Refugee Week starts on June 17th! This year, the theme of the festival is ‘Our Home’. From the places we gather to share meals to our collective home, planet earth: everyone is invited to celebrate what our Our Home means to them.

Home can be more than one place and finding it can be a journey, as it is for so many of us who have to leave our countries and rebuild our lives. Sometimes we can find home in a single person. Other times it’s in a whole community. And often, it’s in a single gesture of care and welcome.

What would happen if this Refugee Week we extended our warmth and hospitality beyond our own homes and made entire neighbourhoods more welcoming? Simple acts like having a chat, walking together, or sending a message of welcome can help everyone feel like they belong. Together, we can work in solidarity to ensure all our neighbours, new and familiar, have safe and welcoming homes.

Our home is also global. We are interconnected; we share the earth’s resources, climate and its challenges. As we speak, millions of people are being displaced from their homes because of the climate crisis. But, exchanging knowledge, both new and traditional, can help us in practical ways to build hope for the future.

Together, this Refugee Week let’s practice our solidarity and make Our Home a more welcoming, safe and sustainable place for all.

During Refugee Week, and every week, the City of Sanctuary networks are here to help you put your compassion into action. Here are four simple actions you can do this week to stand up, speak out and be the change you want to see…

1) Get connected and get started. City of Sanctuary groups do everything possible to stand in solidarity with people forced to flee. Whatever your experience, background or availability, there are way for you to get involved today. Click here to get connected.

2) Speak up for Sanctuary. Fed up of the scapegoating and hostility towards people seeking sanctuary? With a General Election around the corner, follow our steps to have your voice heard.

3) Wear your heart on your sleeve. Bag youself one of our stunning t-shirts, bags, jumpers, hoodies or art prints. Every penny of profit helps us build this movement of welcome for people seeking sanctuary.⁣ Click here to look the part.

4) Hear from sanctuary seeking poets. Join us on 17th June for powerful readings from Other Side of Hope, the UK’s only literary magazine edited by migrants and refugees platforming migrants’ and refugees’ writing. Register your free place now.

Happy Refugee Week!