Trudi's Article | Ukraine Welcome

You’re Welcome

Ukraine Welcome Hubs in Bristol

I never thought that volunteering to run a playgroup for a year would lead me into working with refugees, but then, you never know what will happen in life. All those hours in that church hall when I was a young Mum, setting out the toys and building the wooden train set... It was sometimes hard in those days to consider that it was anything more than just a domestic gap on my CV. However, time volunteering can be as useful to the world - and to ourselves - as paid jobs.

When the war started in Ukraine in 2022, I found myself in conversation with my Vicar, James. James had put out a call to the church family: ‘We’re going to open a ‘Welcome Hub’ for Ukrainians arriving in Bristol - who’s in?’

We got together for a coffee to talk it through. The Homes for Ukraine scheme was brand new, Ukrainians would be arriving soon, and decisions needed to be made quickly. What would our hub be like? What would we need, when people came through the doors? I thought back to that playgroup I ran with a team of other parents, my toddler in tow. Week after week opening up the hall and firing up the tea urn. Sure, that was a playgroup, with singing and stories... but we knew that the Ukrainians arriving in Bristol would be predominantly women and children. I remembered the inevitable ups and downs of being the ‘leader’ of a little community. The responsibilities and yes, the satisfaction of a job done well (or at least done well enough, don’t forget my personal assistant was a 2 year old!).

I think I can see it, I said, putting down my coffee cup. I’m in.

We opened the door of our first Ukraine Welcome Hub session in March 2022. We had assembled a team of volunteers, many of whom are still in the team today. I’d made paper bunting, blue and yellow, to decorate the door, and we had cake, we had coffee, we had toys at the ready. We had iPads charged, to help people with admin. And we waited for people to come.

That first week, no one came.

Our hub was part of a network of other church hubs - 15 in total around the city. The welcome hubs project in Bristol is coordinated by Good Faith Partnership, a social consultancy acting as a link between Bristol City Council, who are funding the hubs, and the churches running them.

Good Faith Partnership had told us that the Homes for Ukraine team at Bristol City Council would refer people to us as they moved into host families in our area. We also knew that Ukrainian families were actually beginning to arrive in Bristol now.

And so on the second week we opened up the hall and we waited again.

And again, no one!

Just as we began to wonder if we should start the cake ourselves, our first Ukrainian guests nervously peered into the open door. And so, we all had coffee and cake together. In the next few weeks our hub grew quickly, with new guests arriving all the time. We added another weekly session too - a hot meal, somewhere to gather and eat together as one big ‘family’ in the evening. Soon we were welcoming 65+ guests every week over the two sessions. It is always a great feeling to welcome a newcomer and watch them visibly relax over the next few weeks, having shared meals together and found help to get things sorted.

That is how it has been since the first moment our Ukrainian guests arrived - together - because all this is still new, to all of us. As volunteers, we are not experts in anything. We are regular people, with jobs, families, neighbours, hobbies and pets. We can’t advise anyone on topics like immigration or visas, and so we don’t. We do what we do best, and that is, we open up the hall, we pour the tea, we cook a meal, we give you space to be yourself and to find community.

We welcome you, as we would like to be welcomed ourselves.

If that ‘welcome’ sounds simple, on the face of it, it is. Even so, we can’t do any of it unless we work together with the other church welcome hubs, with Good Faith Partnership, and with Bristol City Council. It’s one big team. Welcoming might be simple, but it’s also hard work, and in a fast moving project like the Homes for Ukraine scheme, there is a lot to keep up with. Volunteer hub leaders and their teams have navigated the journey all the way through from Ukrainian guests arriving, children starting schools, to finding jobs and training. Helping people to feel safe has been key. We’ve journeyed with people dealing with the ever-present trauma of war, we’ve cried together, and laughed, and cried some more. We’ve supported people when their accommodation arrangements have had to change. We’ve sourced bicycles, mattresses, pot plants for a new flat. Sometimes even the flat itself. Some retired volunteers have re-trained as ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) teachers. We’ve held parties and events, shown off our city on walks and taken groups out to the beach and the countryside.

We’ve joined the dots, joined forces, and joined hands round College Green in solidarity with Ukrainians on their Independence day in August. Two years running. (A big shout out to my hub’s volunteers - on top of all that we have hosted a hot meal every Tuesday evening for more than two years now. So much washing up!).

At the start, Good Faith Partnership quickly coordinated an open channel of information within the network - sharing updates from the council to the hubs - and it has been strong and so useful, keeping everyone in the loop. As a hub leader, I found the weekly zoom calls to be invaluable, and felt part of the bigger picture. Our feedback from the hubs helped to shape the project as it evolved - it was great to feel welcomed into, and respected in that process where my voice mattered too.

Volunteering as a hub leader has been so fulfilling, using skills I didn’t realise I had. After a year, it led to me working with the Good Faith Partnership team too, in a role coordinating the hubs, and it’s been a joy to get involved on a professional level. I am constantly impressed by the Homes for Ukraine team at Bristol City Council. They are innovative, thoughtful and very collaborative - all things that make for providing a good welcome. The Homes for Ukraine scheme truly has been a team effort in Bristol.

I still volunteer in my spare time to run the hub at my church, and although many guests have got jobs or are busy on language courses, we still welcome a good number of Ukrainian folk every week to eat, relax and watch the children play.

All those hours I have spent in that church hall since 2022!

None of them wasted - not a single one.