A Ukrainian mother-of-two who fled Russia’s invasion has said her life was changed by a York church whose work to help refugees is set for a £35,000 mayoral funding boost.
Yuliia Kiriienko said she now felt settled, more confident and part of a community thanks to help from the York City Church’s support for refugees at The Citadel, in Gillygate.
She added she could not imagine life in York without their help as Mayor David Skaith visited The Citadel to mark the awarding of a grant to upgrade its facilities.
The Citadel is among those set for a share of funds from the York and North Yorkshire’s Community Buildings Programme.
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The project has been set up using UK Shared Prosperity Fund cash to improve facilities in the region which support people’s physical and mental wellbeing, community participation and volunteering.
More than 20 buildings have received money from the £600,000 set aside for the fund this financial year after the combined authority extended the programme into York.
York City Church hosts a Welcome Café in The Citadel which supports refugees including those from Syria, Afghanistan and Ukraine.
It provides them with a space to socialise and also helps with learning English, finding homes and learning skills to aid their efforts to find work.
The church also runs the Yahala Mataam pop-up restaurant and caterer which gives refugees the chance to cook and showcase cuisine from their home countries.
Money from the Community Buildings Fund is set to go towards refurbishing the space on The Citadel’s ground floor into a Wellbeing Hub to host support for refugees and others.
Ms Kiriienko, of Dnipro in eastern Ukraine, arrived in York in August 2022 after leaving her home city shortly after Russia’s invasion began in February.
She told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) during a visit to The Citadel on Wednesday, November 12, she first arrived in York in 2022 depressed and feeling vulnerable.
The 34-year-old said she was now training in accountancy and her husband had found work as a chef at a York café in part thanks to help from the church.
Ms Kiriienko said: “When the war started we had to leave, the Russians were firing lots of rockets onto our city, it was a stressful situation and I was pregnant at the time.
“After I arrived in York I went to a gathering of the Ukrainian community and that’s when I found out about the Welcome Café.
“I came and I met a lot of people who’d gone through the same pain.
“It was a big challenge but now I feel more settled and confident and I can speak English, I feel like I can build a future and give something back, I feel nothing like how I felt three years ago.”
Rob Ainsworth, of York City Church, told LDRS the £35,000 grant would help them move forward with their work to give confidence and restore dignity to refugees.
He said: “The funding will make a big impact on the welcome we’re able to give to people here.
“It will make the space more usable and address capacity issues so we can provide more room for people to feel at home when we’re running the café or putting on English lessons.”
Mr Skaith told LDRS the church’s efforts was the perfect example of the kind of work the fund sought to support.
The Labour mayor said: “York is a great city that welcomes people from all over the world, this building helps people who’ve come from incredibly challenging places.
“People can come here and access service that allow them to be a part of something.
“It’s great that this facility also supports mental health, often these services are out there but people either don’t know they are or there’s a stigma particularly amongst men about accessing them.”
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