Is your church in an area with lots of asylum seekers and refugees?
Your church may already be proactively welcoming people seeking asylum and refugees in your community. Or maybe you are keen to grow your refugee ministry.
By becoming a Welcome Plus church, you will have the opportunity to build up a team of trained volunteers to extend a warm welcome to local refugees or people seeking asylum, whatever their accommodation. You can plan activities to suit your church with support and advice from the Welcome Churches Team. We will guide you in providing for people seeking asylum and refugees, helping them to meet people from your church, to find their way around the local area and to begin to rebuild their lives.
Your church can get fully equipped to welcome refugees in 3 simple steps:
1. Start the Welcome Plus application here
2. Get a Coordinator trained
3. Get volunteer Welcomers trained
Coordinator training
We will train you in the UK system for people seeking asylum and refugees; and how to connect with people arriving in your area. We will cover how to build partnerships with other organisations in your area so that refugees and people seeking asylum can be referred to you. Our training includes all of the paperwork, safeguarding and data protection information you will need for this work. We will give you advice about how to recruit a team of Welcomers and how to lead and look after your team.
Coordinator training takes place monthly via Zoom video call.
To register for Welcome Plus Coordinator training, follow this link to our Training and Events page or get in touch
Our Welcomer Training will equip your team of volunteer Welcomers in understanding the role of a Welcomer and what becoming a Welcome Plus Church looks like.
Training includes understanding what a good welcome looks like, and how to be cross-culturally aware. We train Welcomers in safeguarding and data protection, and trauma awareness, including self-care. We look at the asylum system in the UK, and the pressures on residents in different types of accommodation. And we consider how to support our new Neighbours in getting to know people in their new local community.
To register for Welcome Plus Welcomer training, visit our Training and Events page or get in touch
Welcomer training takes place twice a month, both during the day and in the evening.
