Supporting the Ukrainian community in and around Ipswich
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I continue a) to pray for peace in Ukraine, and b) to coordinate the efforts of the Ipswich churches as they reach out to our local Ukrainian community. This is on behalf of Together for Ipswich.
I aim to keep this page updated with the various events and opportunities that are available to you. Message me on 07834 693144 for more information and to book places for tours and event tickets. Best wishes! Alan Я продовжую а) молитися за мир в Україні і б) координувати зусилля церков Іпсвіча, коли вони звертаються до нашої місцевої української громади. Це від імені «Разом за Іпсвіч». Я прагну постійно оновлювати цю сторінку різними подіями та можливостями, доступними для вас. Пишіть мені на номер 07834 693144, щоб отримати додаткову інформацію та забронювати місця для екскурсій і квитків на події. Найкращі побажання! Алан |
Suffolk Tours
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We received some great feedback from the twelve Suffolk Tours we did over the summer holidays. The tours, sponsored by Engaged Communities and many other well-wishers, took 168 people (asylum seekers and refugees, including 122 Ukrainians) all over Suffolk and into Cambridge. Here is the full report:
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We had one more minibus tour that took place during the October half term school holiday. Courtesy of Ipswich School, the minibus took fifteen Ukrainians - eight adults and seven children - to Cambridge on Thursday 26 October. Thankfully it didn't rain ALL day!
I hope we can do more trips to follow over the winter months! I'll put the details here when we know them. |
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Easton Farm Park
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A really nice day out for Ukrainian families with younger children.
"...we had a great time with our Ukrainian friends at this farm last weekend 🤩🤩..." Easton Farm Park (https://www.eastonfarmpark.co.uk/) has kindly offered us free access to the Farm Park for up to six people per day. The offer ends on 24 December 2023. Sadly the Farm Park (IP13 0EQ) is not easy to access by public transport - you will probably need a car to get there. Let me know if you would like to borrow the ticket and take your family. |
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Free tickets to Plays, Pantomimes and Ballets
Thomas Wolsey 550, Hope Church, Red Rose Chain and other donors have kindly given us grants for 160 tickets for plays, pantomimes and ballet performances in Ipswich during December and the New Year. Tickets for these events are free for all our refugee and asylum seeking communities.
We will likely be oversubscribed for these events, and I'll obviously have to give the tickets out fairly. So please will you text me (Alan 07834 693144) with your first, second and third choices as soon as possible.
- Sat 9 December (13.30): The Tale of Mr Tod. Particularly good for young children. Tickets still available.
- Sun 10 December (15.30): The Lion's Roar (Narnia based Carol Concert/performance). Tickets still available.
- Fri 15 December (19.00): Sleeping Beauty Pantomime. For all ages. All tickets now allocated, but the waiting list remains open (in case anyone has to cancel).
- Sun 24 December (14.00): The Tale of Mr Tod. Particularly good for younger children. All tickets now allocated, but the waiting list remains open (in case anyone has to cancel).
- Thur 1 February (19.00): Nutcracker Ballet. For six years old and over. Tickets still available.*
- Fri 2 February (19.00): Sleeping Beauty. For six years old and over. Tickets still available.*
What else do we do?
Hope Church continues to offer their free English Conversation Classes (for beginner, intermediate and advance levels) every Thursday morning during school term times. It starts at 10am and goes on till midday, after which there is the option of lunch at their excellent Community Cafe. It's all at Hope Centre IP4 2AT.
Regarding the type of support we are able to give to individual Ukrainians, here are some recent examples:
Regarding the type of support we are able to give to individual Ukrainians, here are some recent examples:
- Furniture (e.g. desks, chest of drawers) provided for several Ukrainian families moving on to their own accommodation
- CV training and employment advice offered to six Ukrainians
- A family accompanied to a school open day
- Volunteer work placements offered
- A free car parking place found for a Ukrainian taking up a new job in central Ipswich
- Mechanical checks and advice given on the purchase of second-hand car
- New-to-Ipswich Ukrainian family introduced to others from their home town
- Translating and interpreting services
- Arranging transport for emergency dental appointments
- Links made between two different agencies providing humanitarian support into Ukraine
Stories from Suffolk Tours
Nadiia*, a 13-year-old girl who has been attending an online school in Kiev since coming to the UK, has an English textbook with a picture of The House in the Clouds on one of the chapter headings. Nadiia's teacher had asked her if she knew where this strange house was, and she'd shrugged her shoulders and said 'no'. So to walk up a tiny lane in Thorpeness whilst on a Suffolk Tour, and find it standing there in all its glory, was an amazing discovering for her. Nadiia messaged her teacher straight away, with a picture of her standing in front of it!
