Refugee Support Network (RSN), the education-focused organisation where I’m part of the team, has the opportunity to buy a building which will enable us to grow the breadth and depth of our work with young refugees in the years to come. I wanted to tell you about it and to invite you to join us on this journey.
“If you were not here then I could not have handled this. Everything you did helped me because today I am here.”
Those are the words of a young refugee which capture something of the way that RSN’s support helps young people to keep going, move forward and know that they are valued. Read our latest impact report to find out more.
We want to help more young refugees to move forward in education, build their confidence and become more integrated in their local communities. However, on an almost daily basis, we experience the frustration of not being able to grow and develop RSN due to the constraints of our current rented building (due for demolition in the next year).
We were delighted, therefore, when a local building came onto the market and our offer was accepted. This building will create a home for RSN which will serve as both a safe and welcoming space for young refugees and as our national headquarters, underpinning many years of positive impact for young refugees, most of whom are marginalised, isolated and facing significant barriers to fulfilling their potential and encountering hope and purpose.
Furthermore, by developing it in collaboration with other local organisations, a local church, and with the backing of local residents, we will also use the premises to create a much needed social impact hub in our community, Harlesden, a vibrant, diverse and deprived part of west London.
RSN’s building will provide flexible work and meeting spaces for charities and social enterprises and a place for them to host volunteer-led children’s and youth activities, money management workshops, arts and performance events, English language classes and a range of other activities which will play a key role in addressing the needs in this area and making Harlesden an increasingly cohesive and positive community.
Exciting times ahead.
We now need to raise a minimum of £349,000 to refurbish the building and make the monthly mortgage payments affordable.
Would you like to help us get there?
Here’s some ways of joining the journey:
- Donate or fundraise for us. It’s a big target but every donation, however small, will push us in the right direction. Give here.
- We’ll be hosting a range of events to share the vision. If you’d like to find out more about those or to arrange a coffee with me or our CEO just give me a shout
- Help us connect with people who’d get excited by this project and want to back it, whether individuals, trusts and foundations, or companies. All suggestions and introductions are welcome.
- And last but not least, pray, if that’s something you do. We can’t do this alone or in our own strength.
Thanks for reading and for considering how you could support us.
This building will enable us to help more young refugees build hopeful futures through education. As one told us,
“For me, education is freedom. It opens doors and clears your way. It’s like walking from darkness into light. When you are educated you get knowledge, wisdom, understanding and a future.”
Let’s help more young refugees experience this for themselves.
emilyintheworld 