Most of us have experienced first-day nerves in a new job. We don’t know where anything is or who anyone is. If we’re lucky, we remember why we were offered the job in the first place, take confidence from the skills that got us through the door and use that confidence to build the relationships and the knowledge to succeed. If we’re lucky.

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Most of us have experienced the stress of moving home. It’s challenging enough to transport everything from one location to another, and the challenge doesn’t end there. We don’t know where anything is or who anyone is. If we’re lucky, we find ourselves among neighbours who can point us in the right direction. If we’re lucky.

 

Now take all of that anxiety and ramp it up through the roof. Put yourself in the position of a new arrival in an unfamiliar city, perhaps an unfamiliar country. Perhaps a place you were compelled to move to at short notice, leaving you no opportunity to learn the first thing about your new home. Just to make it even more difficult - we don’t want you getting complacent - let’s throw in a language barrier, asking you to navigate each day surrounded by people who don’t just speak an unfamiliar language but use a completely unfamiliar alphabet. Are you having fun yet?

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Swansea is a city of welcome, and since 2010 it’s been an official City of Sanctuary. There are a lot of honourable, supportive people here, ready to offer a warm welcome, and practical advice and support. New arrivals deserve to know who they are, what they offer and how to get in contact with them, so the People’s Library is launching an official Welcome Pack, to include such information as:

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• Letters of welcome from your local third sector organisations, including their contact details and avenues of support. We’re particularly grateful to Uzo Iwobi and Race Council Cymru for their support in this area.

• A letter of welcome from your Local Area Coordinator, who will signpost the local services, community centres and activities available to you from day one.

• A list of advisory services available to you free of charge, to help you navigate financial, accommodation and cultural issues as required.

• A list of community projects that you have the option of contributing to, enabling you to meet new friends, use existing skills, develop new ones and either make your leisure time more interesting or build a bridge towards employment. And if you have a set of skills you’d like to use or develop and don’t see any clear path towards using them, tell us and the People’s Library will devise a project enabling you to do it.

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We’re open to contributions to the Welcome Pack so please email us at hello@peopleslibrary.co.uk with any suggestions. Packs will be distributed free of charge by People's Library partners around Swansea and also downloadable from this website. Watch this space.