Interested in getting involved in Refugee Week in your town and city, or making new networks to help your plans to grow?

Local planning meetings can be a great way for organisations and individuals interested in Refugee Week to share ideas, make useful connections and together develop a Refugee Week programme of activities for their town or city.

Meetings can also be an opportunity to invite new players to join your Refugee Week activities, such as local businesses, schools or faith groups (the upcoming meeting in Derby is a good example of this).

Planning meetings have already taken place for Nottingham Refugee Week and Bristol Refugee Festival, bringing together refugee organisations, venues, artists, universities and more.

Meetings are also coming up in the cities below – contact the organisers directly if you’d like to join:

Derby, 23 March (sign up via Eventbrite)

Sunderland, 9 April (contact Sandra Watt: fodi.sunderland@outlook.com

Birmingham, 11 April (contact Tom Green: tom@counterpoints.org.uk)

Newcastle, 13 April (contact Andy Warmington: andy@northern-roots.org.uk)

Coventry, tbc (contact Tom Green: tom@counterpoints.org.uk)

If you’re town isn’t listed and you’d like to hold a planning meeting, you could start by contacting the regional coordinator/ key contact in your area, and looking at the Refugee Week Our Community directory for local organisations already involved in Refugee Week.

Think too about organisations or people who aren’t already involved that you’d like to engage.

National Refugee Week coordinators at Counterpoints Arts are available to speak at local meetings, and to advise about holding one. Get in touch by emailing emily@counterpoints.org.uk