Accessing services and details online will be essential for the family you support. From registering for and managing their benefits through to connecting with friends and family across the world, developing IT skills will only be helpful. We like to remind Groups that success in Community Sponsorship is when resettled families are able to do…
Articles tagged with: Translated resource
Adopting an empowerment approach to ILtR applications
For families who arrive before winter 2021, they will have been given the right to live and work here for 5 years. Once the family members have been in the UK for 4 years and 11 months, they will need to submit an application for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILtR). The application process is carried out…
Experts by Experience: Mohammed’s 5 tips for learning English quickly
Mohammed attended school in Syria until year 11 when he and his family members were displaced to Egypt due to the war. In school in Syria, he started studying English around year five or six but since it wasn’t his favourite subject, he made slow progress. Although he would have liked to improve his language…
Experts by Experience: Abdullah’s driving tips
Abdullah arrived in the UK as a Syrian refugee in 2017 with only a few words of English and was welcomed by the CHARIS Community Sponsorship Group in the South West. 10 months later, he had passed his theory and practical driving tests, giving him vital independence and freedom. When he arrived in the UK,…
Experts by Experience: The maternity experience of a Syrian mother
Giving birth in a country where you are unfamiliar with the systems and processes, where you don’t speak the language, and where you aren’t surrounded by family and friends is a daunting experience for any family. Mirvat, who was resettled to the UK in 2021 through Community Sponsorship, sat down with us to talk through…
Media toolkit for Community Sponsorship groups
Raising awareness of your work is going to be essential in recruiting volunteers and raising funds to support your Community Sponsorship project. This guide outlines some key things to think about when starting out. If you are working with a Lead Sponsor organisation, make sure you discuss with them if there is any guidance they…
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 a complaints handling policy and procedure
In order to gain approval as a Community Sponsorship Group, your application will need to have a clear complaints policy that outlines how you will handle a complaint that may be made by the refugees you are supporting. It should outline how the complaint will be handled and the timeline for action. If you are working with…
Welcome Pack
As part of your application form, you will be asked to prepare a Welcome Pack for the family. Below is a list of suggested documents you could include. You may wish to add, remove or amend the title of any of these documents – it’s really about what you as a group would like to…
Working with landlords
Community Sponsorship groups across the UK have developed hugely creative ways to find affordable, sustainable accommodation for families arriving through Community Sponsorship. For the most part, we are seeing groups accessing property through private landlords, whether they are connected to the group or not. In this resource, we will look at the role of the landlord in…
Common Arabic words and phrases
When the family you support first arrives in the UK, it’s unlikely that they will speak English well enough to communicate with your Community Sponsorship Group without an interpreter present. Although working with interpreters, especially in the early days, will be key in supporting the family to access essential services and learn new things about…
In country cultural training
All refugees arriving through the Community Sponsorship programme will receive preparation training in their country of asylum prior to arriving in the UK. This training is run by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), takes place across 3 days and is delivered through a variety of methods. You will find it useful to understand what the family…
NSPCC’s Positive Parenting guide
Parenting or guardianship can be difficult at the best of times. After arriving in a new country through resettlement, parents or guardians may be facing many additional pressures and personal challenges on top of supporting children who will themselves be learning to navigate their new environment. The National Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC)…
Supporting individuals to stop smoking
When you receive a referral of a family from the Home Office, the Resettlement Registration Form you receive may indicate that a member or members of the family are smokers, or you may discover that they smoke after arrival. Whilst it’s their choice whether they smoke or not, you will need to make the smoker…