WILTSHIRE charities are joining forces to help hundreds of Ukrainian refugees who have arrived in the county.

Wessex Community Action has launched a Wiltshire Voluntary Sector Emergency Partnership to offer information and training for volunteers working in refugee community hubs springing up as the Homes For Ukraine scheme gathers pace. Wiltshire Council says 288 households have hosted refugees under the scheme so far.

Hubs in Chippenham, Devizes, Melksham and Salisbury give host families and refugees fleeing the war somewhere to meet and swap experiences and information and WCA chief executive Amber Skyring wants to bring all the hubs together as a network so they can share what help they are providing and learn from each other.

The partnership includes Wiltshire Community Foundation, Alabare, Spurgeons, Citizens Advice, Barnardo’s, Wiltshire Victim Support, Rethink and Wiltshire Sport.

“We are getting response ready and believe by working together we are stronger and able to co-ordinate our services more effectively in light of the numbers of refugees coming in,” she said.

“We are seeing the enormous goodwill and energy emerging from the community hubs via the churches, rotary clubs and other many other community organisations working together on the ground. We want to bring them together to network in such a way that we can also start to recognise and understand what needs and issues might be emerging from the work they are doing.”

WCA has set up a campaign page on the online community network Wiltshire Together so hubs can share what help they are offering. “We have also created a resource page with links to information and helpful documents so it is a regular way of getting information out to organisations working with refugees,” she said.

“We are trying to understand what the potential needs might be so that we are ready to respond because we are dealing with families and young children who have been through extraordinarily tough times so we need to be absolutely prepared.”

Wiltshire Council is aware of the numbers of Ukrainian women and children being matched with host families across the county through the Homes For Ukraine scheme but there are other families arriving through separate arrangements with other organisations who have links with Poland, Moldova and other countries bordering Ukraine.

One of the largest hubs is at Salisbury Methodist Church where organiser Jane Ebel has started a weekly drop-in. “It’s a chance to talk to the mums and a to the host families and swap notes and the Ukrainians can talk in their own language,” she said.

“The church has given us an office so we have volunteers there every morning staffing a phone line for host families and working out what the issues are because they are coming to the surface now.”

She said one refugee wanted to go to confession but needed a priest who speaks Ukrainian. “It’s not the language problem we were expecting,” said Mrs Ebel. “However, it’s the kind of issues we can share with the other hubs. We are going to be teaching English and Ukrainian.”

The partnership has organised an online meeting for refugee hubs on May 17. “We want to create a space for them to hear what each other is doing and also share good practice,” said Amber.

“We are looking to run some safeguarding training for volunteers working within the hubs and we may be looking at training support for host families.”

WCA is a part of the national Voluntary Community Sector Community Partnership which receives the latest information from charities working in Ukraine and surrounding countries. All this information and advice is being posted on the Wiltshire Together’s Supporting Refugees page. Find out more about the hubs meeting and register at wiltshiretogether.org.uk/campaign/supporting-wiltshires-refugees.