Welcome to Ipswich Town of Sanctuary
Ipswich Town of Sanctuary is part of the national movement “City of Sanctuary”. The aim of the movement is for local groups to work to build coalitions of organisations from all sectors (faith groups, voluntary, business, education, etc) which make a public commitment to welcome and include Refugees and people seeking sanctuary in their usual activities.
Since the project began in March 2009, Ipswich Town of Sanctuary is proud to have the support of Chris Mole, Former Labour MP for Ipswich and Ben Gummer, Conservative MP for Ipswich.
On Wednesday 31st October 2012, Ipswich Borough Council passed a resolution of support towards Ipswich becoming a “Town of Sanctuary”.
With encouraging letters and words of support from Bishop Nigel, Diocesan Bishop of the Diocese of St. Edmundsbury and Ipswich, Helen Bamber from the Helen Bamber Foundation “working with survivors of cruelty”, British Actress Juliet Stevenson and John Sentamu the Archbishop of York, it has inspired and given the project a fantastic positive energy.
• The City of Sanctuary movement has been an effective vehicle for creating greater unity and cooperation within the refugee sector of our cities. We enjoy goodwill and favour among our partners up and down the country, including large charities and smaller groups (in many cities, the City of Sanctuary group is a catalyst to bring organisations and stakeholders together around the area of shared interest and help avoid duplication and fragmentation. Thus we are able to promote models of local partnership action across the country.
• City of Sanctuary enhances, strengthens and complements local provision and existing networks and can channel fresh resources into existing groups.
• The most important test for being a City of Sanctuary is the experience of sanctuary seekers.
Ipswich Town of Sanctuary runs 3 projects:
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A very sensitive and factual account written by Sheena Grant, EADT about Ipswich Town of Sanctuary (Republised by RNN).
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Film – Council meeting
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It is small things that allow people to come to terms with the new and the different. A greeting, a smile, the everyday considerations that we should all show to each other, these are things that impose few burdens on the recipient yet give them the confidence to find a place in a strange town.
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The Hougenouts famously came to Norfolk and Norwich to settle after being
persecuted in France for their Protestantism. Of course those were years of
turmoil and only 40 years later the Pilgrim Fathers moved from places such
as Lavenham to the New World to seek better prospects with the freedom to
exercise their beliefs. It should always be remembered that we persecuted
our own sufficient for some to trust to a perilous voyage and uncertain future in order to seek asylum elsewhere.
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One of the most important phrases in the motion is “to challenge misinformation in the wider community”. People are confused. People read stories in some of the organs of our wonderful national press, or receive emails which have been sent and re-sent like the whispered rumours in a medieval market-place…
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Ipswich Borough Council has given unanimous backing to the Town of Sanctuary bid – giving its support to a scheme to help improve the treatment of Asylum Seekers and Refugees.
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Listen to one of our Host’s speaking with BBC Radio Suffolk about his thoughts on tonight’s Council meeting where Ipswich Borough Councillors will vote on whether to officially support Ipswich Town of Sanctuary.
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Tonight Ipswich Borough Councillors will vote on plans to make Ipswich a “Town of Sanctuary”.
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The pupils at St Helen’s Primary School identified Paddington Bear as a Refugee because in the famous novel, Paddington Bear was from ‘darkest Peru’ and arrived in Britain with one suitcase and some marmalade sandwiches and was confronted with a ‘very different world’.
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Through real life experiences of those seeking sanctuary and celebrating our history of providing sanctuary in the UK and within different faith groups, ‘Sanctuary Sunday’ highlighted the importance of offering safety and welcome in our communities to those seeking sanctuary today…
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A highlight of the evening was a talk by Inderjit Bhogal, “There are sanctuaries in this country for donkeys and birds, so why not for people?”
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Have You Heard Of My Journey?
(Dedicated to the work of Ipswich Town of Sanctuary)
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Both he and I felt the tremendous support of a community that have come to be his family in all he is going through – a community determined to be a place of sanctuary for people like K.
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The bare scorelines of 6 defeats were not really what this team was about… It was a chance for the boys to form a team, a community, around a shared interest.
