Privacy Statement
Who we are
Cheltenham Welcomes Refugees (CWR) is a charity making sure that refugee families and people seeking asylum who live in or near Cheltenham are welcomed and supported.
We also work to raise awareness and understanding of the issues faced by refugees and asylum seekers in the UK and throughout the world.
This notice sets out our privacy notice.
The data we hold about you and how we use it
The personal data we hold about you and how we use it will depend on whether you simply subscribe to our CWR newsletter, actively volunteer for CWR or help us in some other way (or have done so in the past) or are a member of a refugee family or seeking asylum.
All the personal data we hold is kept securely. Only those CWR volunteers who need to access the data for a specific purpose, as set out below, are allowed to do so.
Lawful bases and data protection rights
Under UK data protection law, we must have a “lawful basis” for collecting and using your personal information. There is a list of possible lawful bases in the UK GDPR. You can find out more about lawful bases on the Information Commissioner’s Office’s (ICO) website.
Which lawful basis we rely on may affect your data protection rights which are in brief set out below. You can find out more about your data protection rights and the exemptions which may apply on the ICO’s website:
Your right of access — You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information. You can request other information such as details about where we get personal information from and who we share personal information with. There are some exemptions which means you may not receive all the information you ask for. You can read more about this right here.
Your right to rectification — You have the right to ask us to correct or delete personal information you think is inaccurate or incomplete. You can read more about this right here.
Your right to erasure — You have the right to ask us to delete your personal information. You can read more about this right here.
Your right to restriction of processing — You have the right to ask us to limit how we can use your personal information. You can read more about this right here.
Your right to object to processing — You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data. You can read more about this right here.
Your right to data portability — You have the right to ask that we transfer the personal information you gave us to another organisation, or to you. You can read more about this right here.
Your right to withdraw consent — When we use consent as our lawful basis you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. You can read more about this right here.
If you make a request, we must respond to you without undue delay and in any event within one month.
To make a data protection rights request, please contact us using the contact details at the bottom of this privacy notice.
Our lawful bases for collecting or using personal information are:
1. Consent where:
you are a refugee or asylum seeker and accept donated items or support packages from us, or you share your details to receive lifts or access other CWR activities
you volunteer with us
you subscribe to our newsletters
you donate money or items to us
you collaborate with us to organise events
you supply us with a service
We have permission from you after we gave you all the relevant information. All of your data protection rights may apply, except the right to object. To be clear, you do have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.
2. Legitimate interest where:
you are a refugee or asylum seeker and accept donated items or support packages from us, or you share your details to receive lifts or access CWR activities. We are collecting or using your information because it benefits you, our organisation or someone else, without causing an undue risk of harm to anyone. All of your data protection rights may apply, except the right to portability. Our legitimate interests are:
processing your information allows us to run CWR as a charitable entity effectively and in pursuit of our objectives as a charity. The information processed is minimal and only as necessary and does not cause undue risk of harm to anyone.
Refugees and people seeking asylum. We know the names of some refugees and people seeking asylum living in or near Cheltenham, and sometimes your postal and email addresses and telephone numbers. This information is used to make sure that you are aware of, and can get to, any events that are organised for you or can otherwise be given the help you may need. You do not need to share personal information with us to participate in the events we offer, unless we require it to organise our events in a safe manner, see below. We stay in touch with many people via WhatsApp. You can join and leave the WhatsApp groups at any point.
If you request a lift to the Welcome Café, we keep a record of your address until you stop attending the Welcome Café. It will only be shared with the individuals who provide the lift for you.
If you attend our driving theory classes, we will further collect information about who referred you, your country of origin, your native language, your level of English, whether you are attending English classes and whether they are with CWR, your refugee status, your date of arrival in the UK to understand the validity of your driving licence, whether you are in receipt of Universal Credit, your former and current occupation where applicable, driving experience, family circumstances and whether you have children and their names and dates of birth.
If you are the child of someone who attends driving theory classes, you can withdraw your consent for us to hold your information and ask us to delete it at any point.
If you attend our English classes, we will collect the following information: your family name, date and country of birth, when you arrived in the UK, your residency status, type of accommodation (i.e. hosted, hotel, dispersed housing, independent living), full postal address, phone number, email address, host details if applicable, emergency contact, if you have registered with GlosCol, your availability to attend our various classes, first language, how you travel to English class, any medical conditions that we should be aware of. We keep a register of attendees at each of our classes so that we are aware of who is attending and who is no longer attending. We review our records periodically. When it is clear that you no longer attend our classes we will delete this information and you can request that we do so at any point.
We partner with Cheltenham Foodbank so that food vouchers can be issued to those who qualify for assistance. To do this, the following information is required: the applicant's full name, age and address, along with the reason why help is requested. We then delete this information from our records. This information is entered into the database of Cheltenham Foodbank so that they can monitor vouchers issued and the reasons why they are needed. The data is subject to their database protocols.
We keep a record of whether you have received large donated items (such as bikes) from us and whether we have referred you to a food pantry. The referral to Food Pantries, currently via Feed Cheltenham, includes your name, address, phone number, that they are an asylum seeker. Where we are aware that you have received leave to remain, we inform the food pantries. We then delete your information.
