Three invitations
This month, in the run up to Refugee Week 2025, we celebrate being awarded a small grant from the Paul Hamlyn Ideas and Pioneers Fund. Against a backdrop of continued hostility towards migrants, and the increasingly urgent need for alternative narratives, this funding will not only give us the space to articulate how and where we think we can add value in the emergent climate-migration space, but also the opportunity to craft three core invitations to our community.
As facilitators, strategists and communicators, we aren’t technical policy specialists nor are we experts by experience. When we paused to think about what is ours to do within this complex ecosystem, our role as peers, sense-making, network weaving and catalysing collaborations, made most sense to us as a way to build in this field.
So we are now working on three offerings:
Peer learning Climate-linked migration is a complex and nuanced topic; migration as a form of adaptation to climate change is already happening and it's set to significantly shape how we live in the decades ahead. Anticipating, preparing for and welcoming people displaced or choosing to move due to climate change is a whole of society challenge and a core part of a just transition to a green and fair economy. It’s definitely not just for people working in the climate or migration sectors! And yet, it can be tricky to understand or talk about in ways that centre justice. We are exploring interest in creating a short peer learning series where we’ll come together to discuss the issues and learn together, creating connections and finding entry points into this space. We’d really like to hear from you on this - what type of learning spaces you’d like to join, what you’d like to explore, and what you’d hope to get out of it. If you’d like to help us think this through, have ideas, or simply to join our pilot cohort waitlist, contact Julia. Our learning work will be funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, so there is no financial cost to participating.
Storytelling One of the reasons for starting this project was to amplify the voices of people with lived experience of climate-linked migration, creating a platform for people to tell their stories and share their insights. We see this as a way to bring a more human lens - and agency - to huge, existential questions that can feel overwhelming. Whilst members of our collaborative bring lived experience of different dimensions of these intersectional injustices, we know that storytelling specifically around climate-linked migration will be a powerful tool to build understanding and catalyse action. Mindful to centre dignity, care and trauma-informed approaches in our work, we’re now exploring the idea of curating an anthology of stories offering insights and entry points to people learning about the issues whilst centring the voices of directly impacted folk. As we start to develop the concept, we’re seeking partners to travel alongside - please reach out if you work with people directly impacted by different dimensions of climate change and migration and would be interested to talk. And, if you recognise climate change as a dimension to your own migration story, and you’d like to explore sharing it with others, do get in touch. Olivia is leading for the collaborative on this strand of work - get in touch Olivia here.
Organising framework Systems mapping work was one of the starting points for this project. Following a real-time collaboration on the map through a convening in January, this has now evolved into a co-created organising framework. We’re progressing this framework with the aim of publishing it later this year after further rounds of testing with friends and partners. We see this framework as an offering to the wider field as we identify and spotlight leverage points in the system where we can start to demonstrate models and practices across diverse domains that anticipate, prepare for and welcome people who migrate due to climate change. If you would be interested to join a small group offering diverse individual and organisational perspectives on how our framing lands with you, and how you could imagine using the framework to activate others, contact Julia. The total time commitment would be no more than 1-2 hours.
Whilst more detailed invitations to engage in these projects will follow, do drop us a line if you are interested to play a part in any of these projects. The theme of Refugee Week is “Community As A Superpower” which feels very resonant to us - our core organising circle is small and we can’t do it alone, we hope that you - our community - will come along with us!
As we build these projects, we’ll also continue to learn out loud. We think that sharing what we know, what we don’t know, and what is emerging is a meaningful way to show that you don’t have to be an expert to learn together, to express solidarity, take action, spotlight injustices, and come together to find new ways of being in community, locally and globally.