Information for Schools

Stories of Hope and Home is a story-telling project encouraging and empowering Refugees and those seeking asylum to share something of their lived experience. The project will give them space to discover their own voice, allowing them to share their own narrative in their own words. It will give them the skills and the confidence to creatively share their stories with others, particularly in educational settings.

We strongly believe in the power of stories and personal encounters as a way to help children and young people, and the staff who work them, to engage with and explore the real issues experienced by those seeking asylum in the UK; helping them to reflect on how best they might contribute to building cohesive, compassionate communities. We want our input to educate, but also to empower: to help staff and students to recognise their capacity to make a difference and to inspire them to do so.

There is a huge amount of flexibility in what we can offer to schools. The participants are open to sharing their stories in different ways. We recommend that in each setting we begin with a brief introduction to some of the realities of the asylum process; establishing a context for encounters with our project participants, all of whom have lived experience of having to flee their home countries and of seeking sanctuary in the UK.

Our hope is that each encounter will not be an end in itself, but the beginning of a journey for your school, and that there will be outcomes for the staff and pupils and their communities that extend beyond the time we share together. Whether that is some kind of creative output: drama, poetry, stories; or a commitment to creating change, or, ideally, both.

We are open to discuss how our input could be adapted to meet the needs of your school or setting. Please do get in touch and have a conversation with us if you are interested in working with us in some way.