1. Community Sponsorship in the UK
Group and volunteer perspectives

2. Methods Over 100 interviews with group leaders and refugees
Longitudinal – 3 points (before, six weeks post-arrival and at 12 months) – 8 groups – ongoing
Retrospective – groups that had reached the 12 month point
Questions
Application processes
Volunteer recruitment and support
Contributions and gains
Roles and responsibilities
Challenges and solutions
Plans for the future

3. Motivations Volunteers are the heart of Community Sponsorship
Why do they establish?
Media coverage of 2015 crisis
Response to calls by faith leaders or because of beliefs
‘Because I have a very strong faith, I just felt that God was telling me: Do something, do something… and as soon as I stood up for refugees the doors started to open, one after the other.’
Desire to pursue social justice and common good

4. Gains Strong sense of purpose and achievement New friends
‘I cannot even begin to tell you what I have gained…so much…so much, joy, the feeling of having a purpose, the feeling of changing something…the power of little people.’
Strong sense of purpose and achievement
New friends
Close sometimes kin-like bonds with
refugees and their children
Reduced isolation
Improved health and wellbeing
Sense of being connected locally and globally
New skills and expertise

5. Skills gained

6. Contributions
Time – usually more than expected
Skills and experience
Resources
Emotional labour
Cultural knowledge

7. Challenges Many groups were pioneers
The application process – evolving and overly bureaucratic
Raising sufficient funds
Getting charitable status
Finding housing and school places without info on family
Dealing with JCP and NHS – complexities around entitlements
Quality and accessibility of ESOL
Communication in first months

8. Cultural differences Socialising
Struggling “to just be present”
Spontaneity can feel invasive
Too much food!
Lack of knowledge about how to reduce isolation
Lack of knowledge about each other’s cultures and traditions
Pets
Greetings
Child rearing
How to appropriately support wellbeing
Gender relations
Some saw as patriarchal and tried to change things
Others not sure what to do

9. Integration and independence
No idea what to expect
Need for support to understand how to enable independence
Surprised how slow language learning is and that ESOL not effective
How to help refugees to access work
How to build social connections for those without young children
Racism and discrimination
Presence of refugees in homogenous communities

10. Conclusions
Establishing a CS group and making an application is challenging but getting easier as scheme develops and more support is available
Despite the stresses and time commitments majority of respondents felt rewarded
Multiple gains – including possibly hearts and minds locally
Main stresses around ‘cultural shock’ and integration
Need for more support in these areas