In 2014, the UK launched the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme (VPRS) in response to the conflict in Syria. In 2015, Prime Minister David Cameron committed to resettling 20,000 refugees from the region by 2020, alongside a separate commitment to resettle up to 3,000 vulnerable children and their families from the Middle East and North Africa. [gov.uk], [gov.uk]

At the same time, Citizens UK was among the organisations calling for local communities to play a more direct role in welcoming refugees. Inspired by Canada's successful sponsorship model, we began campaigning for Community Sponsorship in the UK.

In October 2015, the Government announced that it would explore a refugee sponsorship scheme. Citizens UK members and civil society partners worked with government officials to design what would become Community Sponsorship.

The scheme officially launched in July 2016 at Lambeth Palace, and later that year the first sponsored refugee family was welcomed by a community group in Greater Manchester. Community Sponsorship had arrived in the UK.

Citizens UK launched the Sponsor Refugees Foundation for Community Sponsorship in 2017 to help grow and support the new movement. We supported new sponsorship groups across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, demonstrating that communities across the UK were ready to step forward and offer welcome. We mobilised communities and provided direct support as a Lead Sponsor Organisation (LSO) – eventually growing into the largest LSO in the UK.

By March 2020, more than 200 groups had either welcomed refugee families or were preparing to do so, and 449 people had arrived in the UK through Community Sponsorship. As the 2020 deadline for Syrian resettlement approached, Citizens UK and partners campaigned to ensure that refugee resettlement continued beyond the original programme.

Just as communities across the country were preparing to welcome new families, the COVID-19 pandemic brought international resettlement to a halt.

Communities remained organised and ready to welcome. Together with partners across the refugee sector, we campaigned for the restart of resettlement and for a long-term commitment beyond the Syrian programme, which was due to end that year. Citizens UK leaders organised an online “Refugees Still Welcome Assembly” with hundreds of participants. Facing hundreds of faces, then Immigration Minister Chris Philp announced that resettlement would continue.

In February 2021, the UK reached its target of resettling more than 20,000 refugees through the VPRS. The Government then launched the UK Resettlement Scheme (UKRS), creating a permanent global resettlement route open to refugees from a wider range of countries.

Later that year, following the fall of Kabul, Operation Pitting evacuated around 15,000 people from Afghanistan, creating an urgent need for long-term community-based support and resettlement.

Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the UK launched the Homes for Ukraine scheme, which drew on the success of Community Sponsorship scheme.

Citizens UK launched “Communities for Ukraine” in partnership with Ukrainian Sponsorship Pathway UK (USPUK) as a Government-recognised provider under the Homes for Ukraine scheme. Through the generosity of hosts, community organisations and Resettlement Partners across the UK, the programme helped over a thousand Ukrainians find safety, homes and work.

Overall, the Homes for Ukraine scheme ultimately enabled over 270,000 people to find safety in the UK.

Citizens UK is no longer able to match or support hosts, but you can contact USPUK to take part.

We also co-founded and co-chaired the Community Sponsorship Alliance UK. The CSA brings together representatives with lived experience of resettlement, Community Sponsorship Groups and support organisations to drive forward and improve sponsorship in the UK.

Hundreds of Afghan families who had been evacuated in 2021 still remained in temporary accommodation, and many more still needed evacuation. Citizens UK, the Community Sponsorship Alliance and government partners worked together to develop the Communities for Afghans scheme.

The programme enabled community groups to secure housing and provide practical support to Afghan families rebuilding their lives in the UK. Citizens UK piloted the first phase of the programme, helping demonstrate how communities can play a central role in refugee integration. From 2023 – 2025, we supported 146 people across 29 communities.

Citizens UK is no longer able to support groups through this programme, but you can contact one of the following organisations to take part:

• Refugee Council
• Gulab Sorkhe
• The Afghan Welcome Project

For years, sponsorship groups and resettled families had argued that communities should be able to welcome specific people they know, care about or feel connected to, as happens in Canada's Private Sponsorship Programme.

Over time, Citizens UK has worked with refugee leaders and Community Sponsorship group members to campaign for this change through assemblies, listening campaigns, meetings with ministers and parliamentary engagement.

In November 2025, the Government confirmed that Named Community Sponsorship would become a central part of the UK's future resettlement offer. This commitment was reconfirmed in June 2026.

For the first time, communities will be able to identify and support specific people to rebuild their lives in the UK, creating a powerful new route to safety while strengthening community welcome.

Citizens UK and our partners are now part of a Core Delivery Group to co-design the scheme. We are building the capacity of civil society organisations ensure that communities across the country are ready to make Named Community Sponsorship a success.