Hosting placements with JRS UK can take many forms. When we first began facilitating hosting placements for refugees over a decade ago, our hosts were predominantly religious orders living in community. Since then we have been able to offer placements to refugee friends in a variety of homes – with families big and small, couples, single people, and even a household of young adults. Priests have often kindly welcomed refugee friends into their presbyteries too.
At JRS UK we value diversity greatly; it is in this multiplicity that we find opportunities for learning, creativity and innovation. The diversity in our hosting community offers so much to us as a team. It also facilitates our emphasis on ‘matching’ – we know how important it is to match guests and hosts whose lifestyles, preferences, and needs align. The more, and more diverse, host placements we have, the better able we are to match people.
In recent years, we’ve had the pleasure of developing a new and unique new set-up. A parish in South London generously offered us the use of a private flat on their grounds. It is through teamwork that this placement has been made possible – and so successful! The parish priest acts as the formal host, and a dedicated team of parishioners work in solidarity as neighbours to ‘welcome the stranger’ to their community.
The theme of this Refugee Week is ‘Our Home’, and we’re invited to ponder what Home means to us, and what it means to share a collective home.
So, we thought it fitting to speak with some of the people who make this initiative possible. We spoke with the parish priest (who will remain anonymous to protect their address), Liz (Welcome Team Coordinator), Laurence (Accommodation Officer, JRS UK) and John (Project Manager, Caritas Southwark).
How did this initiative start?
Father: “I inherited the initiative from the previous parish priest, and when I arrived in September 2020 there was a refugee friend staying here. We have a separate flat, so we would have simple meetings outside, but it was very limited interaction. It became clear that we would need more people than just the priests involved in supporting and welcoming our guests to the parish. So, we invited parishioners to join us for an initial meeting about this, and this is when our hosting became revamped and there was a lot of life, interest, and care put into it.
So now together we are doing something that is very positive and needed; something that a lot of people give attention to so it’s not a burden on one or two people. The team has developed ways of working and welcoming refugee friends well.”
Liz: “I really started this very unexpectedly. I did come to that first meeting and never really thought how far I’d continue with it or where the interest would take me. I offered to be a coordinator because we felt that, as a team, we’d have to put some structure to how the group would work and to make it a successful venture. We attended training that JRS UK provided, and we went to their centre in Wapping and had some fantastic insights into how we could accompany our refugee friends. And we then came back to the parish and put that into practice, and then learned as we were going along.”
What practicalities were involved?
Liz: “The first thing to work out is to ensure the placement will be safe and secure, so for us as parish volunteers we needed to meet safeguarding regulations and have our DBS checks.
JRS UK guide you in preparing and help you understand how best to support refugee friends. JRS UK provide support in preparing a welcome handbook sharing information on the local area so that when guests arrive, they can begin to find their way.
We have a group of volunteers working together, and for each guest we agree who will be the ‘lead visitors’. It works better for one or two people to visit initially and support the guests to settle in, and then we introduce members of the group throughout the placement so that everyone is introduced over time. Having a group WhatsApp is a useful means of keeping each other up to date during the placement. And we like to find ways to include everyone, even if they cannot make visits.
Setting up a parish placement is unique, it can take time to learn good practice together as a group, get to know each other through meetings, and prepare the flat. Sometimes there is maintenance to sort, and we like to prepare a welcome meal for the guest too.
Hosting really is about welcoming and being careful not to do too much so you can support people’s independence. Refugee friends are independent and resilient, and if they need support with their health or other things then they have caseworkers at JRS UK and there is important continuity with that relationship”.
Laurence: “I think you have done a good job of learning together and also having a laugh together. Sometimes that is all you need, just to be able to get on well and trust each other. You make the guest feel welcome, visit when suits them and you, and also get together with the guest and sometimes staff for special events like birthdays and Christmas. You keep it simple but have fun and through that offer welcome and hospitality”
How have you found the experience of hosting?
