Welcome Stream

Winchester City of Sanctuary are collaborating with local partners to ensure that Winchester is a welcoming and safe space for those seeking sanctuary.

We are working to awareness raise about the importance of sanctuary and supporting partners across the district to collaborate with us to support our sanctuary community locally. We cannot do this work alone. We rely on partnerships and our local community to support people seeking sanctuary.

If you would like to support us in our welcome efforts please get in touch. There are lots of opportunities to volunteer.

Arts and cultural stream

We are working closely with local artistic and cultural organisations to develop our cultural stream. This includes welcome events at the local library, collaborating with the University of Sanctuary on events, working with Hampshire Cultural Trust on creative art boxes, a Migration History Project and with PlayMakers and Hampshire & Isle of White Carnival Company on Puppet in a Day and a Music Event later this year. We are also in contact with many other art partners with exciting collaborations coming up.

If you would like to volunteer to support this or any other stream then please get in touch.

Education Stream

Winchester University is already an established University of Sanctuary and a key partner for Winchester City of Sanctuary. They have a proud tradition of supporting academics and sanctuary seekers to access higher education and are committed to researching and teaching on topics relating to refugees, migration and on social justice issues. Other initiative includes a forced migration network, ESOL provision and outreach work with asylum seekers and refugees.

We are working closely with the University of Sanctuary to develop our education stream. For example, schools of Sanctuary is a growing network of more than 300 primary and secondary schools across the UK all committed to supporting the thousands of young people seeking sanctuary in the UK, creating a culture of welcome and inclusion whilst raising awareness of the issues faced by refugees and asylum seekers. We would love to see Winchester schools as schools of sanctuary.

If you are interested in becoming a school of sanctuary then please get in touch.

To find out about the National City of Sanctuary school stream, click here.

Advocacy and campaigns stream

Winchester City of Sanctuary are collaborating with local partners on our advocacy and campaigns stream.

If all organisations took even one or two simple actions or made one or two changes it could make a real difference.

Asylum Matters is an advocacy and campaigns project, hosted by City of Sanctuary UK, that works in partnership locally and nationally to improve the lives of refugees and people seeking asylum through social and political change.

There are lots of resources on different campaigns on the Asylum Matters website. 

If you would like to make a pledge to support us or campaign with us or for us, please get in touch.

We are also members of the Together with refugees coalition.

Health sanctuary stream

We are working with partners locally to support access to health and wellbeing services. We also provide access on our website to local health information and health resources. We can signpost you to local services so if you are not sure where to turn please get in contact with us. We cannot facilitate access to emergency care. Please contact 999 if you need urgent assistance.

Garden Sanctuary stream 

We are exploring collaborating with a local partner around Gardens of Sanctuary to create a project in a local community garden. We want to make sure there are reflective, peaceful but also community led spaces of sanctuary across the district and ensure that these are accessible to all, where possible.

If you would like to collaborate with us or volunteer to support this or any other stream then please get in touch.