Following a letter in the Express and Star on September 21^st, 1914, Wolverhampton residents opened five hostels for refugees from Belgium. Click Here for History Article. Let the hospitality continue –

In 2011, the Bishop of Wolverhampton endorsed a circular letter that promoted the concept of Wolverhampton as a City of Sanctuary and informed everyone that there would be a public meeting at The Workspace on Monday May 9^th, 2011, with Rev Inderjit Bhogal OBE as the main speaker.  Following this, the first meeting of a steering committee took place in early June.  The July 2011 newsletter of Wolverhampton Interfaith and Regeneration Network (WIFRN) reported on these early beginnings.

Saturday June 23^rd, 2012.  Launch of Wolverhampton City of Sanctuary, 5 pm to 7 pm at Wolverhampton College, Paget Road.  Click Here for an account of the Launch.  Click Here for Video.

The first Wolverhampton City of Sanctuary Group Meeting was held on Monday May 13^th, 2013, at The Methodist Centre, 24 School Street, Wolverhampton, in response to invitations sent out by John Waterfield of WIFRN (now Interfaith Wolverhampton), “to work towards making the city a place of welcome and hospitality for Asylum Seekers and Refugees”.

The first ‘Chat and Mingle’ event took place on Monday August 12^th, 2013, at The Light House, Chubb Buildings, Fryer Steeet, Wolverhampton. This account appeared in the October Interfaith Newsletter –

Colleen Molloy, who had just started as City of Sanctuary Regional Development Officer, was our special guest for the group meeting on Monday October 28^th, 2013, at the WIFRN office.

An official Constitution was adopted on 1st December 2014.
[Click to read, or right-click and “save target as / link as” to download a copy].

This website was born on May 20^th, 2015.

On the evening of Thursday 22^nd September 2016, organisations and individuals came together in the Council Chamber of Wolverhampton Civic Centre to pledge their support to make Wolverhampton a City of Sanctuary. CLICK HERE to read more. For a copy of the Pledge Form, click PDF-version or MicrosoftWord-version .

Wolverhampton Councillors have now passed a resolution supporting Wolverhampton as a City of Sanctuary – CLICK HERE for Express & Star article.

 
On 5^th December 2017, we became:

Registered Charity No. 1176101

A Thank-You from the website administrator, Paul Rayner –
My mother and grandmother came to Britain as refugees at the end of World War II, from a displaced persons’ camp in Germany. They had been transported from Latvia by the Nazis to work as slave-labour in Poland and then in northern Germany. They were unable to return to their home country of Latvia because it had been taken over by the Russians, who transported my grandfather to a labour camp in Siberia. My mother and grandmother were only allowed to come to Britain because a family in Essex, England, offered employment and accommodation. Thank you.