Manchester City of Sanctuary: Building a Network of Welcome
People who seek sanctuary, fleeing war & persecution, are looking for safety, welcome and friendship.
Manchester can be that place – a city of sanctuary.
Our vision is for every person seeking sanctuary to feel part of a supportive community that understands and accepts them.
Our mission is to make Manchester a welcoming place for refugees and asylum seekers.
Our values are:
- Connection: valuing the power of personal connection as a way of understanding and promoting empathy
- Acceptance: seeing people are they are, without question and without judgement
- Collaboration: working together to create deeper and lasting impact across the sector and with public bodies
- Empowerment: working towards sanctuary seekers becoming protagonists of their own futures
- Dignity: recognising the humanity of all people
Our approach:
We bring together refugees, asylum seekers and local Mancunians for shared understanding, fun, friendship and wellbeing:
- Connecting Sanctuary Seekers with Manchester locals through fun and friendship-building events such as social events and coffee mornings.
- Helping Sanctuary Seekers to stay active with accessible physical activities such as yoga classes and cycle training.
- Providing social opportunities and training to learn about each other and learn new skills.
- Enabling Sanctuary Seekers to volunteer with us and with other organisations.
- Creating safe spaces for Sanctuary Seekers to share and reflect on their experiences.
- Supporting Sanctuary Seekers to get to know Manchester.
- Supporting local organisations to be better able to understand and support Sanctuary Seekers.
Manchester City of Sanctuary has charity status: Ref number 1168839. If you would like to donate to us you can donate here or sign up to our newsletter here.
Follow us on Twitter: @ManchesterCoS and Instagram: @mcrcityofsanctuary or like our Facebook page.
Latest News
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GM VCSE response to emergency humanitarian events
We want all refugees and asylum seekers to feel welcomed and supported in their new home country with us, and we are proud of the people of Greater Manchester for their compassion and generosity, through donating clothes, money, and even…
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Coordination and delivery of Afghan Response donations and activities support across Manchester
By Liz Hibberd and Rebecca Herbert
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We’re hiring!
We're excited to say that we're expanding our team! Due to an increased demand for our services, we're recruiting a Projects and Partnerships Coordinator to manager and deliver our activities.
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Upcoming Events on Ukraine
UPCOMING EVENTS ON UKRAINE
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Homes for Ukraine
The enormous amount of interest in hosting Ukrainian refugees is hugely heartening. The people of the UK are kind, generous and compassionate.
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War in Europe: the UK must provide Sanctuary
The last few days have been exceptionally bleak. Our thoughts are with the many Ukrainian people who now will be fearing for their lives, their families, their homes, their futures.
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Statement from Greater Manchester organisations and groups on the Nationality and Borders Bill
In Greater Manchester we look after our neighbours, we care about each other, and we
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Fitness with Fiona
During the pandemic, I have felt extremely grateful and proud to have delivered a range of virtual fitness sessions for Manchester City of Sanctuary.
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How yoga helped us learn about our bodies
During the summer of 2020, I was approached by Liz at Manchester City of Sanctuary and asked if I would be interested in teaching a weekly online yoga class with a group of women seeking sanctuary. I teach from a…
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Welcome Yassin
We're really pleased to be working with Refugees and Mentors by hosting Yassin, a HR specialist from Sudan. He's supporting us in the back office, getting some of our processes and systems up to date.
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Volunteer Voices: Izzy
"I’m new to Manchester City of Sanctuary. I spoke with Liz at the end of last year and was really inspired by the work that MCoS was doing. In January, I happily took on the opportunity to host the weekly…
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The Big Conversation 2021
We have to tell you about The Big Conversation we hosted last month - it was incredible! We spent two hours together, playing games and activities as a whole group of almost 60, before breaking into groups to take part in…
Read all our news.
Our Next Event
To see what events are coming up you can visit our events page here.
Our Handbook
Have you seen our handbook for Sanctuary Seekers in Manchester, written for Sanctuary Seekers BY sanctuary seekers. Download it here.
Donate
Could you help us with a one off or monthly donation? A small amount goes a long way. Just £8 enable a Sanctuary Seeker to attend two social sessions. Donate here.