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Action Ideas:
We have a range of resources below designed to support you in your campaigning - ranging from letter writing to creative actions to build support and visibility in your community. We know that building mass visibility and engaging MPs will be key to securing government concessions.
These actions use the TWR orange heart as a symbol of support, unity, love and care in and for our communities. Our hope is that we will see thousands of people proudly displaying the orange heart in a thousand different ways - from posters in community spaces, to giant Christmas decorations on town centre trees or orange heart-shaped biscuits given out at community events - all gestures of care and solidarity showing that we stand together and in community with refugees. The following are some ideas for how you can use the heart to build and show community where you are, but we would also love you to be creative and think of new and exciting ways to show 🧡 where you are.
Contents:
Developing your action plan:
The best actions are designed to get a specific reaction from their target or audience, show groups at their best and are inclusive in their design. To help you plan your action you can use our 'Personal Action Plan Template'.
To use the template simply click the button below and you can either print as is to fill in by hand, or click 'file' then 'make a copy' and you will have your own Googledoc that you can type into directly.
Community visibility and poster packs
Community visibility and poster packs
We have designed posters you can share and put up in your communities. Posters come in two colourways for you to print at home. Or you can order one of our free poster packs and we will send you a set of high-quality posters in a range of sizes you can display up and around your community. This is a great action for organisations and individuals to take, visiting local businesses and community spaces in your community and asking them to display the poster, as well as for people to display in their windows. Our hope is to see thousands of these on display in businesses, community venues and on streets across the country.
The Orange colour way (provided in poster packs and best for colour/ professional printing)
The White colour way (best for home printing - also printable in greyscale for black and white printers)
Click the buttons below to get your posters (while stocks last, poster packs take roughly one week to arrive)
Christmas cards and hosting an MP postbox
Christmas cards and hosting an MP postbox
This is a really simple way for groups or venues to creatively engage your MP or local decision makers to show community support for refugees and and ask for them to put pressure on the government. The idea is simple - make and send cards from your community to your MP.
You can even make a ‘Holiday Card Postbox’ and get people to write a Holiday card to their MP, saying why they stand with refugees this holiday and post it in the postbox.
If you have a local issue or want to invite the MP to meet with your group you could include a standard message you ask people to include alongside their own. It is important to ask people to include their full name and postcode when signing their cards so that the MP knows they are a constituent.
How to organise an MP Holiday Card Postbox:
Make and decorate a ‘postbox’ this can be as simple as decorating a cardboard box in orange hearts and placing a hole in the top or you can follow a tutorial like this one HERE.
Write up some instructions for people to follow to display with the postbox or download and display these ones HERE
Get or make some holiday cards that people can fill in and keep these with some pens near the postbox. If you make holiday cards, you might want to use the 🧡 as a theme.
Put the postbox in an area where people will easily see it and can get involved, we recommend that you use this as part of ongoing events/activities and encourage people to fill in and post a card. If appropriate get people to take a photo and tag their MP when they are writing their card and don't forget to tag us - @refugeestogether on instagram, @RefugeeTogether on X and @refugeestogether.bsky.social on Bluesky.
When you have a good number of cards in the postbox deliver them to the relevant MP or decision makers. We recommend that to have the most impact you should let your MP’s office know what you are doing and ask how they would best like to receive the cards. Your MP might even be happy for you to deliver them in person and meet to discuss why you have chosen to take this action. If the MP is not happy to receive them in person you can accompany these cards with a letter on behalf of your organisation or a formal invitation to meet. These could be delivered alongside some biscuits etc as a good will gesture to the MP’s constituency office. If you are unable to arrange a delivery you can find a postal address for your MP at https://members.parliament.uk/FindYourMP
Following threats to MPs, security at constituency offices can be high, so it is important to let them know that you are coming and ideally arrange a delivery in advance, some MPs will only accept post to their Westminster address.
Community baking : TWR Heart Biscuits
Community baking : TWR Heart Biscuits
Food is at the heart of every community. We have made our very own TWR iced heart shaped biscuit recipe for you to bake and share in your community. Ideas for how to use the biscuit recipe include:
Bake and share the heart biscuits as a community activity with your organisation or friends and share on social media, remembering to tag @refugeestogether on instagram, @RefugeeTogether on X and @refugeestogether.bsky.social on Bluesky
Give out heart-shaped biscuits as community acts of kindness as part of wider awareness-raising efforts, this could run alongside giving out posters for example.