*name changed |
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Lest we forget....
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Many of our Ukrainian friends have now been in the UK for more than a year. Pulled between a longing to see their loved ones, and anxiety as to what they would find when they get there, a number have recently made the arduous journey back home for short visits, to see their husbands and other family members. The following day, Hanna and her daughter were with us on a Suffolk Tour. In this interview, I ask Hanna to tell us something her experience of visiting Odesa in July.
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Drawing Ukraine
The young family – mother and two girls, 7 and 2 - moved to Ipswich soon after the commencement of the war, and made their first visit back to Ukraine to see their family in August. Their return journey to England involved undertaking a 19-hour bus journey from Kharkiv to Warsaw, then a flight to Stansted. They were obviously tired when I picked them up from the airport for the final leg of their long journey home, but they were seemingly peaceful and not too negatively impacted by the devastation they saw and heard whilst in a city that borders the front line.
The very next day they were up early, and on the minibus for our Suffolk Tour of Kersey, Lavenham and Long Melford. In the gardens of Long Melford Hall, the two-year-old found some paper and crayons, and said to her mother, “I want to draw Ukraine”. Her mother drew the now famous blue and yellow flag of Ukraine, and the little girl carried on from there, ‘drawing Ukraine’. And this is what she drew.
The very next day they were up early, and on the minibus for our Suffolk Tour of Kersey, Lavenham and Long Melford. In the gardens of Long Melford Hall, the two-year-old found some paper and crayons, and said to her mother, “I want to draw Ukraine”. Her mother drew the now famous blue and yellow flag of Ukraine, and the little girl carried on from there, ‘drawing Ukraine’. And this is what she drew.
Together for Ipswich Ukraine Response
In January 2022, my intention for the following twelve months was to write and publish two more books.
Then the Russian Federation invaded Ukraine.
On the basis of my working knowledge of the Eastern Slavic region, my hands-on experience with various disaster and refugee responses around the world, and my love for seeing practical expressions of the One Church in a town, Together for Ipswich asked me to coordinate their Ukraine Response. In liaison with our local authorities and other civil partnerships, the Together for Ipswich acts as a bridge between the 80+ churches in town, and the local authority, civic and volunteer agencies, all for the well-being of the town's residents and society.
This page highlights some of the things we have been doing in the Ukraine Response, and the values that underpin those actions.
Then the Russian Federation invaded Ukraine.
On the basis of my working knowledge of the Eastern Slavic region, my hands-on experience with various disaster and refugee responses around the world, and my love for seeing practical expressions of the One Church in a town, Together for Ipswich asked me to coordinate their Ukraine Response. In liaison with our local authorities and other civil partnerships, the Together for Ipswich acts as a bridge between the 80+ churches in town, and the local authority, civic and volunteer agencies, all for the well-being of the town's residents and society.
This page highlights some of the things we have been doing in the Ukraine Response, and the values that underpin those actions.
Together for Ipswich Ukraine Response Review
Published in January 2023, 'Silver Linings' is my 51 page review of the way local churches have welcomed those from the Ukrainian community who made Ipswich their home in 2022. The review includes the ways we have sought to match sponsors (hosts) with guests, the cultural training we have given, the community hubs we have set up, the lessons we've learned as we've worked alongside other providers, events such as Vigils and Job Fairs, and stories from hosts, Ukrainian guests and service providers.
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A Theology of MigrationSpeaking at this church in Debenham, Suffolk, in January 2023, I outlined some of what we'd been doing in the previous year with the Ukrainian and asylum seeking communities in Ipswich, and presented what I rather grandly called 'A Theology of Migration'.
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Five Observations
1) Importance must ultimately weigh heavier than urgency.
In times of crisis, it is easy to panic into making rash responses that are not thought through well enough, and which become unsustainable and even harmful in the mid- to long-term. ‘Do no harm’ is a value weaved into all our messaging. Decisions such as inviting a potentially traumatised guest from an entirely different culture and language into one’s home for 6-12 months should be considered very carefully, ‘slept on’, and fully agreed with all family members and others who might be impacted.
2) Relational kindness ultimately has more impact than functional service.
