Everyone that hosts with us meets one of our home visitors – professionally experienced volunteers who assess hosts’ homes, answer questions, and provide ongoing support. They’re a vital part of what we do and a friendly in-person representative for Refugees at Home.

Claudia works as an Occupational Therapist and has been one of our valued home visitors since 2021. Here she talks about balancing the role with her job, having difficult conversations, and how our hosts inspire her.

“I really like the idea of hosting and admire people that do it, but I’m not able to at the moment. When I found out Refugees at Home were looking for home visitors, it seemed like a way that I could help with the time that I’ve got available and the skills I have.”

“Being a home visitor requires experience with things like safeguarding issues and working within the community, which I have from my job. I applied and was very pleased to be accepted!”

Although her role over the last few years has been rewarding, Claudia believes it’s important to be aware that not every experience has to be an upbeat one:

“It’s quite common for hosts to assume that all guests would be excited and happy to be there, but actually quite a few of the conversations I’ve had showed that although many guests are, they’d much rather be safe at home with their family. That was something that I hadn’t really thought about either until I went through the training and spent time talking to previous hosts.”

“The ones that I’ve met have been very gentle and very understanding of some of the less positive things that I might bring up. For instance, letting them know that their guest may have had traumatic experiences and not to ask questions about it, or what they’d do if their guest had night terrors. It’s tricky because you want to encourage people to host, and most do have good experiences, but you can’t claim that everything is going to be perfect and there’ll be no hiccups.”

Over the last three years of volunteering with us, Claudia’s developed a sense of common things to look out for:

“If there are multiple family members in the home and one person is obviously very keen and steering it, you might get a hint that another person is more hesitant, and I can’t ignore that because they’re also going to be part of this placement. For it to be a success, everyone needs to get on board.”

Despite these instances, Claudia has found that it’s rare for a host to be deemed unsuitable, and many are already passionately engaged in helping others:

“Most of the hosts have already done a lot of research before I visit, and many are already active volunteers – I’m always amazed by how much they do for other people. Some will be out cooking at a soup kitchen one evening and then the next day they’re hosting an event to support refugees’ English skills at the local mosque!”

“Our hosts are incredible people, and a lot of them don’t have loads of space in their homes but they’ve made room because it’s something they really want to do. I’m always impressed when I meet them.”

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