As you will have seen in the news over the past week or so, there’s been an increase in far-right activity throughout the UK.
Throughout this week, we have been remaining vigilant as a team in monitoring for any indication of planned far-right activity over the weekend, so we are best placed to support you (our leaders!) and your group’s communities.
As usual, we’ve also continued to take precautions to limit the amount of specific information about our meals that’s easily accessible to wider public, and we’re grateful to all of you for helping us maintain this and keep our meals safe. You can refresh yourself on our approach to advertise meals safely here in the leader handbook: ‣
Note: the link might say ‘no access’ but you’ll be able to open it if you’re logged into Notion on the device you’re using.
Some of your may remember that - during the summer riots last year - all our planned meals went ahead safely. These decisions as to whether or not they should go ahead were made collaboratively between our team, and each individual group of leaders. Therefore, please remember that there is no expectation on any of you, as leaders, to go ahead with a meal this weekend if you do not feel safe and comfortable in doing so.
We also encourage you to stay vigilant in keeping yourself safe outside of meals. In particular, by following local organisations (such as Stand Up to Racism groups) who have access to information regarding planned far-right activities, so you’re aware of areas to avoid.
We will contact you via your Leaders group chat if we hear anything about far-right activity in your group’s local area. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions or concerns, we’re here to support you!
As you may know already, we’re celebrating our 10th Birthday towards the end of this year! 🎉
We’re working on an exciting fundraising campaign to help us grow during our 10th year! Part of this includes finding some businesses who align with our mission and values to support the campaign as match funders (doubling donations made by individuals).
We think small, independent, local businesses are more likely to support Local Welcome's work, in particular:
We’ve included a template email you can use below (click on arrow to expand) if you’re happy to approach any businesses matching the description above. Please feel welcome to edit it to make it more personal before sending 😊: