June is the Month of Community, a time when we can come together to celebrate everything that makes our communities great, whether that’s volunteering in our local area, connecting with neighbours or supporting a small charity working directly with a local community. It’s also a time to reflect on the challenges we all faced during the pandemic and how we’ve come together to support each other within our local communities.
The month kicked off with the fabulous Platinum Jubilee Celebrations and encompasses a diverse range of events throughout June, including Volunteers’ Week, Carers’ Week, Loneliness Awareness Week and Refugee Week.
Thanking our amazing volunteers for Volunteers' Week
Here at Jacari, we’ve been celebrating our wonderful community of volunteers over the past week for Volunteers' Week and saying thank you for the fantastic tutoring support they’ve given to young people with EAL. In Bristol, we invited our volunteers for tea and cake on College Green. In Oxford, we had a special weekly drop-in session for volunteers with coffee and - you guessed it - cake!
Refugee Week
Looking ahead, there are lots of events coming up in our local communities during Refugee Week (20-26 June), when we'll be working in collaboration with other local charities and organisations who support refugees and asylum-seekers.
In Bristol, we are working with the Bristol Refugee Festival, who run a whole range arts, cultural and educational events throughout June, bringing together communities from across Bristol and beyond to connect, share and celebrate. As part of the festival, we’re organising a fun family theatre show with puppets, movement and comedy exploring our ideas of home with local theatre company Spilt Ink. We'll be inviting the young people we support in Bristol to attend, along with their families and our volunteers.
In Oxford, we're partnering with the charity Asylum Welcome who have organised a tour led by asylum seekers and refugees in East Oxford to showcase the various services available to them in the Cowley area. There is also an all-day bizarre on 25th June, part of Oxford Festival of the Arts, organised by Asylum Welcome and Oxford’s thriving network of refugee community organisations. During the day, young people from diverse communities from local schools will hold open discussions from their own perspectives. This will culminate with a panel chaired by BBC Political Correspondent Rob Watson, with guests including Lib Dem MP Layla Moran, Afghan children’s rights activist Freshta Karim, Baroness Jan Royall, Principal of Somerville College (one of Oxford University’s two Colleges of Sanctuary), Labour City Councillor Dr Hosnieh Djafari-Marbini and Director of Asylum Welcome, Mark Goldring CBE.
Small Charity Week
Later in the month, Jacari will be participating in Small Charity Week (20-24 June), a campaign which was first established by the Foundation for Social Improvement (the FSI) in 2010 to celebrate and raise the profile of the small charity sector. We’re proud to be part of a network of small charities across the UK and will be taking part in some of the fantastic training sessions organised by Small Charity Week.