Fountainbridge and Beyond: Community Building Strategies

Fountainbridge and beyond: building community as the foundation of welcome

In part three of our short series on the work of the Edinburgh Refugee Sponsorship Circle, we explore why place, community, and connection matter in refugee resettlement. We spoke with Fae Gerlach about the deep roots one family has put down in Fountainbridge — and how Community Sponsorship has created a web of relationships, routines and shared purpose that supports not only the families welcomed, but the volunteers too.

Why was it important to keep the family in Fountain bridge?

Fae: The family are so happy in Fountainbridge. They are profoundly connected with their community there and their little son, who’s 10 now, he was six when he arrived, just goes by himself to the park and literally makes friends. He’s just a little bit of an icon in the neighborhood at this point, he just goes out with a ball and plays football with kids and adults alike, and it’s just very settled in the park, where they live close by. The family is very proud for their kids to go to Boroughmuir High School, which is one of the best schools in Scotland. They’ve been having such a  great experience there. I remember when the kids started going to school, and so I went to visit the school and saw how proud they all were and how beautiful the walk there is along the canal. And so there’s already deep links to the school and the teachers, the neighbors, and there’s lots of friends.

We’ve secured most of our flats in the Fountainbridge area, so the families that we welcomed are all very close to each other in their neighborhood. And we also have lots of volunteers who live there. So it’s really that the family after four years, have really settled into that neighborhood, and they’re such pleasant and wonderful people that they, you know, they go to the local supermarket and they bump into folks, and they’ve made friends and all around. And the wee one, who was four, when she arrived, she was very little, and she really struggled in school in the beginning, until she made an incredible best friend in school and they live very close to each other, so they can visit each other. So, you know, being disrupted by having to move all across town, potentially would just be so sad. So we have a really specific motivation knowing the family so well and  seeing their lives and how embedded they are there to try and enable them to stay there. And also because of the contribution they give to the local community and to the local neighborhood. That’s given us that extra motivation to try and make it work in Fountainbridge. When we started on this, you know, many people we spoke with were like, does it have to be in Edinburgh because Edinburgh is so hard on house and rental prices. And they were like, you know, if you would go somewhere else and do that, you could, you know, get a bigger flat with that money. But we are based in Edinburgh. That’s where we find ourselves. So the fact that Edinburgh is incredibly hostile in terms of rental prices, in terms of property prices, that’s just a reality that so many people have to deal with. And we are based here, and so yes, it is an additional challenge, but people in there are still people in Edinburgh who are not wealthy and are not able to navigate that, and we will just try our best.  If it means we have to raise significantly more than we would have to raise in other places, in the UK, then that’s just what the reality is.

What role does community connection play in your broader vision for refugee resettlement?

Fae: For people who know us as a group, I think it’s very clear that we’re very community-led, and that we’ve had this real epiphany of realizing, it’s called Community Sponsorship but in the end,  we’re welcoming your family. But something happened along the process of welcoming the first family, then the second family, and our third welcome was an individual that was so astonishing, to me as a seasoned community organiser. We actually did build community as a part of this project,  there were so many friendships that formed, so many connections built, our volunteer team is so diverse in all aspects, and there was so much mutual support that happened in many, many different ways, including the families supporting new families or supporting volunteers. A real reciprocity was allowed to happen, and so community was actually formed. The positive effect of this community on the family’s situation in terms of the access to opportunities, the access to support that they have across town and the impact on their mental health.

We’re also in touch with some people who have arrived in this country who are not supported through Community Sponsorship. And we can see the contrast of the issues that they have around mental health. This is particularly acute in the transition period of someone arriving. We see  many people who arrive and who do not have that  support can fall into a real dip, because there’s a lot of isolation that happens in the beginning. There’s a lot of stress that the processes Community Sponsorship can alleviate so beautifully, because we have such a capacity to support, and there’s so much beautiful connection and beautiful memories being made even while you are struggling together to get everything set up, to go through all the 10,000 forms, to have your first struggles with figuring an issue out or when something goes wrong. There’s still that beautiful benefit of seeing what it brings. Also, if you speak with any of our volunteers, the expansive positive impact it has on their lives and on their understanding of their community, on their sense of belonging, on their mental health, is really incredible.

We have a university student with us at the moment who is writing a paper on us. I’m looking forward to see what she  found out so maybe we will have a little bit of some formally collected evidence on that. But I have to say, as someone who’s been with it from the beginning, and has been part of many other  things. I’ve just never seen something that is so truly reciprocal and really, actually creates community.

Why do you think that is? What do you think is unique about this model that can do that?

