The Rural Refugee Network brings the local community together to welcome those seeking sanctuary in Hampshire, Havant and Portsmouth.
In addition to providing local knowledge, training and companionship, we also run discrete projects that bring the community together to enhance elements of our core aims. RRN takes the management of these projects and our relationships with our generous grant funders and supporters very seriously. Projects are coordinated by our highly qualified and experienced CEO, drawing on trustee experience in delivery, project management and evaluation and the specific expertise of our community of volunteers and qualified professionals.
New projects arise from community need and are then piloted and evaluated. Careful project governance and an inclusive approach ensures that we learn as a community and are able to improve and sustain project outcomes and benefits and build on our successes together.
Read our case study, ‘Amina’s Story,’ here to understand the impact we can have.
RRN South Downs Youth Discovery Project and Youth Discovery Nest
The Youth Discovery Project supports young people aged 16-19 who came to the UK alone and are therefore in the care of the local authority. The project holds a weekly drop-in in Portsmouth, funded by the National Lottery Community Fund, and organises monthly activity days and an annual residential in the local countryside, including the New Forest and the Sustainability Centre.
“It’s very amazing place very green and beautiful and I love nature that’s why I am relaxed in the green place”
This special project benefits from practical support in kind from Bedales School and RRN’s supporters and volunteers. Activities have also been funded by the South Downs National Park Youth Action Fund and Nordson Corporation. The young people value the relationships they’ve built, with each other and with the adults, sharing experiences and learning together in a safe, inclusive atmosphere.
“I felt confident and happy. The people here very respectful and their faces smile and it’s very welcome. I am very happy from them.”
An evaluation of the pilot here confirmed that the supportive community of local volunteers and young people from diverse cultures with shared experience provides a safe space to learn, to understand their local environment, to be creative, to enjoy the outdoors and to have hope for the future.
A multi-year grant from the National Lottery Community Fund has enabled the Rural Refugee Network to build on the success of the pilot programme to develop the Youth Discovery NEST in Portsmouth. This weekly drop in, embedded in the portsmouth community of refugee and social impact organisations, provides a safe, welcoming, consistent environment where the young people build strong bonds and see progress in key skills through weekly workshops, ESOL tuition and monthly outings.
The interim evaluation report found that “There is strong evidence that participants have developed their English language skills, confidence, and feelings of being settled. Most have made positive connections with peers. Some participants have gone on to make meaningful connections within their local community, for example through volunteering with community groups.”
English for Speakers of Other Languages
The conflict in Ukraine that began in February 2022 has led more than 8 million people to flee their homes for safe haven in other countries (UNHCR, 2023).Over 400 of those are in East Hampshire and in May 2022, RRN identified a need for ESOL provision for newly arrived Ukrainian refugees. RRN’s expertise and experience delivering language lessons as part of its package of support gave it the capability to respond rapidly to fill this gap with an 8-week pilot programme. An evaluation at the end of the pilot found rapidly enhanced language skills and highlighted the value of RRN’s qualified ESOL teachers’ experience in working with refugees. It also found a strong need for further provision. RRN has therefore developed additional language courses in Petersfield and Havant with support and funding from East Hampshire District Council https://www.easthants.gov.uk/, Petersfield Town Council https://www.petersfield-tc.gov.uk/, Hampshire Havant Borough Council https://www.havant.gov.uk/ and The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Community Foundation https://hiwcf.org.uk/. The Rural Refugee Network is grateful to its community for supporting this initiative, such as St Laurence church who provide a free venue.
“For me to speak English, means to write better, to speak better, to read better, to find a good job and to be safe. And help Ukraine”
Each course is evaluated and lessons learned are incorporated into future provision. Some course groups now go on facilitated outings to local places of interest together, reinforcing the language in context and the all-important social bonds within the group.
Ukrainian ESOL class certificate awards
RRN also runs bespoke classes for the Afghan refugee community. Read the 2025 Evaluation here.
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An example of RRN’s participatory approach and commitment to foregrounding child voice:
Ukrainian teen drop-in: Shaped by the young people who came
In April 2025, RRN ran a pilot drop-in for young Ukrainians based in the Petersfield area, on a Saturday afternoon in Petersfield. Before applying funding to run this regularly, we wanted to find out directly from young people what they actually wanted, so we invited a group along to enjoy an afternoon together and, as part of it, help us design what a real programme should look like. The session was made possible with support from East Hampshire District Council.
We drew on our experience of running English language classes and employment support for the local Ukrainian community since May 2022, and on RRN’s externally evaluated Youth Discovery project for young asylum seekers in Portsmouth. This session was the first step in developing bespoke provision for Ukrainian young people.
A safe space for young people to come together
The group, aged 13–15, met in central Petersfield on a Saturday afternoon. Although they came from different schools and didn’t know each other well beforehand, informal games of Connect 4 and Jenga gave them an easy way in. The relaxed, welcoming atmosphere built trust quickly and created the right conditions for what came next.
The young people shaped the session together, as a group, building on each other’s ideas about what they wanted from future provision.
The facilitators used creative methods, to go with the young people’s lead. As the group’s confidence grew, they started leading the session themselves. They introduced RRN staff and volunteers to their favourite game, Mafia, and ended the afternoon running two rounds of it themselves. The ideas about future provision came out of this relaxed, playful format.
What we heard
The group wanted to spend time together socialising and playing games, with real interest in learning new skills and creative activities. Ideas grouped naturally into three themes:
Sport: badminton, table tennis, diving, climbing, watersports
Arts and practical skills: pottery, sculpture, music, cooking, new languages, drama, dance
Games: chess, Mafia, video games, Just Dance, karaoke, card games
Badminton and table tennis tournaments, cooking sessions, and strategy games like chess and Mafia came out as the most popular. Museum visits and trips to new places were a lower priority than getting together to play and learn as a group. None of the group wanted support with English or schoolwork.
80% said they’d come again, the rest said they might.
What the young people told us about what they wanted, and just as clearly what they didn’t want, is what then went into future funding bids for this work. The provision we design is not built on assumptions about what refugee teenagers need, but on children’s voices, in their own words, in a space where they felt able to say what they need.
This session led to further funding from East Hampshire District Council to implement the young people’s plans, which is proving popular and successful.