SAMAS Community Events | Art Workshops, Football, Music & Cooking
Art Without Borders
At SAMAS, we believe that when communities come together through creative projects, everyone benefits, locals, artists, and the men arriving in Crowborough alike.
We run regular art workshops in Crowborough, both on-site at the army camp and across the wider community. These sessions are designed to support integration, wellbeing, and belonging, using art as a practical, welcoming way to meet others and build confidence.
Creative collaboration with local and international artists
We’re proud to be supported by a brilliant mix of local artists: some professional practitioners, others passionate community creatives, alongside visiting international artists. Together, they collaborate with local people and asylum seekers to produce work that is thoughtful, bold, and genuinely meaningful.
These partnerships create space for:
- shared storytelling and cultural exchange
- confidence-building through creativity
- friendships that grow beyond the workshop
- skills development and positive routine
Exhibitions that open conversations
The artwork made through these collaborations will be exhibited in local galleries, creating a public space for dialogue between the people who made the work and those who come to experience it. It’s a chance for locals, asylum seekers, and artists to be seen and heard, and for Crowborough to engage with the reality, humanity, and creativity of the people in our community.
Music Workshops
Music moves us. It can lift your spirits, calm your mind, fill a room with joy, and bring people together fast. At SAMAS, we believe music is a powerful way to build connection, so our music workshops and community events in Crowborough are designed to help people meet, share, and belong.
We run regular music sessions that welcome local community members (from total beginners to seasoned musicians), alongside international artists and the men arriving in Crowborough. Together, we play, experiment, and explore. The result is sometimes brilliant, sometimes wonderfully chaotic, and always full of laughter. because music isn’t about perfection. It’s about participation, connection, and making something together.
A space to share talent and build confidence
Many of the men who arrive are accomplished musicians in their own right. These workshops create a space where talent is recognised, shared, and celebrated. When words aren’t enough, music fills the gap, and there’s plenty of talking, learning, and friendship forming along the way, too.
Live musical events and cultural exchange
Beyond the workshops, we host a range of live music events in Crowborough, from classical to contemporary. These events give local residents and people seeking asylum the chance to experience and share the music they love, a genuine cultural exchange that encourages friendship, fun, and (yes) dancing.
Food as an Universal Language
Travel anywhere in the world, and one of the first things you notice is food. Ingredients, flavours, and spices tell the story of a place and its people, and they have a rare power to bring those people together.
At SAMAS, cooking is about much more than a meal. Our cooking workshops and community food events in Crowborough use food as a way to build confidence, share culture, and create a real connection between local residents and the men arriving in the area.
Learning to Cook on a Budget
For many of the men arriving in Crowborough, navigating an unfamiliar food culture on a very limited budget can be genuinely difficult, especially when you’re learning new shops, new prices, and new ingredients all at once.
That’s why we run practical, budget-friendly cooking classes, helping participants plan affordable meals for the week ahead, learn simple and nutritious recipes using accessible ingredients, and build independence and confidence in everyday life. These are skills they can take with them long after they leave.
A Taste of Home
We all know that feeling: being far from home and craving something small but familiar: fresh milk, a favourite snack, or a dish you grew up with. Food holds memory, comfort, and identity all at once.
That’s why we invite the men to cook for us, too. We source the ingredients, the spices, herbs, and harder-to-find staples, and they bring the expertise, stories, and authenticity. The result is the best kind of table: full of flavour, full of laughter, and full of people discovering one another.
Where Myths Dissolve
Our cultural culinary events are open to the whole community. Locals are invited to sit down, share a meal, and talk. Because when you share food, barriers fall, assumptions soften, and a stranger becomes simply a person with a sense of humour and a recipe you’ll think about for days.
We often pair meals with music from our guests’ home countries (and a bit of ours too), adding another layer to the cultural exchange and, if we’re lucky, a little spontaneous dancing.
These events are extremely popular, and it’s easy to see why. Friendship forms naturally around a shared table. Community grows. And we’re reminded, again and again, that inclusion makes us stronger.
If you’re hungry for a new cultural experience, come along, and leave with new friends.
The Common Language of Sport
George Best. Pelé. Jessica Ennis-Hill. Cristiano Ronaldo. Dina Asher-Smith. Jonah Lomu. Mo Farah. Chloe Kelly. Gareth Edwards.
Different countries, different disciplines, different generations, but all united by one thing: sport. It has always been one of humanity’s great levellers, and at SAMAS, we’re using it exactly that way.
Playing Together
We provide opportunities for the men at the camp to take part in a wide variety of sports, from running and football to volleyball and tag rugby. When some of the men at Napier Barracks took to the cricket pitch, it quickly became clear that many had played competitively since childhood. The talent was genuinely impressive.
Sport is good for the body, good for the mind, and good for the soul. It lifts mood, builds routine, and creates the kind of easy, natural camaraderie that can take months to build in any other setting.
We encourage local community members to join in too, because there is no faster way to break down barriers than being on the same team, chasing the same goal.
Proper Pitches, Real Goalposts
The ground near the camp has its charms, but let’s be honest: uneven, waterlogged terrain and jumpers for goalposts only goes so far. We take the men to proper, level pitches so everyone gets a genuine chance to play, compete, and enjoy the game as it’s meant to be played.
More Than a Game
For men who are waiting, sometimes for a very long time, on the outcome of the asylum process, boredom can be a very real challenge. A structured sports programme gives them something energetic, purposeful, and fun to look forward to. It builds fitness, friendship, and a sense of belonging.
Because sport, like music and food, is a language everyone speaks, and nobody needs a translator when the ball is in the air.