Hello friends 👋

Today we’re trying out a slightly different format to our usual ‘this week’, ‘next week’ updates. This is because we’ve entered a really important month for Local Welcome, and want to make sure you have a clear view of what’s in store!

Happy reading,

Celia and Hannah

This week

• We debriefed our meals in Cardiff, Derby, Newham and our first meal in Norwich (hear more on how it went below!)
• We released leader portals to all active and launching groups - our leader portals are an editable area of Notion designed to integrate with the handbook, and be tailored to your group. We set up a few groups with them last week, reviewed feedback, and decided to set up all groups with portals this week. We can’t wait to hear more feedback!
• We took stock of our progress over the last month and put together plans for March (shared below)
• We met with YMCA Leicestershire, to discuss a potential training partnership to help us integrate trauma-informed support methods into our leader training, and in time, into everything we do at Local Welcome!

This month

• We’re going to launch our new donate-what-you-can membership model and supporter campaign. We'll email everyone on the mailing list of your group at the end of next week to:

  • Share headlines on the changes we've been making at Local Welcome, including our funding strategy and the ways we support leaders to launch and run groups (e.g. the handbook, more autonomy)
  • Share a link to the supporter campaign, so they can share it with friends and family
  • Invite them to sign up as a member, and donate if they can afford to

• We’ll be starting weekly leader calls. The aim is to connect leaders from across our growing network, to share ideas, celebrate successes, and make space for you to keep each other updated on progress, particularly for new groups working through the handbook. These calls will kick off on Wed 20 March at 5:30pm for at least the next few months to help us streamline the support we’re offering, and help leaders to stay connected.

• We’ll develop and release a first version of the following toolkits in your handbooks:

  • Reaching Diverse Audiences
  • Building Local Partnerships
  • Finding Local Grant Funding

  If you click on the linked bullet-points above, you'll be able to read a brief summary of what these toolkits will include. We'll get in touch to let you know as each toolkit goes live.

• Finally, this month we’re also preparing to say goodbye to Ben, Local Welcome’s founder & CEO 😢. For context, Ben started building and leading Local Welcome in 2015, with a group of Syrian leaders, including Nasser Yousef, our former chair. He’s stepping back to take some time off and get some rest over the summer before starting his next adventure. In the short term he’s also going to spend more time focused on ADHD coaching and support systems, and will be cheering us on (hopefully from a nice beach somewhere 🏝️). We want to make sure his final weeks go as smoothly as possible, and leave some space for thoughtful reflection and a really good handover.

  We're going to use the first Weekly Leader Call on Wed 20 March (5:30pm) to pause, share some stories, and celebrate Ben before he leaves. Please join us via this link if you’d like to say goodbye and wish him well: https://whereby.com/local-welcome-meetings

Photo(s) of the week

A huge congratulations to our Norwich leaders who ran a very successful first meal after signing up over Christmas, and attending their Leader Welcome Sessions less than two months ago!

In these two months they worked together to find a venue, made connections with local refugee and people seeking sanctuary support organisations, set up a Soldo card to do their first shop, and invited their friends and family to join the first meal!

Seeing Norwich’s success has given us an exciting glimpse of the future our handbook is paving the way for, and we’re so delighted! 💜