recently begun working within Community Sponsorship I am honoured to be a small part of something which is woven through cities and towns across the United Kingdom and is such an integral part of many communities. It is a privilege to work with such genuine, caring people who give so much to support those in need of refuge.

One of my favourite things to discuss with families who have been welcomed, is to hear how their children are settling into life in the UK. Young children are, on the most part, the most accepting and welcoming members of society, they do not fixate on differences in culture or religion, they simply make friends and share laughter. I love to hear how children have flourished since arriving, how they have taken to the English language, and they play football outside with their neighbours.

To be a small part of these journeys is a privilege and I cannot thank the Community Sponsorship groups enough for everything they have given, and continue to give, to make this happen.