A Home for Winter

A Home For Winter was born out of our collective knowledge of large scale outdoor event production and sustainable architecture combined with a desire to create positive change for the many displaced people living in the refugee and migrant camp on the outskirts of Calais.

Local Calais charity, L’auberge des Migrants approached us in September 2015 and continue to work with us today, along with Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders), in a collaborative programme to provide robust, warm and secure shelters for people who are in desperate need of them. We are funded entirely by charitable donations and supported by a team of amazing volunteers who give their time and energy to make this idea a reality.

Our project is growing rapidly and the next phase for A Home For Winter of our operations will see us working in collaboration with local and international organisations to house around 3000 displaced people in Calais, and also to initiate shelter programmes in other areas of Europe. 

A Home For Winter creates shelters for people who have been displaced by conflict, poverty and natural disasters. We provide warm, dry, secure shelters that restore basic human dignity and enable people to begin rebuilding their lives. To do this we work with regional partner organisations across Europe to provide an early response in areas where there would otherwise be little or no other assistance.

The majority of displaced people currently entering Europe have been forced to abandon their homes in fear for their lives. They, like all of us, simply hope to have some kind of future. Most have endured tremendous hardship and are now living in appalling conditions. If the dice had fallen differently this could have been us - we feel compelled to do whatever we can to help them.

A Home For Winter's  current shelter provision programme in Calais aims to create 600 shelters to house circa 3000 people in the camp, in collaboration with L'auberge des Migrants and Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders). We plan to accomplish this through providing a combination of pre-fabricated shelters built in our workshop and assembled by teams on-site, and additionally by providing pre-fabricated components and the necessary tools for assembly to members of migrant communities so that they complete the shelters using their own labour. 

To facilitate these objectives we are currently...

• Raising funds to resource shelter provision programmes
• Fabricating shelters for the camp in Calais
• Managing the on-going workshop operation
• Procuring materials and tools
• Finding and organising volunteers
• Liaising and coordinating activities other organisations involved in providing support to refugees and migrants

We couldn't do what we do without your involvement and support. We will always strive to show you the impact that your support is making to real people, because we believe that it's vitally important that everyone understand that their actions, no matter how seemingly small or inconsequential, can make a difference.