Refugee Week Wales Instagram (Active)

Refugee Week Wales Twitter (Inactive)

Refugee Week Wales Facebook (Inactive)

Powys

Ceredigion

North Wales:

Isle of Anglesey

Conwy

Denbighshire

Flintshire

Gwynedd

Wrexham

South East Wales:

Cardiff

Monmouthshire

Newport

Torfaen

Blaenau Gwent

Caerphilly

South West Wales:

Bridgend

Merthyr Tydfil

Rhondda Cynon Taf

Vale of Glamorgan

Neath Port Talbot

Swansea

Carmarthenshire

Pembrokeshire

Tuesday 18 June 

Wednesday 19June  

Thursday 20 June 

Friday 21 June 

Saturday 22 June 

Sunday 23 June

Sabiha Azad

Coalition Coordinator

sabiha@wrc.wales

coalition@wrc.wales

Sabiha is responsible for coordinating activity within the Coalition. If you need any support please get in touch. This can range from practical, admin or even exploring funding bids with you.

• brainstorming session exploring ideas for collaboration, how to best work together and reflect on learning from last years Refugee Week.

Reflections on Refugee Week – WRC Perspective 

Albert (WRC) provided an overview of Refugee Week in Wales alongside some reflections on Refugee Week 2023: 

• Refugee Week (RW) is a week-long festival celebrating refugees across the world. As outlined in the RW Theory of Change Document RW performs several functions including as Celebration/ Healing /Education & Movement-Building. It runs from 17/06 to 23/06. This Year the Theme is Our Home 

• RW is an Umbrella Festival – Meaning there is no Single Organizer of RW. Nonetheless, WRC plays a key role in promoting events within Wales whereas Refugee Week UK (Led by Counterpoints Arts) selects the Yearly Theme as well as Resources to help Organize Events.  

• As outlined in the Refugee Week Wales 2023 Deep-dive the following were identified as Common Themes: Organizational Uncertainty, Weak Brand Identity, Closed Audience & Limited Legacy of Refugee Week  

Defining the scope of the group 

Sabiha (Coalition) proposed creating Regional Working Groups to promote Refugee Week across Wales. The Group discussed this idea:  

• Athina (WRC) commented that events organized via Local Authority were more likely to receive funding citing the UK Shared Prosperity Fund & other funding from Local Authorities.  

• Athina also suggested devising Template Forms for Refugee Week Bids.  

• Leyla (CoS) & Emma (WSMP) emphasized the importance of organizing events across all 22 Local Authorities. Emma (WSMP) was happy to lead on the approach to LA and linking with Community Cohesion Officers.  

• Emma (WSMP) also emphasized the importance of involving Schools & Reset Groups across Wales as well as the possibility of incorporating the Great Get Together (21/06 -23/06).  

Concerns shared:  

• Organisational certainty: The group raised concerns that we need a central point to help coordinate all activity to prevent duplication.  

• Limited legacy: what do we do after Refugee Week to build upon this activity.  

• Closed Audience: how do we involve wider society.  

• Weak brand identity: can we create templates with refugee week logo to help groups do this activity.  

Proposed working groups:  

• Region based 

• Targeting local authorities 

Existing OR Planned Events 

a) Monday 19^th June  

Nation of Sanctuary Awards (WRC) @ Cornerstone Church  

b)Tuesday 20^th June 

c) Wednesday 21^st June  

d) Thursday 22^nd June 

VOICES Takeover of Cardiff University @ Centre for Student Life (To Be Confirmed) 

e) Friday 23^rd June 

f) Saturday 24^th June 

Refugee Week Showcase (Cardiff Council) @ Cardiff Central Library 

Alongside the Events already penciled in the calendar colleagues briefly discussed existing collaborations including:  

• Arts & Crafts Workshops (WRC X Arts Council) 

• Panel Discussion Event (WRC X Artes Mundi) 

• Ongoing Partnership between WRC X Royal College Music & Drama  

Although colleagues agreed on the importance of involving Schools within Refugee Week (Poster-Making Competition) the Group cautioned about citing rceent Far-Right attacks on Social Media.  

