As of March 2022, more than ten million people, almost a quarter of Ukraine’s population, had been forced to leave their homes (UNHCR, 2022). This situation has generated one of the most significant refugee crises of the 21st century.
The UK government responded to needs of forced migrants escaping the conflict in Ukraine by launching the 'Homes for Ukraine Scheme’ (H4U) on 18 March 2022. The scheme’s approach to resettling displaced Ukrainians has some parallels with the existing Community Sponsorship Scheme (CSS). Both give a leading role to UK residents and civil society organisations, rather than the state. Characteristically, H4U enables residents of the UK to offer accommodation to Ukrainian refugees in their own homes for a minimum of six months and provides a “thank you” of £350 per month to help cover costs.
Building on their experience evaluating the UK’s Community Sponsorship programme a team of researchers from IRiS led by Professor Jenny Phillimore connected with civil servants working on H4U, hosts and guests to identify the information requirements of hosts, guests and communities.
The IRiS team then created a toolkit with the aim of collating in one single platform documents, website links and resources that can be used for all stakeholders involved in the Homes for Ukraine Scheme. This toolkit incorporates information on the scheme available in Ukrainian and also considers specific resources produced by the four nations: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, as well as websites created by the Local Authorities and charities working to match hosts and guests.
The Toolkit
This toolkit operates as a checklist of the factors that hosts and guests might consider when matching, during the pre-arrival phase, the first weeks after the arrival, and for medium and longer term integration. It also includes some guidance on how to have difficult conversations for hosts and guests. (We suggest you use the Chrome browser to view the toolkit)
VIEW THE TOOLKIT (in English)
Житло для України (Homes for Ukraine)
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Further information
If you require further information, please contact Marisol Reyes Soto m.reyes@bham.ac.uk