HostNation

People and communities | LGBT | Race and ethnicity | Refugees | Women

Organisation aims / mission / values

  • Impact: To improve the lived experience of refugees in Greater London
. By providing an effective mechanism that connects Londoners with friendship to give to socially isolated asylum seekers and refugees in need of a local friend.
  • Key outcomes: To reduce their social isolation / To increase their participation in London life / To improve their spoken English
.
  • By bringing Londoners and refugees together in local communities through many small acts of kindness, hospitality, involvement and companionship.
  • By accelerating meaningful social contact and rewarding inter-cultural relationships that generate wellbeing, social capital and enable integration amongst refugees and asylum seekers in London.
Volunteer to befriend a refugee

Volunteer to befriend a refugee

How we deliver these aims

We are an online refugee befriending service. We scale up and accelerate social befriending opportunities in Greater London by using technology to connect and introduce people face-to-face in their local communities. We match referred refugees to local, screened befrienders to facilitate new, inter-cultural friendships, tackle chronic loneliness and promote integration. HostNation is also about local Londoners bringing about change in their communities. We offer a digital means of connecting those offering friendship, with refugees needing it, in our communities. We are fundamentally a digital introductory platform promoting meaningful social contact between resident communities and refugee communities who would otherwise live unconnected, parallel lives.

Who benefits from our work

The social need we address is loneliness and social exclusion amongst asylum seekers, refugees and migrants in London. Often they know no one outside officialdom and their own ethnic communities. Meaningful social contact with Londoners is rare and needs to be facilitated. We also believe in refugees having greater personal agency and through local befriending to help them become active participants in the community rather than simply the recipients of services. We also provide opportunities for working Londoners to volunteer and create rewarding intercultural relationships with people they would never otherwise meet.

Volunteer roles

See all our volunteering roles
We believe every refugee deserves a friend

Befriend a refugee through HostNation

HostNation

Impact: To improve the lived experience of refugees in Greater London


By providing an effective mechanism that connects Londoners with friendship to give to socially isolated asylum seekers and refugees in need of a local friend


Location: Hammersmith & Fulham Type: Individuals