Events
Our Events team are the public face of CWR. We organise fun and inclusive events to serve the wider community and raise awareness about what CWR does and issues facing refugees and asylum seekers in Cheltenham, the UK and around the world.
the story so far
A key part of CWR’s work from the start has been our Summer Picnic, which we’ve held annually every year since 2016 with the assistance of the University of Gloucestershire and the Everyman Theatre. It’s been a huge boost for public engagement and social integration, and is always fun for everyone.
We further developed the Events and Communities team in 2018 to provide a more dynamic National Refugee Week program - including a storytelling night, a dance party, and a film screening, with the help of The Swan Cheltenham, The Sober Parrot, and the Scandinavian Coffee Pod. The Everyman Theatre kindly put on circus skills workshops during the half-term holiday for the families, as well as giving art workshops at our Summer Picnic.
For 2019, we increased our program to involve a cookery workshop and quiz night, as well as working with other local organisations and businesses including the Wilson Gallery and Waterstones to give wider promotion and venue access across Cheltenham. We also held an amazingly successful Eid party for the first time, with 100 attendees from over 14 different countries!
Our events in 2020 and 2021 were mostly virtual but our community work continued as much as possible. We ran a series of ‘conversations’ in coordination with the University of Gloucestershire’s Refugee support group, discussing topics such as the Black Lives Matter movement, LGBTQ+ Refugees, and Working in Rohinga Refugee Camps. We also started our Book Club with Lives of Colour.
Thankfully, we were back to in person events in 2022. We supported the Lives of Colour Culture Fest, and celebrated Refugee Week 2022 with a Parkrun Takeover, A Celebration of Mindfulness for All, and with the incredible visit of Little Amal to Cheltenham on 23 June.
We rounded off 2022 with a fundraising quiz at the Boston Tea Party, and a Festive Concert supported by our faith groups. Several CWR friends also took part in a Lit Crawl event as part of the Literature Festival in Cheltenham.
2023 saw CWR Events go from strength to strength. We ran several more quizzes at Boston Tea Party, and another Parkrun Takeover. We held a Film Night, showing the movie, Limbo, at Cheltenham Playhouse, with a Q&A afterwards tackling issues facing asylum seekers. We spoke at the Cheltenham Literature Festival about Refugee Literature. The year ended with another wonderful Festive Concert at St Thomas More Church, organised by our English Classes and Cheltenham Volunteer Teachers. We were busy but it was a very rewarding year!
If you’d like to get involved in work of this capacity and support our exciting plans for 2024, please email us at chelt.refugees.community@gmail.com. In the meantime, please head over to our Events calendar to find out what’s happening next!
