Welcoming asylum seekers to Leeds since 2016
Conversation Club Leeds was started by a small group of volunteers in May 2016 in response to the refugee crisis in Europe, providing a welcoming space where people could find friendship, enjoy a cup of tea and a piece of cake, practise speaking English and forget about their problems for a couple of hours each week.
Our main aim is to make life just a little bit better for people who have had to flee from their own countries, and to make them feel they have at least one place where they belong.
We held weekly meetings in the church hall at Mill Hill Chapel on City Square.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, these were very popular and lively meetings, with dozens of asylum seeker and refugee ‘guests’ coming each week.
When the pandemic started, we provided online meetings to try to keep in contact with guests during the long months of lockdown, with weekly quizzes, and an online Xmas party in 2020. During the strictest lockdown periods, we met up in half a dozen different city parks, to enable guests from different districts to at least meet up and chat, even if we couldn’t offer the usual facilities.
In the autumn and winter of 2020, to combat the isolation felt by guests, we collaborated with several other refugee charities to encourage guests to go outside and take photos on a range of different themes. These were collected into a gallery called ‘Lighting Up Lockdown’ (see below).
During the winter of 2021-22, while restrictions were still in place, we organised a number of city walks, beginning or ending at one or other of the regular meeting venues.
In spring 2021 we started small scale meetings at ‘The Holbeck’ social club in Leeds 11, then in the winter of 2021/22 we opened again at Mill Hill Chapel, this time in the church. So right now (March 2022) we have two meetings each week.
In 2021 we became a registered charity. The Club is run by a small number of Trustees and a wider group of volunteers, who meet every two weeks online to take decisions and share news and ideas.
In November 2017, we were awarded Highly Commended ‘Most Inspirational Project of the Year’ at the Leeds Compassionate City Awards.
We were featured in a play called ‘Searching for the Heart of Leeds’ at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in June 2018.
You can read about our various activities and projects elsewhere on this website.
Over the years we have developed many partnerships with other organisations in our area, our small network of guests and helpers is part of a wider network of specialist bodies and volunteers, all helping guests to settle in, solve problems and move forward with their lives in the UK.
Past activities
Previous activities have included:
- ‘Make and Chat’ – Following a small grant received in 2019 we started a craft group within the weekly sessions, to encourage new skills, discover existing ones, and all the while help develop conversation in English. Some of the items made were then sold at Xmas craft stalls, bringing in a bit of much-needed cash.
- ESOL groups (2) – slightly more formal settings for language learning, held away from the hubbub of the main meeting space
- Photography club – Guests were invited to walk around town, take pictures and then discuss how to process/present them.
- Health information activities run by HARP (Refugee Council); mental health sessions run by SOLACE.
Our Past Projects
Lighting Up Lockdown
Early in the life of CCL we had for a while a small photography group during the weekly sessions. The activity later took on a new life with the second Covid pandemic lockdown – and the colder weather – on 2nd November 2020.
We had reports from our own volunteers and other organisations that many guests were suffering depression caused by the enforced isolation and the darker days. We started encouraging guests to take photos when they went for their walk in their local parks, and from this we collaborated with LASSN, Refugee Council, and other organisations to develop the idea of an online photograph gallery. We called it ‘Lighting Up Lockdown’ and asked guests and volunteers to send photos on different themes for the seven weeks until the end of the year. The result was a gallery of a lot of wonderful photos, which have now been collected into a video.
The Galleries by theme:
Outings
We have taken guests on several outings, both before and since the pandemic.
We’ve visited Fell Edge Farm near Addingham a couple of times, a wonderful place run by Richard and Liz, where guests can experience the peace of the Dales countryside and participate in games and arts activities.
And the great organisation ‘People in the Dales’ hosted us for a day in 2019, exploring the area around Malham Cove, a truly relaxing experience for all.
