There are a number of ways you can help our campaign, click on the links below for more information.
Sign your name: Signing our statement of support and writing to your MP (click here for a template which we will update occasionally) take no time at all, but they show the decision makers just how much support there is, so if enough people do this it will hopefully galvanise the council into taking action.
Make a welcome pledge to welcome refugees. This can be whatever you want to offer – from donating household items, groceries or a bike to helping with translation, mentoring and offering lifts. Take a look at the photo pledges we have already received for inspiration! Visit our make a welcome pledge page for more information about how to pledge to help refugees when they arrive.
Help campaigning: This involves meeting with local councillors, community and faith groups, organising events, media work and a whole lot of administrative work. If you have any skills that you think would be helpful we would love to hear from you, but equally if you are not sure whether your skills will be of use, but have some free time and would like to get involved fill in this form, letting us know what sort of thing you would like to do – meeting with people, help with the paperwork, organising events, media work etc. It would also be useful if you could indicate roughly how much time you would be able to commit (although we appreciate that situations do change.)
Welcome children: Ely RRC have joined with their sister branch in Cambridge to find homes for children. This could be full fostering or offering supported lodgings for older children who will be more independent. We will put up more information on this soon, but in the meantime please do get in contact if you would like to know more.
Calling all Landlords – We need you! We urgently need landlords to step forward and offer their properties to local authorities for the purpose of protecting and sheltering refugees. This doesn’t mean giving up the property for free, landlords will be eligible to receive local housing allowance rates. Lets need to be for a minimum of 14 months, but are ideally for longer so resettled refugees have more stability.
If you are a landlord and would like to offer your property, email: info@elyrrc.co.uk