Hi Helen,
From what you’ve outlined in your post, your community had adapted a real boots on ground approach to welcoming and supporting asylum seekers and refugees and it’s really impressive to hear how the national and international initiatives you reference dovetail seamlessly with what you are doing locally. The ‘Road to’ community project in particular sounds a much better approach than Direct provision from what you’ve outlined, integrating families from the get-go. This is so important and fosters togetherness rather than the inhibiting and often negative ‘Us and them’ mentality.