Fae: I’ve done a lot of community organising, and this model has been the one that’s worked in a very particular way which is slightly unexpected. I think its to do with the process of Community Sponsorship, the concept that enables people to be meeting other people to support other people in this very particular kind of way. I think that is so much more powerful and sustainable than any institutional support. Institutional support and institutional opportunities and spaces for support and for connection are essential and I would like to see more power to all the amazing council workers who are doing the absolute best. But there is a limit to it, because you are still in a role. And often I’ve been in that sort of role as well. Delivering support but from within an institution – and there’s still the desire to really connect with the people, but the whole institution aspect often means you just can’t. Whereas Community Sponsorship just allows the possibility of multiple unique connections that you can make from day one, and multiple beautiful memories that can sustain you through harder times. And everyone comes with their very unique own network and support system. So its this exponential factor of the more connection you have, the more you know the background of those connections you get. And so, so there’s the ability to respond to all these unique skills and talents and passions of someone.  I would also say that as someone working a lot with people affected by trauma, thinking around being trauma-informed is very important to me. I think that for people who’ve been traumatised, often didn’t have choice, and so accessing autonomy and accessing choice is obviously a big aspect. Community Sponsorship is just full of opportunities for choice. Choice is not actually something that’s a central aspect of the way that institutional support works. Or in forms of resettlement that are not Community Sponsorship. From day one, the people we work with just have so much choice. Who do you want to engage with from the volunteers? What offer do you want to accept? Do you want to do this? Do you want to do that? In that particular sensitive time when people first arrive, Community Sponsorship supports someone to not fall into a dip, but to build that resilience and build their confidence and then have a beautiful network as well.

What’s been the biggest challenge in getting this project off the ground?

Fae: Think its actually our own anxieties and the tendency to keep ourselves small and not dream big. We’re a volunteer run group, and we have never dealt with anything like this before. When we started looking at this, I hadn’t even had purchased my first flat now, but like, I didn’t know anything about this sort of thing. And so all our thinking was it’s just not possible. But then once we started having those conversations with people who really knew what they were doing and had done it before, things changed. It was really the fear of thinking big and dreaming big, and the fear of risk. We had to overcome that through being supported by real experts who  reminded us ‘you can do it’. So here we are.

Have you had to overcome any misunderstandings or hesitations about the trust structure?

Fae  I think the trust structure puts a lot of trust, funnily enough, in the trustees. So we have to have deep conversations and build really good relationships with people who are considering putting their money into this trust. It’s unique, it’s guided by volunteers, and it’s not a trust in the classic sense. So to be able to open people’s minds, and to give it a moment, to read through it, to talk to us and to trust this model that might be a little bit more unique than what’s around.

Okay, do you think it could be used this model elsewhere? And what would you what advice would you give to other groups facing housing barriers?

Fae: Allow yourself to dream big, and have your have your emergency plans, your plan Bs and Cs and Ds at hand. But from the conversations that we have had and the sort of world that we have now access to, through the support that we receive from different housing trusts and different philanthropy.. what we’ve realised is that actually dreaming big is very, very helpful, and sometimes it really generates some really cool ideas and some really practical ideas. Bringing these  resources into community hands, into ethical hands, is one of the great challenges and missions that we all share across different movements right now, because housing and lack of housing and unreliable housing and decent housing and equal access to home ownership is affecting all kinds of people who are already disadvantaged. And if we start thinking a bit more creatively, be bold – I think there is huge potential to unlock new ways of doing things.

Where do you hope the project will be in 10 years time?

Fae: So in 10 years, I want for ERC to still be profoundly community run and community based, and operating with the same spirit that we have now. It’s absolutely essential that we remain community run,  protecting that grassroots vibe, and which might mean that we remain being volunteer-run, and make that intentional choice. I do hope we take our learnings and amplify it to so that we can have more property at hand and offer more secure housing to more people.

What do you want potential contributors to understand most clearly about this initiative?

Fae: I’d love them to understand how significant the knowledge of having secured housing for 10 years in how significant of an impact that is on a family, on the parents, but also on the children and their  journey into life of adulthood. I also would love people to really, truly look at the housing crisis and the emergency we are facing. I think there are some really concrete steps that we can take to alleviate the crisis on a small scale. I am the first one to advocate towards the government to push for policy change. But I also think that the housing emergency is a call to all, for all of us who have access to housing, who have access to funds like that is this relates to all of us and speaks to the choices of what we do with our wealth. I think this is a very beautiful opportunity to do that and to be really in tune with this community. It’s a really beautiful invite, you know, for someone, because you can really tangibly also experience the positive impact that your wealth can have on others.

And if somebody is unsure about whether to get involved, either as a donor or a contributor, what? What would you say to them?

Fae  Come talk to us. I find having conversations together lead to other beautiful ideas, or we might inspire each other to do different things. So there might be something else you can contribute or knowledge and that would be helpful. So having a lovely human connection of a conversation is actually always beneficial, and we have always understood why someone might choose not to support us. But most of the time, we find that we actually stay in touch and that there’s something beautiful, other thing that comes out of it. And in worst case scenarios, we have a very beautiful, interesting, inspiring chat, and get to know someone and then that’s that. But I think it’s always worth a conversation. And also the word of mouth is the most powerful tool still that we have. This has been a real experience for us at community at ERC as well. And most of the flats that we receive, most of those for support, the volunteers come through word of mouth still, and so the £80,000 came through  word of mouth, you know. So, while we’re working hard on funding applications and on fundraising and crowdfunders, people talking about what we do or just literally sending our paper via WhatsApp or email to friends so often is actually the way how magic happens and someone finds us suddenly. So, I still encourage people who decide not to put something forward to share about us and see what happens.