Wiltshire’s Voluntary, Community and Faith Organisations Supporting Refugees. 

Wessex Community Action (WCA) brought together community & faith groups and charities to begin the conversation of co-ordinating and being ‘response ready’ to support Ukraine’s refugees coming into Wiltshire.

Whilst we are currently focusing on the immediate Ukraine crisis, we know that we currently have Afghan and Syrian Refugees too, who we hope this campaign page will also focus on as it develops.

We want to ensure that refugees are welcomed and supported in Wiltshire so it’s a place that they can feel safe and warmly welcomed.

WCA is part of the national VCSEP which is regularly meeting nationally and regionally to ensure that intel is being cascaded from local to national and vice versa.

Find more information for hosts, for organisations and for individuals. 

WCA has brought Wiltshire’s VCS and faith organsations together to support WCA achieve the VCSEP aims:

• Bring together insight and the voice of those affected to ensure a human-centred response, to enable actions that will ensure people’s human rights to life, security, and excellent standards of health are met.
• Supplement local mechanisms to provide extra support and resources when needed.
• Strengthen partnerships and networks between the local and national voluntary and community sector to be ready for anything now and in the future.

The VCSE is part of the solution to solving some of the challenges that refugees are facing right now and, in the future. WCA welcomes the commitment of a concerted and joined-up response from the VCSE in Wiltshire where possible, to consider what and how we might be stronger by working together.

We know there are new emerging community hubs being set up to support refugees arriving into the Wiltshire Community area and that there can be lots of duplication of effort, so the intention is to support groups by sharing information through Wiltshire Together and for each community hub and charity to link their activities to ensure refugees and host families know what is available to them.

Click the 'News' and 'Support' tabs at the top of this page to find out more about how you can get involved.