We sometimes hand out support packs, for example holiday activity packs. We will ask for your consent via phone (message) before we ask for your address and use it to deliver it to your house. We will then delete the address and keep your number. We will ask for your consent again if we receive new support packs.
We may sometimes take photos of you. We will always ask for your consent before we take photos and tell you how we plan to use them.
You can tell us to delete your information anytime by emailing chelt.refugees@gmail.com and we will do so within a month.
Subscribers to our newsletter. If you subscribe to our CWR newsletter, the only data we hold about you will be your email address and name (if you give it). We share this information with MailChimp as set out in the section “Sharing your personal information”.
Volunteers. We maintain a list of volunteers which includes your name, phone number, the date of your interview, the name of your referee, whether you hold a DBS check, any languages other than English which you speak and whether you are an approved driver. We also keep the information you gave us about the activities that you are interested in, whether you also volunteer for Cheltenham Volunteer Teachers and whether you solely volunteer for either the Welcome Cafe or the English language classes.
We use this information to enable us to vet new applicants and to help organise activities and events for the refugee families and asylum seekers, including ensuring the families have lifts and can get there. It is also used to match volunteers to other specific tasks as and when they come up. We also collect email addresses and share your data with MailChimp as set out below for use in our volunteer newsletter.
We stay in touch with many people via WhatsApp. You can join and leave the WhatsApp groups at any point.
Many subgroups keep a register of attendance of group meetings and activities.
If you stop volunteering with us, we will keep your information for six months in case you return to volunteer. Your reference will remain valid in this case and you will not have to undergo the induction process again. You can tell us to delete your information sooner by emailing chelt.refugees@gmail.com and we will do so within a month.
Job applicants. If you apply for a paid role at CWR, we will keep your application for six months from the application deadline if your application is unsuccessful, and for the duration of your contract if your application is successful.
Donors. We collect personal details to process donations. We use different methods for financial donations and where we use a third party providers such as Zettle, Stripe, Crowdfunder and Give as you Live, their privacy notice applies.
We collect personal details to process donations on our website. Your name, address, email address, phone number and the last 4 digits of the payment card are emailed to the CWR administrator email address, and we share it with the CWR Treasurer or Activity and Admin Coordinator to thank you by email. Our lawful basis for processing your information is legitimate interests.
For Stripe and other platforms such as Crowdfunder and Give as you Live, we will not keep your personal data unless we are legally obliged to, such as for Gift Aid. Only the Treasurer and the Activity and Admin Coordinator have access to the Gift Aid information and we keep it securely in a password protected sheet containing your full name, house number and postcode and donation date. We share this data with HMRC. Our lawful basis for processing your information is legitimate interests. If you donate to us and include GiftAid, we share your information with HMRC.
Other community contacts. We keep a record of the names and email addresses of non-volunteers if they are collaborating with CWR for an event or campaign. From time to time we look for landlords, employers and others who may be able to offer opportunities in Cheltenham. If you are in touch with us about any of these initiatives, then we will keep a record of what you have told us. Similarly, if you help CWR in some other way, for example when we issue call-outs for donations and you donate items, we may still have a record of that help. You can tell us to delete your information sooner by emailing chelt.refugees@gmail.com and we will do so within a month.
Where we get your information from
Directly from you
Charities or voluntary sector organisations.
Sharing your personal information
We use a third-party provider, MailChimp, to deliver our newsletter. This allows us to gather statistics using industry standard technologies on, for example, the number of people opening and reading each mailing, which helps us to monitor and improve the newsletter. For more information please see MailChimp’s privacy notice.
We use Gmail as our regular email client, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok to engage with our supporters online and WhatsApp to send and receive messages. Other than the limited personal information needed for this, we do not share any of the personal information we hold with any other person or body.
We will never extrapolate, harvest or use any data that may come to us through using these applications.
Accessing your personal information
You are legally entitled to know what personal information we hold about you and to have any mistakes rectified. Email your request to chelt.refugees@gmail.com heading your email ‘Personal information’.
Cancelling your subscription to the newsletters
You can unsubscribe from our general mailings at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of our newsletter or by emailing us at chelt.refugees@gmail.com.
Information from our website: http://www.cheltenhamwelcomesrefugees.org.uk/
We do not currently monitor the activities of visitors to our website but we are nevertheless able to collect information on such things as the overall number of visitors and which parts of the website are the most popular. This information does not identify anyone.
We will never attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our website.
How to complain
If you have any concerns about our use of your personal data, you can make a complaint to us at chelt.refugees@gmail.com.
If you remain unhappy with how we’ve used your data after raising a complaint with us, you can also complain to the ICO.
The ICO’s address:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Helpline number: 0303 123 1113
Website: https://www.ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint
Changes to this Privacy Notice
This privacy notice was last updated in 2025 and is kept under regular review.
Please let us know if you think it should be changed in any way.
We cannot accept any liability that may arise from using or downloading information from the website - it’s kept up to date and as accurate as possible, but we can’t account for misuse, misrepresentation, or misinterpretation.