What is Community Sponsorship?

Community Sponsorship is a refugee resettlement programme with local people at its heart.

Volunteers in a local community form a group and work together to prepare for and to welcome a refugee family to their local area. When communities lead the welcome, refugees have the benefit of a local support network right from day one.

The group supports the family through their first year in the UK to live independent lives, learn English, and access schools, benefits, healthcare and employment and participate fully in the community.

In 2016 the Community Sponsorship scheme was launched by the Home Office. A new movement was born and very quickly Community Sponsorship groups sprung up in every region and nation of the UK. In the first five years of the programme more than 150 groups welcomed almost 700 refugees.

Find out how community sponsorship works, and the impact it has, in this short video.

This video shows the positive impact community sponsorship has. In 2018, Mohanad and his family arrived in Wales, after fleeing the war in Syria and living in harsh conditions in Lebanon. Croesco Teifi, a community sponsor group in Wales, made this possible. Now the group have welcomed a second Syrian family, Ahmed and his family, into their community.

Community Sponsorship is a movement that is set to continue growing and thriving.

Since September 2021, Community Sponsorship groups have been able to welcome those who were forced to flee Afghanistan.

It's part of the UK Government-UNHCR refugee resettlement programme. Community sponsorship is an amazing way to support refugee families in resettling and establishing a new life somewhere safe, like Ashbourne.

We are working with Citizens UK, a registered charity which helps organise communities to act together for power, social justice and the common good.