Sanctuary in Chichester is a voluntary organisation and we are expanding, so there are lots of aspects of our work we need help with. We are growing so that we can meet the needs of some new refugees and asylum seekers who will be arriving in Chichester in the next couple of months. We’re also developing our existing activity streams and some new ones (e.g. Pathways to Work), so we need an injection of expertise and support.

Here are some specific volunteer roles we are trying to fill, but do feel free to suggest any other areas you might be able to help us with:

Fundraisers, to join our friendly Fundraising Committee. We meet once a month, and are acheiving great things, so it’s a very rewarding group to be involved in. We urgently need new committee members to apply for grants.

English tutors, to teach English to people of various ages, origins and languages. We offer formal English lessons and informal English conversation, as well as home tutoring. This is probably our most important workstream, and our dedicated, hard-working tutors do an incredible job, but we are now up to capacity and badly need to find some new ESOL teachers.

Management positions – we would particularly love to hear from anyone who arrived in the UK as a refugee or immigrant and are now settled, and especially those from Africa and the Middle East.

Pathways to Work:

• Companies or sole traders that can offer work experience, internships, short-term work or indeed jobs to refugees living locally. (Asylum seekers can work on a voluntary basis; those with refugee status can take formal paid work.)
• Mentors – whatever sector you work in or have experience of, you may be able to support a refugee into work.
• Expertise – we’d like to find people with expertise in specific areas of work, e.g. events organising, health & safety and admin, so that we can support our service users to volunteer for us whilst learning how to carry out the work. Refugees and asylum seekers usually have professional experience already, but lack the knowledge of how things work in the UK, and the specific English vocabulary for their sector.

Drop-ins & social:

• Outings organisers
• Organisers for drop-in activities
• External presenters
• Benefits and Universal Credit advisors

Interpreters & translators – Punjabi, Dari (& Farsi), Pashto, Tigryna, Arabic.

Painters & decorators, to prepare housing for newcomers.

Emergency accommodation, for asylum seekers. We often need to find somewhere for people to stay at short notice, so we aim to build a small database of people willing to help with rooms, in whatever capacity suits the host.

Email Gemma Driver on sanctuaryinchichester@gmail.com if you’re interested in volunteering or would like to know more.