Your Latest Updates from Croeso Llantwit

In the previous months, there has been a lot of activity, as we are continuing our preparations to welcome a refugee family to our wonderful town, as part of the Community Sponsorship Program with the Home Office. 

The education group are up and running, and making contact with schools. We facilitated a group of students from Atlantic College going into the school at Wick to do a session they have been preparing.  We went over to the college and met the students prior to this to give some input into the presentation.  We are going to put together a storyboard that can be used as people go into other schools.

We are about to receive £250.00 from Ben Tarlton from his concert at St Illtyds last month. We are very grateful at his initiative and the response the concert has received!

A few of us had a meeting with two members of Croeso Penarth, which we found very helpful.

An evening  was held to say thank you and goodbye to the second year students from Atlantic College, some of which were  instrumental  in bringing community  sponsorship to our attention. They have been an important  part of Croeso Llantwit, and we wish them well as they move on. We are pleased to inform you that we have already a keen student in line to be heading up the group next year. 

A quilting group has been set up on a Wednesday afternoon, 3.00pm - 5.00pm in the hall at Bethel. Anyone is welcome,  experienced or not! Making a quilt as a welcome gift is a long standing Welsh tradition, and Chris Morfett felt it would be lovely to be able to give our family one. As an experienced, and talented  "crafter" she offered to organise and facilitate this.

Our Steph has been delivering Cultural Awareness  sessions.  We have had two out of the three planned. Each session has been offered once in a morning and again in an evening. The attendance has been more than satisfactory, with usually about a dozen people at each session!

Work continues in other groups. We are working on the Welcome Pack and continue to put together language resources.  Various visits have been made to Barry, which have included meeting up with some of the Syrian family who live there. 

We have also been working on equipping and furnishing the house for the refugee family. Emails have been sent out inviting people to contribute, and offers have started coming in.

Our last fundraising event was the Plant Fair at Bethel at which we raised an amazing £1137.59. What an incredible response! 

We have just heard that our Resettlement Plan has now been sent out to regional stakeholders, with a deadline of 27th May. They will highlight any issues they wish to discuss and some of us will attend a Regional Panel meeting next month to do this. 

We have also finally heard from the Vale Safeguarding Officer, after months of trying. So we are making progress!

We are about to hold a meeting with Nidal  from Atlantic College,  where he will share language and culture from his time spent living and working in Syria.

We are encouraged by the level of support we have, and the commitment shown, especially  by the main group of volunteers. We are also grateful to Bethel Baptist for their generosity in giving us free use of their hall for various occasions.

Reading the above round-up, you may think it shows that a lot is going on at the moment. You are absolutely right, and there is still plenty to do! If you would like to become involved in any part of Croeso Llantwit, don't hesitate to email us at croesollantwit@gmail.com.  We are looking forward to hear from you!