Lots of other organisations need to be involved with this project – to help us, and to protect the family we bring to Ripon. These include:
We need to partner with a ‘lead sponsor’, an organisation that is a registered charity and can take on the legal responsibility for our project. We’re delighted to say we’ve been accepted by Catholic Care. They’ll guide us through the process, provide templates policies and processes to work to, and generally help us to keep on track, stay legal and stay efficient.
Reset is the UK’s Community Sponsorship learning hub, and they’re funded by the Home Office and philanthoropic organisations. They were set up in 2018 to coordinate the growth of the Community Sponsorship movement across the UK in order that it could realise its full potential. They offer training and support for sponsors and sponsored refugees; advice for local authorities, lead sponsors and other stakeholders; research, monitoring and evaluation to understand how Community Sponsorship works best; and policy development and advocacy. Our steering group will need to undergo Reset’s training in order to submit our application to the Home Office. The training is straightforward and not time-consuming.
Our application needs to be approved by North Yorkshire County Council. NYCC already administers the government’s own resettlement programme across our county, so we already work closely with them and have a good relationship. We’ll need to liaise with their resettlement manager, so that we’re aligned wth how they work, and assess the impact of Community Sponsorship on local services such as schools and healthcare. We’ll need to address any concerns they may have about Community Sponsorship, and give us their written approval for our plans. Once we have a family in place, we hope to be able to liaise with their employability advisor (with whom we also already have a relationship) to get the adults into work or volunteering.
Harrogate Borough Council will need to approve the housing we identify for the family. We’ll need to address any concerns they may have about Community Sponsorship, and give us their written approval for our plans.
North Yorkshire Police will need to approve the address we identify for the family.