Many countries across the world have introduced community-led refugee sponsorship schemes, and together have supported newcomers to rebuild their lives and feel welcomed. To deliver this support actors have developed useful resources and learnt a lot of lessons.

A leading example of regional engagement is the Auzolana (Basque for ‘Welcome’) pilot community sponsorship initiative that was launched in March 2019 to welcome five Syrian families in Basque municipalities: Bilbao, Arrigorriaga, Portugalete, Andoain and Vitoria-Gasteiz. The initiative is the first community sponsorship programme, organized and led by a regional government.

On the 6th of October ICMC Europe and the Share Network hosted the second of a series of meetings of its Refugee Sponsorship Mobilisation Platform. As the name indicates, this inclusive platform brings together a wide variety of stakeholders including civil society organisations, faith communities, volunteers, cities and regions, migrant-led organisations, universities, private actors and refugees - to exchange practices and develop strategies and advocacy initiatives to improve and expand community sponsorships under resettlement and complementary pathways in Europe.

On 26-27 September, ICMC and the Canadian Embassy to the Holy See co-organized the hybrid workshop “Building the Future through Community Sponsorship of Refugees: comparing experiences and learning from each other”.

The Multifaith and wider community engagement in refugee sponsorship conference took place in Cologne on May 25, 2022. Organised in partnership with DiCV Caritas Cologne, it provided the opportunity for relevant multi-stakeholder actors to exchange and share best practices on broadening engagement beyond Christian faith-based groups, across different faith groups as well as secular actors.