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This program is currently in on hold

York City of Sanctuary invites refugees and asylum seekers from Yorkshire and the Humber region to visit the beautiful and historic city of York on a day trip. Our York-based volunteers, including some York-based refugees, are really happy to be your guides and hosts for the day. Many attractions in the City of York are free, or are offering free entry to refugees and asylum seekers who visit the city on this programme. Our guests will be able to see a number of well-known (and less well-known places) on their visit, such as York Minster, National Railway Museum, York Art Gallery, York Castle Museum, as well as the Museum Gardens, the windows of Betty’s Tea Room with amazing displays of cakes and chocolate, the numerous Harry Potter shops in the Shambles as well as seasonal events such as St Nicholas Christmas Fair, the York Food Festival, the York Ice Trail and the annual Viking Festival. If your group consists of largely teenagers, we’ll also try to arrange something more active (sports match, sports facilities) with students from a school in York

If you can:

Give us 3 weeks notice so we can arrange a Saturday when you can come
Organise transport for anything up to 30 refugees/asylum seekers
Inform us of the name and details of an organizer

Then we can do some of the following (depending on budget/size of group):

  • Provide volunteers to host and guide you around the city to where you want to go (doesn’t matter if different people want to go to different places)
  • Provide you with a free sandwich lunch or somewhere for you to eat a packed lunch
  • Get somewhere near the city centre to rest your feet, get some privacy etc
  • Give a small amount of spending money to each of our visitors
  • Let you know about parking in the city
  • Make a contribution to your travel costs
  • Get you safely back on your bus