People are arriving in our area in great need, having lost everything and suffered devastating trauma. We’re committed to welcoming them and helping them to survive before supporting them to integrate, heal and thrive.
The refugee crisis is the biggest in our time since World War II. We are taking action by:
You can donate here if you wish to help. And we're always looking for more volunteers.
If you are a refugee or asylum seeker staying in the Chichester area, we would be very happy to welcome you into our community. We hold lively drop-in sessions every week, where you can come and get to know us (including refugees, asylum seekers and others from all over the world), practice your English and connect with local people. For security reasons we don’t post the time and location of our drop-ins online, but we will gladly share them with you via email.
If you are interested in coming along, please get in touch with us at contact@sanctuaryinchichester.org or contact us on Facebook.
We really hope to meet you soon.
Sanctuary in Chichester, registered charity no. 1181855, is part of the City of Sanctuary movement.
Thank you for your messages of support and donations for the Ukrainian refugee crisis. Our small team worked hard to recruit and train volunteer support workers and we worked with our partners – Food Bank, Rotary Club, Little Bundles – to provide for new arrivals. We don’t have storage or capacity to deal with donated items, but all cash donations are very gratefully received. We set up a coordination group for all the charities and networks supporting Ukrainian refugees in our area to share and disseminate information. We have been holding social events for Ukrainian refugees and their hosts (the Ukrainian community is now arranging their own events), and dealing with a situation that is new to us; the need of support for hosts – even successful matches can be a struggle after a few months living together in the same house. Here’s a welcome and info page for Ukrainians arriving in Chichester.
We continued to welcome new families from Afghanistan throughout 2022, and they are being supported by our awesome team of dedicated volunteers, and are settling in well and making incredible progress – this is despite suffering constant, debilitating worry and grief due to loved ones left behind being targeted by the Taliban (for violence, murder and threats of murder) in lieu of the escapees. The Home Office/ MOD is not being resourced to deal with the huge demand – tens of thousands of requests – for rescuing relatives whose lives are in very real and imminent danger. We are gradually learning the stories of the new Afghan arrivals, and the things they have done are astoundingly brave, like leading British Army missions across minefields and serving on the frontline for decades. Now we’re seeing Afghan asylum seekers arriving in small boats – these are people who didn’t manage to get on a UK Government flight last August so escaped with their lives by travelling over land and the Channel is the last hurdle of their long journey – to join family in the UK and/ or who used to work with the British government so are seeking safety here. Some are unaccompanied children.
This refugee crisis is the biggest since World War II and we felt the need to take action at home…
Supporting refugees into work and careers: help with CVs, interview skills, getting work experience, converting qualifications and finding paid work.
Our team of befrienders and specialist English tutors provide wrap-around care for new arrivals, then support them to become independent.
We’re very proud of the successful Nations United football team, made up of young refugees and unaccompanied asylum seeking children! We’re working on providing similar support and solidarity for non-footballing young people.
sanctuaryinchichester.org 