So many practical aspects of life in the UK, such as finding a doctor and dentist, biometrics, job centre appointments, rightly and inevitably consumed many sponsors’ time and attention in the first few weeks of hosting but, in the longer-term, the most successful host/guest relationships have been just that, a relationship. Events such as ‘Suffolk Tours’ and Christmas parties were not merely organised to be the frilly edges of our response, but were fundamental to the building of good, wholesome, kind and trusting relationships. The statutory health and educational agencies rightly took up their responsibilities to provide essential services to our Ukrainian guests, but who would accompany them to their first doctor’s appointment; who would stand with them at the school gate? This relational ‘soft support’ makes the difference between a ‘house’ and a ‘home’; between functionality and integration.
3) 90% of trauma recovery can be worked out through giving space and time.
Where there is significant trauma, specialist services are available and invaluable, but we have found that despite the ongoing horrors of what their nation is facing, giving permission, space, time, and a healthy environment in which to lament and stabilise, and arranging peer support for our Ukrainian friends, are among the best things we can do to facilitate steps towards inner peace and healing.
4) Good mission is seeing where God is already at work, and joining in.
This response has taught us again how churches should be supported in doing things their own way. Some churches focus on forms of gospel proclamation, others on community and social action, and others still on prayer and sacrament. Words, works and wonders. The proclamation, the demonstration and manifestation of the one gospel. It is not the role of TFI to influence doctrinal emphasis, but to cheer on each church in the values and the ways they already feel called to serve God.
5) The priority of learning English, securing a job, and finding a home.
Within weeks, it became very clear that to establish oneself in the UK, our Ukrainian guests arriving in the UK were faced with these three massive priorities. However wonderful the host, rural placements came with severe limitations of access and transport, creating issues and barriers with regard to these three priorities. And churches and hosts alike had to adapt from being those who kindly ‘did things for people and gave things to people’, into becoming equippers and mentors in the challenging task of supporting their guests to stand on their own two feet. ‘Aid’ had to turn into ‘development’. This process will continue well into 2023.
In times of crisis, it is easy to panic into making rash responses that are not thought through well enough, and which become unsustainable and even harmful in the mid- to long-term. ‘Do no harm’ is a value weaved into all our messaging. Decisions such as inviting a potentially traumatised guest from an entirely different culture and language into one’s home for 6-12 months should be considered very carefully, ‘slept on’, and fully agreed with all family members and others who might be impacted.
2) Relational kindness ultimately has more impact than functional service.
So many practical aspects of life in the UK, such as finding a doctor and dentist, biometrics, job centre appointments, rightly and inevitably consumed many sponsors’ time and attention in the first few weeks of hosting but, in the longer-term, the most successful host/guest relationships have been just that, a relationship. Events such as ‘Suffolk Tours’ and Christmas parties were not merely organised to be the frilly edges of our response, but were fundamental to the building of good, wholesome, kind and trusting relationships. The statutory health and educational agencies rightly took up their responsibilities to provide essential services to our Ukrainian guests, but who would accompany them to their first doctor’s appointment; who would stand with them at the school gate? This relational ‘soft support’ makes the difference between a ‘house’ and a ‘home’; between functionality and integration.
3) 90% of trauma recovery can be worked out through giving space and time.
Where there is significant trauma, specialist services are available and invaluable, but we have found that despite the ongoing horrors of what their nation is facing, giving permission, space, time, and a healthy environment in which to lament and stabilise, and arranging peer support for our Ukrainian friends, are among the best things we can do to facilitate steps towards inner peace and healing.
4) Good mission is seeing where God is already at work, and joining in.
This response has taught us again how churches should be supported in doing things their own way. Some churches focus on forms of gospel proclamation, others on community and social action, and others still on prayer and sacrament. Words, works and wonders. The proclamation, the demonstration and manifestation of the one gospel. It is not the role of TFI to influence doctrinal emphasis, but to cheer on each church in the values and the ways they already feel called to serve God.
5) The priority of learning English, securing a job, and finding a home.
Within weeks, it became very clear that to establish oneself in the UK, our Ukrainian guests arriving in the UK were faced with these three massive priorities. However wonderful the host, rural placements came with severe limitations of access and transport, creating issues and barriers with regard to these three priorities. And churches and hosts alike had to adapt from being those who kindly ‘did things for people and gave things to people’, into becoming equippers and mentors in the challenging task of supporting their guests to stand on their own two feet. ‘Aid’ had to turn into ‘development’. This process will continue well into 2023.