As a Community Sponsorship group, you will have several opportunities to provide feedback on your experience of welcoming a family to the UK. The Home Office have created a brief on their reporting requirements to make the process as simple as possible for you to follow. Listed below are details of the opportunities for you…
Stage of the process: We have welcomed a family
How groups can support families experiencing bullying
This resource has been produced for community sponsorship groups who may need to support refugee families who are experiencing bullying in school. It has been produced in collaboration with the Anti-Bullying Alliance who are a coalition of organisations and individuals that unite against bullying to create safer environments in which children and young people can…
Immigration information
The most important thing we can tell you is this: if you or members of the refugee family you are supporting are in need of immigration advice, you should consult a registered Immigration Adviser or Lawyer. You can identify an Immigration Adviser here. These resources are designed to give you some idea of what to expect and…
Inclusion of Refugees with Disabilities
This resource has been produced for Reset to support and inform Community Sponsorship groups working with refugee children or adults with disabilities and their families. This brief has been produced by Kate McAuliff, a multidisciplinary consultant and researcher working at the intersection of disability and displacement. People with disabilities comprise 16% of the global population, this…
Managing financial disappointment
For most refugees, integration and financial security are interlinked, especially when they are resettled to a relatively wealthy country like the UK. Refugees will have also heard rumours from their networks about the UK and other countries that may lead them to believe that resettlement equates to not having to worry about money. Many Groups…
Moving house
After arrival, some families might express an interest in moving elsewhere in the UK. There could be many reasons for this; they may have relatives or friends elsewhere, they might wish to live somewhere more or less quiet than where they currently are, or where there is a larger population of people who speak the…
Preparing for uncomfortable conversations
When the resettled family you support arrives there are some key conversations you’ll need to have, and some topics will arise that may feel a little awkward. Uncomfortable conversations will happen, but they don’t have to be embarrassing or catch you off guard. Be confident that it’s ok to have them as the family’s wellbeing and integration…
Preparing for what happens after 24 months of housing
One of your requirements as a Community Sponsorship group is to source sustainable housing for a refugee family for a two-year period, after which they may need to move to a new home. Even if the family you support is able to stay in their property indefinitely, it’s important they are empowered with the tools…
Refugee women and postnatal mental health
We know that 12-20% of women will experience mental health difficulties like depression and anxiety during pregnancy and during the first 2 years of their baby’s life (the postnatal period), and refugee women are at an even increased risk of developing postnatal mental health difficulties. The associated stress, uncertainty, and trauma of the refugee experience may…
Reset’s Introductory Guide for Refugees
Before arriving in the UK, resettled refugees receive cultural orientation training from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). The family will also be given a book that explains life in the UK called the Welcome to the UK booklet; there are also similar booklets available in other languages. The training and the booklet explain what…
Resettlement Evaluation
The Home Office requires all Community Sponsorship groups to keep records during their support of a family throughout the Sponsor Agreement period. Not only is this essential for managing both the support of a family and the running of the sponsor group, but it is also necessary for fulfilling your sponsor obligation to the Home Office to…
Resources for Schools – The Healing Classrooms Programme
Are you the Education Lead in your Community Sponsorship group? Are you wondering how to start fostering a relationship with a school? This resource is a great place to start! Reset has collaborated with the International Rescue Committee (IRC) to provide guidance for Community Sponsorship groups on utilising the IRC’s valuable Healing Classrooms resources when…
Returning to a host country
This resource has been written in conjunction with UNHCR UK. During the time you support a resettled family, the family members are likely to go through some highs and lows. They might have unrealistic hopes for life in the UK such as feeling settled or finding jobs in a short amount of time. While coming…
Setting and managing expectations in Community Sponsorship
Volunteers come to sponsorship from many different backgrounds and belief systems. They may have very specific and personal expectations of how the process will unfold and what the support they will provide to the refugees they are welcoming will look like. Preparing to sponsor, before an application is submitted can potentially involve long searches for…
Sources of funding for training and education
Refugees who wish to go back to the profession they held before they arrived in the UK are likely to require some additional training or may need to get a qualification. Carrying out the role they used to do may be very difficult if they don’t speak English and re-training is the best way to…
Supporting Families with Special Educational Needs (SEN)
Refugee Children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) Reset asked Dr Andia Papadopoulou, a Clinical Psychologist, to put together the below resources in order to provide some information about Special Educational Needs in the Community Sponsorship context. Refugee children like all children may have special needs of all kinds such as physical, neurodevelopmental, behavioural and learning…
Supporting refugees to access healthcare
Helping newly arrived refugees to access the healthcare they need will be essential once they arrive in the UK. As part of your Sponsor Agreement with the Home Office you will be agreeing that you will help refugees to register with a GP within one week of arrival, and you will have researched the registration…
Supporting Volunteer Well-being
Reset worked with Dr Andia Papadopoulou, a Clinical Psychologist, to put together these resources in order to provide some information about supporting your well-being in the Community Sponsorship context. Supporting refugee families can be emotional and draining especially if a safeguarding concern arises. As empathy is at the core of helping and supporting others in…
Understanding maternity care in the UK
Community Sponsorship groups have supported many families that continue to grow after being resettled to the UK, with babies being born after resettlement. Although this is often happy news for the family, it can be bittersweet in the absence of their extended family network. You cannot replace family, nor should you try, but you can…
What does “home” mean to you?
Many might initially envision their physical home—the place where they sleep, share meals, and try to keep organized. Some might immediately recall their childhood home, even if it has been decades since they lived there. For those living abroad, home might evoke thoughts of their home country, its culture, and the family members who still live there.
Photo by Valentina Locatelli on Unsplash.
Accessing employment and volunteering opportunities
As part of the application process, you will have thought about how you could assist adults to access volunteer and employment opportunities. You might already have plans on how you will support adults in writing their CV, or preparing for interviews. It can be a challenge to manage the expectations of newcomers in terms of employment and how possible…