At Swansea City of Sanctuary we pride ourselves on creative partnership work with groups throughout the city, whilst addressing the needs and desires of those seeking sanctuary.
Our latest innovative partnership has seen a group of our volunteers getting stuck in with eco-building at Down to Earth, an award winning not-for-profit education organisation specialising in working with ‘hard to reach’ and ‘disadvantaged’ groups through the outdoors.
 

The group are lucky enough to be participants on Down to Earth’s ‘Building Community’ project which sees ‘hard-to-reach’ and vulnerable adults, quite literally building a community training facility from the ground up.  Individuals will be learning skills related to sustainable building methods, including round pole timber framing, straw bale wall construction, wood work, power and hand tool use.

We’re delighted to be able to offer this rare outdoor opportunity to our volunteers, some of whom have had little or no chance to use their building skills since arriving in the UK. Here are some photos taken in July 2015 (when it was a bit warmer and sunnier) when we visited the site.

Another aspect of the project, is to bring all the groups working on the build together, in a celebration event. Other groups working on the build may include individuals with physical disabilities, alcohol and drug issues, and mental health concerns. Bringing these groups together presents another great opportunity for our volunteers to meet other Swansea residents.