Inclusive Refugee Week events will bring Communities Together in St Helens Borough

Article date: June 18 2024

National Refugee Week is part of the world's largest arts, culture and sports festival celebrating refugees and people seeking sanctuary, Refugee Week (17-23 June).

The programme, which has been brought together in collaboration between community groups supporting refugees, those who have made the borough their home and St Helens Borough Council's Refugee Resettlement Service, highlights the contributions, creativity and resilience of displaced people.

A grand Communities Together event in St Helens town centre on Saturday 22 June will demonstrate the benefits that the diversity those who have settled here such as Syrians, Afghans, Ukrainians have contributed to the culture of our borough through arts, food, sports and music.

The Communities Together event is free to attend and will be held at Parish Church, Church Square from 11am-3pm on Saturday 22 June.

The wider programme includes sessions in a range of settings including children's centres, family hubs and local libraries, from crafts and cooking wellbeing walks, art exhibitions, and special film screenings at Lucem House Community Cinema, including one presented by Heart of Glass and another by Café Laziz, demonstrating their work and goals in the community.

Meanwhile on Wednesday 19 June, St Helens Library will host an exhibition by Eman Al Naji, at which you can meet the artist and create your own still life art.

And the regular friendly football match between resettled people and local community figures returns, with residents invited to cheer on both sides.

The match will be held at Ruskin Sports Village on Sunday 23 June, 2:30pm-4:30pm and is free to attend.

The theme for Refugee Week 2024 is 'Our Home'. From the places we gather to share meals to our collective home, planet Earth: everyone is invited to celebrate what our 'Our Home' means to them.

To view the full programme of events, visit www.sthelens.gov.uk/RefugeeWeek