Thanks to David Brown, Chair of Birmingham City of Sanctuary  for the first set of notes from last week’s Learning and Working Together Day and AGM held in Reading 

The event opened with welcoming remarks from Sabir Zazai and a presentation to Reading as a new Town of Sanctuary. Following a school video, a keynote speech by Brendan Cox was, inspirational, stressing the need to

• Build our movement
• Help the ‘anxious middle’ (the ~50% in between the solidly liberal-minded at one end and the ‘angry extreme / UKIP’ at the other
• Talk about what we have in common rather than what divides us

Cox urged that avoid alienating those who do not feel comfortable with the diversity which many of us cherish, and stressed the importance of a story-based rather than a purely fact-based narrative when seeking to achieve influence.

The new national City of Sanctuary charter was accepted, with the organisation moving forward to change its legal status to a charitable incorporated organization (now ‘City of Sanctuary UK’). It was clear that the national group considers itself to be a connector and facilitator for the network comprising independent local groups (noting that these have a wide range of different structures and functions, ranging from those providing extensive services directly to those acting as more of an umbrella such as Edinburgh and ourselves in Birmingham) and thematic Streams of Sanctuary. Reference was also made to the bringing of Asylum Matters under the umbrella of CoS UK, albeit with its own agenda and priorities.

Jonathan Ellis, vice-chair, stressed that we are part of a movement, not the whole of it. He saw the important features for such a movement as having an authentic base of people, a clear vision and aim, a sense of leadership although no one single leader, and an advocacy infrastructure (which Asylum Matters will now provide). A culture of welcome should be embedded across society and embraced by the state, while we press for a more humane asylum policy.

Group sessions provided an opportunity for sharing of activity, experience and ideas which I am hoping will be documented in due course, and later, exploration of a number of specific topics as listed on the agenda (attached)

Within the AGM section, accounts were presented with the explanation that reserves looked very high as a result of a new accounting convention which means that the £400k Guardian funding over three years is entirely shown in the 2016 income. Currently the reserves include around £ 80,000 of unrestricted funds under full trustees’ control (the Guardian funding is jointly controlled by the trustees and the Guardian newspaper group)

There was much talk about Schools of Sanctuary ( I liked the resource pack which I had not seen before) and a very positive reaction to the Wales Nation of Sanctuary initiative. Bristol illustrated a close collaboration with Amnesty, which we might want to consider learning from in Birmingham,

Other examples included the benefits of drawing on the professional skills of individuals such as the restaurant manager in Newcastle who had been able to guide the provision of a pop-up restaurant and the IT skills of another group which had been able to create a mobile app.

Andrea Vukovic of Asylum Matters described the merger of Still Human Still Here and Regional Asylum Activism. They are keen to capture stories and case studies and to focus on taking forward the Birmingham Declaration.

City of Sanctuary Conference & AGM 2017 – 5^th July 2017   
 ‘Learning and Working Together’