# Community sponsorship scheme launches to help refugees

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2016/08/18/community-sponsorship-scheme-launches-help-refugees/
- Published: 2016-08-18T09:00:01+01:00
- Author: Melanie May

**The Home Secretary and the Archbishop of Canterbury have launched schemes to encourage
community groups to sponsor a refugee family, and help individuals support refugees
in their area.**

The [full community sponsorship scheme](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/apply-for-full-community-sponsorship)
aims to help community groups including charities, faith groups, churches and businesses
support resettled refugees in the UK.

Sponsoring organisations must have status as either a registered charity or community
interest company, the consent of the local authority in which they wish to operate,
and a comprehensive plan for resettlement in order to apply for the scheme. The 
Home Office will consider all offers of sponsorship and check that they have the
agreement of the relevant local authority.

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Sponsors will provide housing for the refugee family, as well as helping them to
integrate into life in the UK, access medical and social services, arranging English
language tuition and supporting them towards employment and self-sufficiency.

Lambeth Palace is the first community group to be approved to receive a refugee 
family and the government is working with a number of prospective sponsors and local
authorities to enable their participation.

[An online service](https://www.gov.uk/help-refugees) has also been developed to
make it easier for members of the public to support refugees in their area by helping
local authorities communicate the goods and services that are required.

This scheme is initially being piloted in nine local authorities including Cambridge,
Lambeth, and Wiltshire, and has been designed to enable local authorities to specify
the type of donations they most require to support refugees in their area.

Users can select from a range of options for donations, including goods such as 
baby equipment and clothes, group and cultural outings and the use of vacant housing
that must be self-contained and available for a period of at least 12 months.

Offers of help can be made by members of the public across the country. In non-pilot
areas these will be considered centrally by the Home Office before being passed 
on to local authorities, and further local authorities will be added to the online
service in the coming months.

The schemes have been launched as part of the government’s commitment to resettle
thousands of the most vulnerable refugees in the UK. In September 2015 the government
pledged to resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees via the Syrian vulnerable persons resettlement(
VPR) scheme.

The Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, said:

> “This is a ground-breaking new development for resettlement in the UK and I wholeheartedly
> encourage organisations that can help to offer their support. I hope that this
> new approach will help bring communities together and support these often traumatised
> and vulnerable families as they rebuild their lives, and contribute to and thrive
> in our country.”