Who we are:

We’re a group of Sheffield based volunteers who are going to welcome a displaced family to live in Sheffield.

We’re doing this through a community sponsorship scheme, supported by Citizens UK. This government scheme enables local community groups to be directly responsible for resettling a refugee family in their local area. Since the scheme was set up 2016, community sponsorship has helped over 400 refugees to be resettled. Steel City Welcome is Sheffield’s first community sponsorship scheme and we’re very excited to be a part of it.

We have the opportunity to sponsor a family to start a new life in Sheffield. The family we are sponsoring will arrive in early 2022. 

Why are we doing it?

Every day we see news reports of people forced to leave their homes due to war and persecution. People face horrendous circumstances such as having to make dangerous border crossings and living in unsafe refugee camps. It’s hard not to ask yourself the question: “If I was in this situation, wouldn’t someone help me?”

Faced with an increasingly hostile attitude towards asylum seekers, both from our government and a vocal minority of the public, the time to extend a welcoming hand from one group of people to another has never been more pressing.

An ultimately human expression of compassion and solidarity is one of the core reasons why we want to support a family to come to live in Sheffield. Sheffield was the UK’s first city of sanctuary, and we want to extend a warm welcome to a family in difficult circumstances.

Where will your money go?

Welcoming a family to Sheffield seems simple - we just need to support them to get here, right? In fact, there’s actually quite a lot of things we will provide for our resettled family that we as UK residents already have. Here’s a list of (some of) the things we’ll need to organise to help the family settle in:

Arrival and pick up from the airport

Interpretation Services - on call to assist especially within the first weeks of the family arriving

Initial Expenses

Furnishing accommodation 

Electronic devices eg smartphones, laptops

English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) teaching and additional courses

Support with access to employment, digital services, neighbourhood and community services

We’re formed a team of volunteers with interests and experience relevant to the above and we’re really excited to work away at this list. That’s the first and most important step. However, we’re also going to need some funds to help us do this. The government advice suggests we’ll need between £5,000 and £20,000. We have reached the minimum target of £9,000 but are aiming to reach £15,000 to ensure we are able to meet the family's needs when they arrive.

None of the money raised will be used for Home Office expenses (e.g flights, administration fees). Therefore every penny you donate**  will go directly to resettling a family fleeing from war, violence or persecution. We are extremely grateful for any support you can offer to help make a difference. 

(** excluding the JustGiving fee of 1.9% + 20p for online donations plus 5% on Gift Aid reclaim)

Want to learn more? 

Here are some links to discover a little bit about what it means to sponsor a family via the UK community resettlement scheme, and understand about the positive impact your donation can have:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1M97twApz4A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85DRSAcKFn4

or read about it: 

https://resetuk.org/

or learn about Citizens UK here: 

https://www.citizensuk.org/