Refugee Resource

What Refugee Resource does

Refugee Resource is a registered charity (charity number 1098876, company number 4558542) founded in 2000 and headquartered at The Old Music Hall, 106–108 Cowley Road, Oxford, delivering psychosocial support services across Oxfordshire. Its mission is to relieve mental and emotional distress among refugees, asylum seekers and vulnerable migrants, enabling them to build meaningful lives as part of the wider community. The organisation employs nine counsellors and supported 338 clients in the past year across counselling and psychotherapy, a one-to-one mentoring programme (up to 12 months, for clients aged 13+), a Women's Group, and a Healing in the Outdoors social inclusion programme. It also runs clinical supervision and Master's Level training for frontline professionals, co-developed and accredited with Oxford Brookes University.

The organisation operates a hybrid charity / social enterprise revenue model. Core client-facing services (counselling, mentoring, social inclusion) are provided free of charge, funded by grants from Comic Relief, the UK Government, Oxfordshire County Council, Oxford City Council, the Oxford Community Foundation, Pye Charitable Settlement, AB Charitable Trust, Garfield Weston Foundation and others, supplemented by individual donations through website giving and campaigns such as Big Give Christmas. Earned income comes from fee-based training and clinical supervision: £85 per hour for clinical supervision, and £600 for a half-day or £900 for a full-day team training session for up to 15 trainees. Go-to-market is community-led: referrals from partner agencies such as Asylum Welcome and NHS, word-of-mouth from existing clients, and awareness-raising through Refugee Week campaigns, Instagram content, and BBC Oxfordshire and BBC South Today coverage during Refugee Week 2025.

The organisation has no proprietary technology platform and does not deliver services through an app or software product; service delivery is direct, in-person at the Oxford office and community venues, with virtual and telephone counselling as adjunct channels. Demand has grown materially — 37% in the past year and 40% over three years, driven by rising global displacement — while the CEO has publicly noted that funding has declined over the same period, creating a structural gap between need and resourcing that the training and consultancy revenue stream is partially designed to bridge.

Name

Refugee Resource

Legal name

Refugee Resource

Website

https://refugeeresource.org.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

2000

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Refugee Resource is a 25-year-old Oxfordshire-based charity providing free counselling, mentoring and social inclusion services to refugees, asylum seekers and vulnerable migrants, supplemented by fee-based training and clinical supervision for frontline professionals.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Refugee and Migrant Support Services

NAICS

Other Individual and Family Services (624190), Emergency and Other Relief Services (624230), Voluntary Health Organizations (813212)

SIC

Services-Social Services (8300)

akta.pro primary industry

Refugee & Immigrant Support Services (BPAGAEAI)

akta.pro secondary industry

Integration & Inclusion Services (Housing, Education, Employment) (BPADAHAI)

Keywords

• Refugee mental health
• Trauma counselling
• Asylum support
• Migrant welfare services
• Psychosocial support

Headquarters

HQ city

Oxford

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Others

Revenue model

1. Grant Funding: Charitable grants from trusts, foundations, and government bodies including Comic Relief, UK government, Oxfordshire County Council, and Oxford City Council
2. Individual Donations: Direct donations from individuals via website and fundraising campaigns including Big Give Christmas Campaign
3. Training and Consultancy Services: Fee-for-service training programmes for professionals working with refugees, including individual training, group training, and clinical supervision

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Refugee Resource delivers free counselling, psychotherapy, one-to-one mentoring, and social inclusion programmes (including a Women's Group and Healing in the Outdoors) to refugees, asylum seekers, and vulnerable migrants in Oxfordshire. The charity also generates revenue through fee-for-service clinical supervision and Master's-level training for frontline professionals working with displaced populations.

Product overview

Refugee Resource is a charitable organization offering a suite of psychosocial support services for refugees, asylum seekers, and vulnerable migrants in Oxfordshire. The core offerings include counselling and psychotherapy, a mentoring programme, a women's group, and training services for professionals working with displaced populations. The organization does not operate a technology product platform; rather, it provides direct service delivery through trained staff and volunteers.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Counselling and Psychotherapy Free counselling and psychotherapy for refugees, asylum seekers, and vulnerable migrants in Oxfordshire experiencing mental or emotional distress. Services are delivered one-to-one for individuals, couples, and families by nine trained counsellors, with interpreters available where needed.
• Mentoring Programme

Quantifiable outcome

• 338 clients helped in the past year with counselling, mentoring and social inclusion
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers7 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Asylum WelcomecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerKey referral partner that directs clients to Refugee Resource services. One client (Lubna) was specifically referred to the Women's Group through Asylum Welcome.
• Oxford Brookes UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership for Master's Level training programme. Training was designed by Refugee Resource and accredited by Oxford Brookes University, delivered in partnership with the university.
• MeThree StudiominorStrategic or Co-development PartnerAnimated P's story (client story) for awareness and fundraising purposes.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Emerging players

• Migrant Help: UK-wide charity delivering the Advice, Issue Reporting and Eligibility (AIRE) contract and Migrant Victim Support, including wellbeing services for asylum seekers. Comparable client base but a national government-contract model rather than a community-led therapy practice.

Direct peers

• Helen Bamber Foundation: UK charity delivering specialist trauma-informed therapy, medical consultation and welfare support to asylum seekers and refugees, closely mirroring Refugee Resource's counselling and psychosocial model. Both organisations focus on complex-trauma survivors among displaced populations, making them direct clinical peers.
• Asylum Welcome: Oxford-based charity offering support to asylum seekers, refugees and vulnerable migrants, including counselling and integration services. Explicitly named as a key referral partner to Refugee Resource, indicating highly overlapping client base and service offering in the same geographic market.

Broad incumbents

• Refugee Action: Long-established national charity supporting refugees and asylum seekers with casework, integration and employment. Comparable mission to Refugee Resource but with a multi-city footprint and broader remit, making it a broad incumbent rather than direct competitor.
• Refugee Council: The UK's largest refugee-support charity, providing advice, advocacy and casework across the full asylum journey. While considerably broader in scope than Refugee Resource, it overlaps on integration and wellbeing support and is a comparable national voice in the sector.
• British Red Cross: National humanitarian organisation running refugee support, family reunion and destitution programmes across the UK. Operates in a much wider portfolio but offers overlapping psychosocial and integration services, including in the Oxfordshire region.

Others

• Mind (Oxfordshire): Local Mind federation branch providing community mental health services in Oxfordshire, including counselling. An adjacent mental-health provider rather than a refugee specialist, but overlaps on therapy delivery and clinical-supervision training for the same regional professional audience.
• City of Sanctuary: UK-wide movement of local groups supporting people seeking sanctuary, of which Oxfordshire's 'Local Authority of Sanctuary' status is a prominent example. Complementary rather than competitive: it provides the umbrella under which organisations like Refugee Resource operate.

Regional players

• Voices in Exile: Brighton-based charity providing casework, therapy and social-inclusion support to asylum seekers, refugees and migrants in Sussex. Closely matches Refugee Resource's community-led, psychosocial support model but serves a different English region.
• Scottish Refugee Council: Scotland's lead refugee-support body offering holistic services including therapy, advice and integration support. Highly comparable mission and service mix to Refugee Resource but geographically focused on Scotland rather than Oxfordshire.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Instagraminstagram.com/refugeeresource
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/refugee-resource

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Refugee Resource