James Conway SJ

During my regency, which lasted three years, I worked with another socially excluded group in the north-east of England - forced migrants and those claiming asylum in the UK - who had been dispersed to various cities and towns in England and Scotland.

I lived with a community of Jesuits and religious sisters, each of whom worked with local initiatives in the neighbourhood.  Alongside this work, I followed a degree course in 'Community & Youth Work' which allowed me to understand and apply theory to the practical experience that I had, over the years, gathered.

I did my theology studies in Paris and during this time worked with a voluntary group called Aux Captifs, la Liberation (Freedom to Captives) who work with the homeless and with prostitutes.  This gave me an insight into other European systems and to work with groups which, whilst different, struggle to cope with the same realities of exclusion as we do in Britain.