This page will post updates on the Welcome Mat’s journey across the UK to fulfil this Community Healing Justice Project
Doncaster
Feedback from an attendee of our Doncaster session. Migrant Action CEO Fidelis Chebe described how moving it was to see people freely and safely express themselves in the session
Rotheram
The Healing Justice Collaboration gathers pace as Migrant Action, working together with asylum seekers, refugees, migrants, local communities, regional and national partners, continue to co-create community spaces for dialogue, healing, understanding diversity but shared humanity, countering fear and hate and sharing love and kindness. The Healing Justice Collaboration recognise the importance for communities to process collective traumas of hate, fear and distrust whilst restoring trust, love, kindness and hope as part of collective healing and social justice.
Following a wonderful ‘hosting’ of the Welcome Mat by our amazing partners (The Cast Theatre and Changing Lives in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, the Mat has now been welcomed by our partners, The UNITY CENTRE, Rotherham where it will stay through out December. Huge thanks to David, Kate and all the amazing people of the UNITY CENTRE, doing great work to create a welcoming, compassionate and united community in Rotherham.
In Doncaster, the Welcome Mat provided further inspiration for collective healing and solidarity as people irrespective of their immigration status, gender, religion, race, class, gender, expressed their shared humanity through stories of trauma, love, hate, kindness, generosity, hope and dreams through arts, songs, conversations etc. We look forward, with enthusiasm and hope, to the people of Rotherham’s response to the ‘Mat’.
Migrant Action was delighted to welcome Jane and Summerly of The Launchpad Collective (TLC- The birthplace of the Welcome Mat) in Rotherham as part the Mat’s national tour in furtherance of our collective pursuit for community healing and Migration Justice.
‘Meeting Fidelis and David was incredibly galvanising. Together we explored what feeling
Welcome really means. There’s so much more we can do together in 2025, I feel hopeful and
excited being part of the Welcome Collective’ (Jane Lancashire- The Launchpad Initiative)
‘It’s an honour to host the mat and indeed its meaning in Rotherham, particularly considering our
recent history, and we are hoping to create a legacy around it. Through exploring what welcome
means in the local context we want to plant seeds, start conversations and then take them into
action. The ‘Mat’ shows us one way in which to achieve that – I’m excited to see what else
comes out too!’. (David Plumtree, Director of Services (Infrastructure) Voluntary Action
Rotherham)
