Deirdre Huston caught up with Hassocks resident Tom Bailey to discuss his hopes of establishing a new Community Sponsorship group in the village.

Community Sponsorship is a refugee resettlement programme set up by the government in 2016. The scheme is built on the power of local community groups coming together to welcome a refugee family to the area, supporting them during their resettlement. Tom says: “We’re lucky to live in such a lovely village, surrounded by gorgeous countryside, and I’d love to get a group together and ultimately be able to offer a Syrian family a fresh start here.”

Hundreds of refugees have now been helped by local Community Sponsorship groups and have successfully resettled in the UK. Tom explains: “In this challenging pandemic time, I’m drawn to the idea of contributing to something which will make a tangible difference to a family in need. We are at the very beginning of the process - at the moment there are three of us in the group, but we need a few more people to join us if we are to build a strong core group for the project.” Details will be worked out collaboratively, but, as a base-line, people will need to be able to make a small regular time commitment to the project over a period of a year or more, attend monthly meetings, and perhaps undertake a specific role within the project as things progress.

For general information about Community Sponsorship, see: https://resetuk.org/ Or find out more from Tom: hassockswelcomegroup@gmail.com