Homes for Ukraine – a New London Response and a Briefing from the Jewish Community Taskforce on Ukrainian Refugees (Co-ordinated by the Jewish Leadership Council)

 

Our thoughts and prayers remain with the people and the country of Ukraine. We are mindful of the enormous outflowing of offers of support, and the ‘wait’ in expectation that the United Kingdom will be able to open its borders to welcome in some of the millions who have been displaced.

 

We are not collecting funds or goods. If you have funds you wish to donate, we recommend World Jewish Relief’s Ukraine Crisis Appeal - https://www.worldjewishrelief.org/ways-to-donate/appeals/1267-ukraine-crisis-appeal (confirming this is a non-parochial appeal, funds will be used to support both Jewish and non-Jewish individuals) And Masorti Olami who are working to support displaced members of Masorti’s Ukrainian communities - https://www.facebook.com/masortiolami.

 

We are also not looking to collate offers of housing for refugees arriving in this country, such offers of support are being co-ordinated by WJR, please see the briefing below.

 

We are looking for a volunteer(s?) to help co-ordinate other offers of support and assistance. These may include offers of household goods / clothing / friendship / legal support etc. We will be shortly setting up an opportunity for members who have other offers of support and assistance to do that. If you are able to volunteer to help co-ordinate our response please do let me know rabbi@newlondon.org.uk.  

 

What follows is a Briefing from the Jewish Community Taskforce on Ukrainian Refugees (Co-ordinated by the Jewish Leadership Council).

 

Rabbi Jeremy

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This document aims to explain the details of the Government’s “Homes for Ukraine” refugee sponsorship scheme, its implications for the community and how we can coordinate to facilitate individuals within/connected to the Jewish community to participate as hosts.

 

Please can we ask you to share this document with your stakeholders (e.g. trustees, other staff members, clergy) and for them to communicate this with their audiences (i.e. the broader public connected to the Jewish community) – it will also be made available on our website https://www.thejlc.org/ukraine. We will continue to keep you updated as and when developments happen via regular briefing documents, our website and social media. Please feel free to share our social media posts or to ask me for a copy of the text used that you can adapt for your brand.

 

1. Homes for Ukraine Scheme - Details

 

As you may have seen, various policy announcements were released to the media regarding the Government’s Homes for Ukraine Scheme over the weekend. Michael Gove will be laying out the details of the scheme in Parliament later this afternoon, but following meetings between civil servants, politicians and World Jewish Relief over the weekend, we think that most of what there is to know at this stage has already been released. The details of the scheme that are known at present are as follows:

 

Homes for Ukraine scheme details:

• People in the UK will be able to nominate a named Ukrainian individual or family to stay with them for at least six months rent-free
• Hosts and refugees will be vetted (i.e. DBS checks for hosts) to ensure the scheme is safe
• Refugees coming through this scheme will be supported through local authorities who will receive £10.5k per refugee + more for schoolchildren
• Hosts will receive £350 a month from the government as a “thank you”
• The earliest refugees will start to arrive is in about two weeks’ time.

 

What we don’t know:

• How school places will be allocated to children
• How refugees are going to get here – World Jewish Relief have not been told who will be paying for / arranging flights
• How organisations (as opposed to individuals) such as charities, synagogues and other groups can sponsor refugees – information on this will be released at a later stage
• Anything else that is an unknown unknown – this is a rapidly changing context and we will keep you updated on other announcements as and when we hear of them

 

Registration process:

• Potential hosts will be able to register their interest in hosting a refugee on the government website today – we will circulate the link once it has been released
• In order to sign up more formally they will need to have the name of the refugee/family they would like to help
• World Jewish Relief have offered to seek to coordinate the process of matching a refugee with Jewish community members willing to host (see more information below)
• Therefore, potential hosts should also register interest with World Jewish Relief to be potentially matched with a refugee / family (see more information below)

 

2. Jewish community involvement via World Jewish Relief:

 

As mentioned above, potential hosts will need to register via the Government with the name of the refugee or family they would like to sponsor. World Jewish Relief are well placed to try and provide a matching service, where they can provide names of suitable refugees that they are in contact with on the ground to members of the community to offer to host. World Jewish Relief are launching an expression of interest form so that individuals can let them know if they are willing to host refugees in their homes and they can start the process of trying to match them. To ensure a coordinated response, please circulate this link amongst your audiences / stakeholders:

 

https://www.worldjewishrelief.org/news/1291-homes-for-ukraine

 

As part of the full application process, World Jewish Relief might be able to look at including questions around religious observance of the potential host family to ensure suitable matches if at all possible.

 

Jewish community response summary:

• World Jewish Relief is the best placed organisation in the community to seek to coordinate matching of potential hosts with Ukrainian refugees (including Jewish refugees who might be looking to come to the UK). This will be done via their website and an expression of interest form is due to go live today.
• World Jewish Relief hopes to provide additional assistance  to refugees being hosted by the Jewish community to ensure a successful integration process, supporting both refugees and their hosts. In the longer term, World Jewish Relief also hopes to offer an employment programme to help Ukrainian refugees find work in the UK.
• The Jewish Community Refugee Taskforce will continue to explore collectively how we can support refugees through making them feel welcome, helping meet their immediate needs, supporting integration and longer term housing and employment assistance. Further meetings are planned for this week.

 

World Jewish Relief is a small organisation working at pace to ensure the Jewish community can respond swiftly and effectively. Please refer any questions from your key stakeholders to Michelle Mitchell at the JLC (michelle.mitchell@thejlc.org) so that she can help them respond to enquires coming in from individual members of the public. Thank you.