Friendship, Conversation and Shared Meals: Lessons from Worthing 4 Refugees
This week marks Refugee Week 15 – 21st June and we would love to highlight what one of our Partner Churches are involved with in Worthing.
We recently spoke to Gay Jacklin from Maybridge Community Church who leads the local charity ‘Worthing 4 Refugees’, an organisation providing a warm welcome, support, safety and justice as refugees integrate into the local community.
Read on to find out more and be inspired and encouraged about what you could do in your area!
What first inspired the creation of Worthing 4 Refugees, and what need were you seeing locally at the time?
Interestingly, there wasn’t a specific local need that prompted us at first. Instead, it began with a strong network of clergy across the town who were watching the war in Syria unfold on the news and asked the question:
‘what is a practical Christian response to the suffering we’re seeing?’
At the same time, the UK government was asking a similar question. The Community Sponsorship Scheme was launched - where grassroots groups could directly support and resettle refugee families into community.
We applied to the Home Office, and after a long process, were approved. Eventually, we were matched with a family, met them at Gatwick Airport, and began supporting them as they settled into life here. That’s really where Worthing 4 Refugees began.
Worthing 4 Refugees is an interchurch project-can you tell us how that came about and how it works?
We actually modelled ourselves on another interchurch initiative in Worthing that supports people experiencing homelessness (now known as Turning Tides). That project has been brilliant and showed us what’s possible when churches work together.
At the start, we held meetings for church leaders, churches, and the wider public to share the vision and invite people to get involved. We were also supported by the local and county councils, who provided space and encouragement early on.
Initially, around 80–90% of our volunteers came from churches. That’s now closer to 50%, as more people from the wider community - people of goodwill - have joined, especially in response to more recent global conflicts.
Churches continue to support us in a range of ways: financially, through prayer, by offering spaces, and by partnering with us relationally. It’s very much a shared effort across the town.
Worthing 4 Refugees is rooted in a Christian ethos-how does that shape the way the charity works day to day?
Our Christian faith is our motivation - not our hidden agenda.
We’re very open about our Christian faith when recruiting volunteers. We work with people of all faiths and none, but we ask that everyone is comfortable with our core belief that every person is made in the image of God and are therefore equal and deserving of dignity and respect.
This belief shapes everything we do. It informs how we treat people, how we build relationships, and how we support integration.
What have you learned from working closely with refugees?
We have learnt so much! The refugees I’ve got to know are some of the most resilient people I’ve ever met.
One key learning is that while people may have left a war, the war hasn’t left them.
The trauma doesn’t just leave them. Many are still living with its effects daily as they hear news from home, worry about friends and family and are grieving for people and places they have lost.
While walking through potential trauma there are also huge practical challenges: housing costs, language barriers, digital illiteracy, and navigating systems like Universal Credit. For some, even learning English is incredibly difficult, especially if they weren’t literate in their first language.
It’s a long journey for a refugee to thrive, but community makes a huge difference.
What would you want Christians in the UK to reflect on during Refugee Week?
One key question to think about is: how can we tell a different story?
The narrative around refugees often focuses on fear or negativity, but that doesn’t reflect the people we encounter. We need to think about how we, as Christians, can model something different.
I’d love us to reflect on integration. Are our churches places where people from different backgrounds truly belong? Are we demonstrating unity in diversity?
The Church is global, and when we gather across cultures it is a glimpse of heaven as described in Revelation 7:9 ‘ before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb’. There’s something beautiful and powerful in that - and something we’re called to embody more fully.
If this is something that you’d like to reflect on more I’d really recommend the work of Welcome Churches, take a look at their website HERE.
If churches or individuals wanted to take one simple step to help, what would you suggest?
Applying for the community sponsorship scheme is a brilliant thing to do and I’d definitely encourage you to look into it however it is not simple! Having said that, everyone can do something.
We can all build a relationship.
I’d suggest looking for opportunities to connect with someone from a different background, whether they’re a refugee or not, and simply get to know them.
We don’t all have to be part of a big project or programme. Often, it’s the everyday things that make the biggest difference: friendship, conversation, shared meals and helping someone feel included in normal life.
That kind of relational support and being alongside someone is incredibly powerful. It’s often what helps people feel truly welcomed and begin to belong.
Find out how more about Community Sponsorship and how you could get involved HERE.
*Opinions expressed in guest posts are those of the author, and do not represent any official position held by Jubilee+.*