Welcome
There are various reasons for making a place your home – some you choose, some that are forced on you. A city or town of sanctuary welcomes all for the duration of their stay and tries to ensure that they feel safe, accepted and valued.
Few of us know much about our ancestors generations back. Did they move from where they were born? Were they welcomed when they moved? Or did they have to earn acceptance? Nevertheless, we probably now consider ourselves to be insiders; our challenge is how we treat those who are not.
This website shows what the town of sanctuary’s steering group has done so far, with the help of many kindred spirits. Join us
Hope Happens Here – A Million Acts of Hope Campaign 2026
Send your messages of hope to info@cityofsanctuary.org
What we are doing
Diss Town of Sanctuary is supporting the Million Acts of Hope campaign (https://millionactsofhope.org). This involves over 100 national charities including Amnesty, City of Sanctuary UK, Good Law Project, Liberty and Together with Refugees; also faith organisations including Baptists Together, Churches Together England, Christian Aid, Methodists, The United Reform Church, the Quakers and the YMCA.
Our short-term aim is to counter the narrative of anger, hate and division bropught to our streets by the far right. So we are joining Norwich City of Sanctuary in the national week of action 13-20 May. (That coincides with Yaxley-Lennon’s so-called Unite the Kingdom march in central London on 16 May.) Our campaign will continue across the year, including June’s Refugee Week.
Our campaign’s main aims are on the Hope Happens Here orange heart card. We are fully supporting Norwich’s work with these by collecting people’s experiences and recollections of what modern Britain is really like for most of us – hopeful, inclusive, diverse and supportive. Yes, there are many deep flaws and flawed participants, but we won’t solve all this by just blaming others. We are better together. The experiences and recollections we want to capture on these cards can be small acts of kindness and welcome. They can also be inspiring acts of courage, community action. We can think for example of the regular social and community events taking place every week here in Diss among its wider community and faith groups, and contributions to our community on an individual basis.
What we are asking you to do?
Please jot down a brief note of the positives you have seen, been part of or just know of in the recent past and the coming weeks. Just pass these on to us by email and we will transcribe each one on to an Orange Heart card so that they can be used in the planned events during the week of action. You can also use the QR code on the cards. Norwich will be displaying them in the Forum and images are likely to be projected onto prominent buildings. We would like to do similar here in Diss.
You can pass on your notes for transcription by email to info@diss.cityofsanctuary.org. If you would like any hard copies of the card please ask. As ever if you no longer want to receive information from us please tell us and we will remove you from the mailing list
What we intend to do
We will continue to build our record of Hope Happens Here. We will seek to display the cards here in Diss, share them with Norwich City of Sanctuary and carry on this work into June’s refugee week and beyond. Many thanks.
