Refugee Week is a programme of arts, cultural and educational events and activities across the UK and beyond, which celebrate the contribution of refugees to the UK and promote better understanding of why people seek sanctuary.

This Refugee Week (15-21 June), we invite you to get together, get creative and celebrate the contributions and resilience of the doctors, teachers, cleaners, artists, mums, dads and neighbours who have survived violence or persecution and are making a difference in the UK.

Here’s how you can get involved:

Attend an event

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Anyone can organise and take part in a Refugee Week event, and there are hundreds happening throughout the country – from an Akala gig and an exiled car in London to a refugee storytelling walk in the footsteps of Chaucer’s pilgrims; a stage at Oxford’s Tandem festival to a barbeque in Liverpool; an all-age art exhibition in Bradford to Celebrating Sanctuary festival in Birmingham – and much, much more!

Click here to find out what’s on in your area, or here for information about Refugee Festival Scotland, which runs 3-21 June.

Celebrate in your school

Wondering how to teach Refugee Week? We have collected a range of free resources to help young people explore what it means to be a refugee and discover and celebrate refugee contributions.

Click here to browse the resources, including an exciting new schools competition for Refugee Week 2015.

Make some noise on social media

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Find us on Twitter, Facebook and (new for 2015!) Instagram and join the conversation using the hashtags #RefugeesContribute and #RefugeeWeek.

For Refugee Week 2015, we are inviting you to share one of our specially made images of hidden refugee contributions, or find and share a contribution story of your own.

Click here to browse the images, and here for more ways to get involved online.

Press

For press releases and other press enquiries, contact Refugee Week UK Coordinator Emily Churchill Zaraa on emily@counterpoints.org.uk

Refugee Week is a partnership between 13 organisations, coordinated by Counterpoints Arts