Holocaust Centre North launches new series of free community workshops to refugees
All faiths and none welcome from across west Yorkshire towns of Huddersfield and Kirklees in bid to extend solidarity to people feeling isolated
Holocaust Centre North is launching a new series of free to attend new monthly workshops for all communities in Huddersfield and Kirklees, with a spokesperson for the centre describing how it plans to “bring communities together and help people feel safe, welcomed and cared for”.
Inspired by its own archives, collections and its purpose of bringing together refugees and those who have been displaced – the Holocaust centre at the heart of Huddersfield university campus is reaching out to the wider community from all faiths to take part.
It hopes by inviting everyone through their doors, participants can experience unity, togetherness and a shared humanity through creative arts, storytelling and the exchanging of food and traditions.
The first in the series of workshops, entitled ‘Tell me again’, takes place on Thursday 25th September from 5pm.
Inspired by new beginnings – the start of the new school year, Rosh Hashanah and the changing of the seasons from summer to autumn, participants of all ages are invited to come along to taste seasonal foods while sharing their own customs and traditions.
This inaugural monthly workshop will be followed on Thursday October 30th from 5pm with a ‘Connect and Create’ workshop. Participants can create books inspired by how their lives are interwoven with others, across generations and communities, experiences and traditions.
Holocaust Centre North’s head of communities Elanor Stannage said: ‘It is very important to us as an organisation that we bring communities together and help people feel safe, welcomed and cared for. We were founded by Holocaust survivors and refugees who spoke of their deep sense of isolation when they arrived here in the UK and as it was through a creative heritage session that they began to share these stories together- we wish to continue this legacy and tradition.”
She added that the aim is “to extend the solidarity and care initially experienced and felt by our survivors to other people who may be feeling isolated, or who have just arrived in Huddersfield. These monthly workshops are an invitation to all – to share their voices along with our partners such as IASK (Immigration and Asylum Support Kirklees) and 6 Million +.”
The sessions are funded by Kirklees Council through the Government funding programme. Each workshop will centre around stories, objects or photographs from the Holocaust Centre North’s archives which share a refugee experience to inspire people to tell their own stories of loss and hope.
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