Each year at City of Sanctuary Sheffield feels like a journey. As an organisation working in solidarity with people seeking sanctuary, we are impacted by events playing out on the world stage and yet still intimately connected to the individuals in our community most affected by those events. 

In a year that has seen upheaval and suffering in so many places across the world, including in our own towns and cities, we are faced with the question of how we collectively engage with this world on fire? With problems that seem insurmountable?  Where do we find hope in a world that can seem hopeless? 

My personal belief is that we do this by making hope an active daily practice.  

We respond to all that is around us by making choices and taking actions based on the vision we have for the world, while remaining fully cognisant of the painful current reality of that world. We practice hope as a daily, meditative response to the injustice we see in our communities, in our cities, in our world.

Throughout this report you will see this hope in action across the community. Our collective show of strength, solidarity and action in response to the threat of Rwanda removals and the Far-right riots; our one-of-a-kind redesign and renovation of The Sanctuary; our work to prevent homelessness among our brothers and sisters in the community; our facilitation of the Drop-In and The Sanctuary where, as one of our volunteers says, ‘Geographical, linguistic, cultural, ethnic and national boundaries [are] broken, and [people are] no longer alone.’ 

These daily actions of hope that we collectively, always collectively, take is our response to a broken world. It remains a privilege to be taking these actions alongside the incredible community of Sheffield and to live out the hope we all have of a city that is safe and welcoming for people seeking sanctuary. 

Our work is only possible because of people like you. Please consider donating to help us continue creating sanctuary in a world on fire.  

In Solidarity,

Tom, Director of City of Sanctuary Sheffield