Student team: Amruta Supate, Claire Henery, Kasia Bruzda, Ivana Monson, and Madison Cilluffo
University: Royal College of Art
Country: UK

This project aims to better connect U.K. services to the Ukrainian refugee community and ultimately define a system that could be scaled to all refugees. A team of five codesigned a service concept entitled Context, a browser extension which helps newly arrived families find information in culturally relevant terms. Context was co-designed, developed and validated with members of the Ukrainian refugee community.

The forced displacement of people is one of the defining global challenges of the 21st Century. At the end of 2021, 89.3 million people were displaced, including 27 million refugees. Of the worldwide refugee population the United Kingdom hosts only 1%.

Our group spoke to over 20 organisations to understand the problems newly arrived refugees face. We learned that refugees often have difficulty accessing reliable information, making them vulnerable and reliant on their first point of contact. This contact is often a British host who, while well-meaning and compassionate, may not have the expertise or training to help them.

Our mission became to create a refugee-led service platform which enables community members to share lived experiences, easing the challenges of resettlement. The Context extension crowdsources culturally interpreted content and overlays that content onto existing websites. As users navigate across the internet looking for resources and information, the browser extension is working in the background to pool relevant videos and commentary into their feeds. Allowing a community of individuals and organisations to provide insights and tips based on their life experiences.

This fills a gap in support that is sorely needed; distilling often complicated and overwhelming information, and/or offering workarounds via unofficial channels. Furthermore users can give feedback and flag content, continually improving a repository of culturally informed advice.

Context has a three-way value exchange between stakeholders. Mission-obsessed volunteers and the expert advice organisations work together in the back end to cross verify their contributions and help refugees or asylum seekers on the front end.

Our vision is a UK with safe and legal routes for all refugees, where individuals can access trusted information about their rights, navigating complex new services and cultures with dignity and agency.

We began by developing a platform for Ukrainian refugees, but have plans to expand it to support all new arrivals. We believe the model is flexible enough to be adapted to other communities, and are excited to see how it can be used to help more people.