Message from the Steering Committee

Hi,

Welcome to Stockport City of Sanctuary!

Our borough has a proud tradition of community spirit, compassion, and solidarity. Across Stockport, individuals and organisations are already working tirelessly to support refugees and people seeking sanctuary. Stockport City of Sanctuary is here to bring these efforts together into a shared movement of welcome.

We believe that everyone deserves to live with dignity, safety, and the opportunity to belong. People seeking sanctuary everywhere often arrive having experienced conflict, persecution, and loss – not of their own making. These people bring resilience, skills, culture, and the desire to contribute to their new communities, the place they now call home.

Through partnership, awareness, and community engagement, and with your support, we aim to help them build a borough where welcome is visible, active, and shared by all of us.

Stockport City of Sanctuary’s work is guided by the values of compassion, dignity, solidarity, and justice, and by the principle that people with lived experience should help shape the decisions that affect their lives. Yes, they can!

We are grateful to the many community groups, volunteers, faith organisations, public partners, and residents who are already working hard to help make Stockport a place where people seeking sanctuary can rebuild their lives and feel part of the community.

Now, together, we are working towards a future where Stockport is widely recognised as a place of compassion – a place of sanctuary.

Thank you for visiting our website. Please join us in supporting this important work.

Warm regards,

David Mutai

Sandy Broadhurst

John Pearson

On behalf of

The Stockport City of Sanctuary Steering Committee