On Monday 29th June, we gathered at the Houses of Parliament to mark the start of the next chapter for Action Asylum, surrounded by the people who built it.

Portcullis House was packed and buzzing. Volunteers, Ambassadors, Project Leads, Wildlife Trust and refugee-sector partners, MPs and peers, journalists and funders, all in one room. Action Asylum is about bringing people together through volunteering in nature, uniting the refugee and environmental sectors, and changing the story told about people seeking asylum. For a morning, the people behind all of that were side by side, talking, swapping stories, and finding common ground.

We were joined by MPs and their offices connected to several of our project cities, including Coventry, Liverpool, Portsmouth, Leeds and Wakefield. We were glad, too, to welcome colleagues from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s Community Cohesion Unit.

Project Director Emma Leaper opened the morning and shared why this work matters now more than ever. “Division doesn’t heal itself. It heals through contact, connection and community building, through shared purpose.” She announced the next chapter too: with support from The National Lottery Community Fund’s Climate Action Fund, Action Asylum is expanding to ten cities, welcoming our new partners in Sheffield, Bolton and Newcastle, who were all in the room with us.

Then we heard from volunteers and staff with lived experience. Ahmed, who joined Action Asylum as a volunteer in Leeds and is now a Project Lead, spoke about his journey from the limbo of waiting for a decision, to leading and helping others through the project. Laté, one of our ambassadors, brought the room to life with a traditional song of welcome from his home country, before speaking with warmth and humour about how the project gave him purpose, and how he has watched bare ground become woodland over the years he has volunteered.

And Jane, our Lead Ambassador, spoke about what tree planting really means:

“When you plant a tree, it doesn’t matter who you are or where you came from. We don’t just plant trees. We plant belonging, and we plant purpose.”

Hearing these stories first-hand was a highlight of the morning.

We were proud to hear from our partners too. Dawn O’Malley spoke for the Wildlife Trusts about creating real pathways into the environmental sector, and Jenni Regan, CEO of our communications partner IMIX, spoke about how stories like these challenge the idea of people seeking asylum as a burden, and show what they contribute when given the chance.

Lord Randall of Uxbridge, our Chair, closed the morning, paying tribute to the project’s founder Anthony Steen CBE and calling on the room to help take Action Asylum further.

None of this happens alone. Thank you to our volunteers and ambassadors, who are the reason any of us were there, and to our project leads and national team. To the Wildlife Trusts and local green partners, to Asylum Link Merseyside and all our refugee-sector partners, to IMIX, and to the University of Nottingham for their independent evaluation of our work. To Task Force Trust and Lord Randall of Uxbridge. And to National Lottery players, whose support through The National Lottery Community Fund makes this next chapter possible. We were glad, too, to welcome friends from across government and the environmental and refugee sectors, who came to stand with us.

Reflecting afterwards, Emma said:

“Yesterday wasn’t just the launch of a project, it felt like the beginning of a movement. We celebrated everything we’ve achieved together, heard powerful contributions from across our partnership, and shared our vision for the future with politicians, partners and supporters from both the refugee and environmental sectors. We left feeling inspired, united and more determined than ever to grow this movement together. Thank you to everyone who travelled to be with us and make this such a memorable day.”