Refugee Week Wales Social Media & Website 

Welsh Refugee Council currently pays Proper Design £20/Month for Hosting & Support of Refugee Week Wales Website. Designed in 2018 the Refugee Week Wales Website collates various events happening across Wales during Refugee Week. The Website requires a Tidy-Up/Refresh with suggestions including integrating a Map within the Website. RW is also promoted by the following Social Media accounts:  

• Refugee Week Wales Instagram (Active) 

• Refugee Week Wales Twitter (Inactive) 

• Refugee Week Wales Facebook (Inactive) 

I also support organisations working towards being awarded as Organisations of Sanctuary - this includes schools, colleges, libraries, art organisations and many more.

I live in North Wales and am happy to be involved in the coordination of activities in the North.

Contact: leyla@cityofsanctuary.org

Collation group - supporting promotion of event, and providing ad hoc organisational support when required.

Brainstorming Ideas:

• lots of organisations are currently planning or have planned events. We therefore should be promoting events.

• How to engage schools? Hay and Brecon have created a fluid competition for schools to welcome refugees and have stated that they are happy for us to promote this as an activity. We have slightly altered to fit RW Theme.

Website Update:

Celebrating Home - website review to make more engaging for users. This includes:

1. the site needs to be a lot bolder.

2. The site is currently based on the logo colours and designed to work without photography. Altering this to enable photographs to be added.

3. The front page needs a logo and title and some introduction to what Refugee Week is all about.

4. The ‘upcoming events’ title shouldn’t appear when there are none.

5. The ‘past events’ section is way too big. Instead have links to previous years’ programmes where you can view separate lists.

6. About Page - this year’s theme should be emphasised.

7. The ‘get involved’ section of that page could be moved to its own page, incorporating contact details.

8. Contact: This should either be a page with an embedded form OR open a contact form modal window wherever you are on the site.

• Albert is exploring the costs associated with this.

Lived Experience central to all activity:

Meetings will be fortnightly and on Fridays as Lived Experience Experts have emphasised that this would fit their schedule.

Next Steps:

• form created to collate events for RW in Wales: https://forms.office.com/e/Q8HV4ZanyB

• Template poster to advertise events to be created.

If you have difficulty accessing, please contact coalition@wrc.wales to get access

Please flag this with schools you speak too!

• Refugee Week Wales 2024 (padlet.com)

•  School Task Update: This activity is now public a tracker to be created to see who we are reaching.

• Certificates to be created.

   

Event Information - All areas shared what is happening in terms of event planning, in all areas, we are all still in initial planning phase. By next meeting we will have more concrete ideas.

What is happening in Cardiff?

• a range of events are being organised with Chapter Arts, Cardiff Uni, Cardiff Met and Library. Connecting contacts to coalition members.

• Sport focus via coalition members and Glamorgan Cricket Club and Cardiff Football Club.

• Cardiff Cohesion Team have opened funds for specific events. We are currently applying to help support events in Cardiff.

  
  

What is happening in Swansea?

• City of Sanctuary taking a lead, exploring opportunities with Swansea University.

What is happening in Newport?

• We do not have a key contact in this area facilitating engagement.

• Reaching out to LA as they have appointed an officer to lead sanctuary work.

• Exploring funding opportunities.

  
  

What is happening in Wrexham?

• A third sector regular meeting has been set up to liaise on RW activities.

Website and Social Media Update:

- Will use coalition twitter to promote activity - a promotion plan to be created.

- Refugee Week Wales Website is currently being amended: launch will be Mid May.

AoB - The group is exploring commitments and pledges and how we can monitor this.

Event Information - All areas shared what is happening in terms of event planning, in all areas, we are all still in initial planning phase. By next meeting we will have more concrete ideas.

Activity for school:

Certificate for schools created.

School Tracker: https://forms.office.com/e/he6VJP8EZA

Pledge:

The group is exploring how we can create pledges that can be tracked during and post RW.

Examples: https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.biosphere.org.uk%2Fpledge-for-nature%2Fabout&data=05%7C02%7Csabiha%40wrc.wales%7Cd4506470ada94207812508dc645302e8%7Ccaf400f5499d45a5b9707882e8cdac99%7C0%7C0%7C638495554928319187%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=4OhYCasVTjZcnadV42uIl7mz38TDZKi9QvtlkwngTb0%3D&reserved=0

Refugee Week Thunderclap may also be an opportunity we can use.

Action: Can the website have an interactive map to record pledges.