Use biscuits as part of a stall at a community event - either giving them out as an act of kindness or as an activity where people could ice their own.
Invite your MP or local decision makers to join you as you bake, or deliver a pack of biscuits as a gift alongside an invitation to meet.
You will find a simple recipe card HERE or you can of course use your own.
Community Crafts: Using the TWR heart
Community Crafts: Using the TWR heart
Like food - craft activities are a great base to build conversations and community around, as well as making beautiful hearts that can be displayed and show support. There are lots of heart shaped crafts out there which you can turn orange! Crafts are great activities to do with children and adults, so can provide a very accessible activity. The following tutorials can be a good starting point, but Pinterest will also provide you with endless sources of inspiration at different skill levels. The below tutorials are all suitable for beginners and also double as holiday decorations, but can be made and displayed at any time of year.
Fabric Heart Decorations - Link HERE
Easy Macrame Heart Decorations - Link HERE
Paper Heart decorations - Link HERE
Heart Bunting Garland - Link HERE
Heart embroidery - Link HERE
Heart shaped Wreath - Link HERE
How to use 🧡 crafts:
Make and share the hearts as a community activity with your organisation or friends and share on social media, remembering to tag @refugeestogether on instagram, @RefugeeTogether on X and @refugeestogether.bsky.social on Bluesky
Use crafts to make a large community art display / visual representation of the heart showing support for refugees in your community.
Share what you have done (a workshop/community art piece) and why with local press to build even greater awareness in your community. You can find basic instructions for how to write a community event press release on our 'Getting press coverage' page.
Use simple crafts as part of a community stall as a way to engage people and build conversations around. E.g., colouring/decorating a simple heart.
Invite your MP or local decision makers to join you as you craft or deliver a heart-shaped decoration as a gift alongside an invitation to meet.
Resources For Faith Groups
Resources For Faith Groups
Faith groups play an important role in our communities and are well placed to build community support for refugees and tackle some of the myths and narratives that surround refugees and asylum seekers. We would recommend that faith organisations who want to take action as part of our ‘Communities together with refugees’ campaign both take advantage of the actions above, in particular hosting a postbox and encouraging members to write to their MP, alongside a focused faith-based moment.
We know this is often best done in tandem with a service/event where an explicit link is made between the practice of your faith, and offering support to refugees in our community. This might include a special service, a smaller group event, a devotional or prayer meeting or series of prompts or taking a special collection for a local refugee organisation.
At the holiday season we also know that many MPs will look to attend holiday services and events across a range of faith traditions, if invited. We would encourage faith leaders to consider whether they have upcoming activities such as a church carol service that they could invite MPs to, and how they could use this to talk about the importance of supporting migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in our community.
If you are a leader of a faith organisation and would like to engage your MP a member of our organising team would love to support you, if you are unsure who covers your region please contact our Lead Organiser lydia@campaign-organising-network.uk who will be able to advise you.
The following resources might be of interest for faith leaders looking for more detailed advice/support/guidance:
Resources for churches supporting refugees collated by the Church Urban Fund HERE
Churches Refugee Network HERE
Methodist church resources HERE
CAFOD resources HERE
Resources by betterstory for churches responding to the rise in Christian Nationalism can be found HERE
The Muslim Council Of Britain hosts a range of resources and case studies HERE
HIAS + JCORE are a Jewish organisation with a specific focus on supporting refugees and racial justice HERE
If you know of other resources we should add to this list please let us know and we will update as resources become known to us.
Managing risks when planning actions
Managing risks when planning actions
We know that there is heightened tension in our communities and that with the rise in far right activism and rhetoric people are understandably concerned about their safety and the safety of those attending actions and events. It is all of our work to look out for each other, and make sure our friends, neighbours and communities are able to live and join in with our work safely.
We have deliberately designed actions in such a way that there are actions that feel 'safer' for individuals who are concerned such as writing to your MP or joining in with community crafts, as well as more high profile actions and community events which involve the general public, or sharing online or with the press.
We recommend that all groups planning an event conduct a risk assessment, you can find more information on how to run a risk assessment HERE
Hope Not Hate also have some tips for how to manage your safety when campaigning against the far right which might be useful and can be found HERE
If you have any questions or would like to talk through how you can manage risk, and help keep each other safe a member of our organising team would love to talk this through with you. Simply reach out to your organiser or contact lydia@campaign-organising-netowrk.uk to be put in touch with your local contact.
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