Father: Having JRS UK supporting us throughout and having the reassurance that if something doesn’t work out, we can end the placement, is very important. It has felt reassuring from the start that there is this clear structure that underpins the placements and makes it safe. We meet the guests at the matching meeting and then JRS UK come to visit and review the placement and then also debrief with us. It has been a very positive experience I think.”
Liz: “It’s really gone very smoothly. We’ve had three guests to date, and they have stayed for various timeframes. All our guests are very different and we’ve learned a lot from having them. For one guest, I think we made a very successful experience for them and ourselves by learning to communicate when someone has limited English.
I think that once we had the first guest, we were like, okay, it’s doable. So, the natural initial fear and hesitation somehow evaporated because you know, it is a responsibility, but at the end of the day it is just not that difficult. You do what you need to do with the hope that is going to work – and it does work.
We get great support from JRS UK. The Accommodation Team have really helped us fantastically. And we find the regular meetings with other hosts and volunteers really good as well, hearing about other experiences and getting simple tips from them.”
Why host?
Father: “It’s what God and what Jesus wants us to do. When Jesus says in the gospel ‘make your home in me, as I make mine in you’ this is that understanding that together we are in unity with God. And then he says, ‘love one another as I have loved you’, so you know from the spiritual, gospel perspective, it’s exactly what God calls us to do.
I would also say that if there is an opportunity to do something, at least I need to give it a chance so when I confess during Mass, I don’t want to have neglected the opportunity to do good.”
Liz: “I just remember at that first meeting one of the group saying that welcoming a refugee is demonstrating our Christian love, and that’s always stuck with me. And then I remember in our Synod meetings, we have talked about being involved in supporting the marginalised in our own areas. And sharing news of this work, it’s clear that as a parish we have become so energized in the last couple of years through great leadership, and we are coming together and have a collective generosity of spirit. It’s a great thing in the parish itself.
I think each member of the team would say that we got a lot back from having hosted refugee friends, rather than us really having given to them. When we go to visit the refugee friends at the flat, they like to prepare tea and biscuits for us. It is in their own dignity to give us something back, and that’s a hugely generous human gesture.”
Father: “Britain has got, you know, a long history of supporting refugees. My own country benefited during and after the second World War from the people of Great Britain. I don’t think that we ever had this initiative questioned or looked at negatively. There is a culture of welcoming here.”
John: “This is a manifestation of love your neighbour as yourself. And the way that Liz was describing the richness of the response that you’ve got from the people that have been supported through this scheme is tantamount to that. In many ways as we seek to bring Christ into our lives, we get more back than we give. But that doesn’t mean to say it’s easy. It’s not an easy thing to do to reach out to somebody: sometimes we’re shy, sometimes we don’t believe we have the skills, sometimes we might not feel it’s our role or that we call to it. But actually when we make that leap of faith, it changes us and I think it changes communities, and that’s why this initiative that you’ve got here is so important. It illustrates that in living Faith, we can talk about it, think about it, and pray, but faith needs to have an expression, and it gets articulated in our relationships with other people, not just our friends and family, but also the stranger.”
What next!?
John: “Our Caritas network intentionally brings together so many projects and activities which happen across our Archdiocese. These contribute to the common good which enhances the lives of us all. We are committed to connecting more diocesan parishes with JRS UK, and with this parish, to be inspired, learn from each other, and embody God’s loving mercy in action.”
We are very enthusiastic about working together with Caritas and our supporters in their own parishes! This is an amazing project to be a part of. Perhaps it will inspire others to extend such warmth and hospitality to refugees. We know that hosting can take form as a collective effort – a neighbourhood or a community providing safety. We hope there will be other gifts of kindness such as this.
To learn more about JRS UK’s hosting scheme, and to talk to a member of the Accommodation team about whether hosting could work for you and/or your parish, visit: www.jrsuk.net/at-home-hosting-scheme
