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Sanctuary Seekers

Creative Work with People Seeking Sanctuary

The Everyman works with GARAS (Gloucestershire Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers)  and CWR (Cheltenham Welcomes Refugees) to provide creative activities for adults, children and young people seeking sanctuary. Activities have included;

  • Drama workshops to help with English Speaking for Young Unaccompanied Minors at GARAS.

  • Art workshops and Arts Awards for children and young people at CWR.

  • English lessons and Drama workshops for Adults at CWR.

  • One of our larger projects was bringing Little Amal, a 3.5-metre (12-foot) tall puppet of a 10-year-old Syrian refugee girl to Cheltenham’s Pittville School and to the town centre in Refugee Week 2022. Little Amal represents displaced children worldwide in a global art project called "The Walk" to raise awareness for refugee rights, with her name meaning "hope" in Arabic.

CWR drama
CWR drama
The CWR Café allows children to express themselves creatively
The CWR Café allows children to express themselves creatively
Monthly Art Activities with CWR
Monthly Art Activities with CWR
Still Standing Strong - Ukraine
Still Standing Strong - Ukraine

Here you feel like your life is getting better because you have a community that loves you and wants to be around you. Here we laugh. All week we don't laugh, but here we laugh.

Drama for English participant

I think Arts Awards are incredible for young people as they teach them such a variety of skills. They encourage them to be more active and more confident, teach them organisation skills and responsibility. It also allows young people to get better at understanding their own and others’ emotions, making them more mature and more open towards new opportunities.

Parent of Ukranian Youth Theatre Arts Award participant

The Everyman Theatre's Education and Community Team is an integral and highly valued part of the Café. Their craft activity for the children provides a focus for the monthly event. It is a wonderful opportunity for all ages to create, side by side and for all the children to have access to a range of materials and to practice skills, from cutting out to colouring in etc. The children really look forward to it and are very keen to share what they have made with their families at the end of the session. We are very fortunate to work with such a wonderful team; always professional yet friendly and caring.

CWR Café

We wanted to share our memories. We have real true stories. Putting it on paper at first was hard, but then going through it and with people who were there to support me helped. Knowing people care about your emotions was good. We feel heard

Participant of the Ukrainian Refugee Youth Theatre