The Real Resettlement Project
Our resettlement project focuses on building a positive experience of integration for refugees arriving in the UK who are resettled from Egypt and originally from Syria, Yemen,Sudan, Eritrea, South Sudan and Ethiopia.
We do this through:
Training community mentors with lived experience in the UK: Our community mentors in the UK all speak the same language as new arrivals and have lived experience of settling in the UK. We train them extensively with our partners Voices in Refuge, to be mentors for people who are being resettled and to offer trauma-informed mentoring and guidance and community-led support. We aim for the training to also build the skills of our mentors to offer and support them with future opportunities in the UK.
One of our mentors stated this year:
'I have supported many people in my community over the years but not professionally. This training has cemented my knowledge and provided detailed information that will be beneficial for the people I mentor but also for myself and my future career'
Phone support to families before they come to the UK: Our trained Community mentors will provide pre-resettlement advice and support on education, culture in the UK, employment and provide psychosocial emotional support to families and individuals preparing to come to the UK. We work with our partner in Egypt, St Andrews Refugee Services (who provide legal, psychosocial and education support to refugees) to receive referrals and provide accurate support per- departure.
Continued support to refugees once they arrive in the UK: Through our community mentors and community networks, when individuals and families arrive in the UK, our mentors will provide trauma-informed advice and support to those on arrival, alongside statutory services, linking them with community centres and signposting to relevant agencies in their areas that can support housing, welfare or health as well as with activities to support the psychosocial well-being for the whole family.
WHAT HAVE WE ACHIEVED SO FAR?:
In 2022 we piloted the project and our project coordinators Wafa and Abuzar have lead the project in achieving the following:
Trained 9 community mentors who are working with individual mentees and their families in Cairo.
We completed 12 hours of training sessions with our community mentors in safeguarding, trauma- informed psychosocial support, family reunion and rights in the UK, UK welfare and health system and interpretation skills.
Worked with 36 refugee individuals and families who have been referred to our project so far and received bi-monthly calls from our community mentors.
WHAT’S NEXT?
After a successful first year of our Real Resettlement project we now aim to continue for 2023 but we urgently need further funds to continue. To do this we need to ensure our wonderful coordinators - Wafa and Abuzar can continue to be paid for their good work and also operational funds to cover phone call costs between the UK and Cairo.
Any donation is helpful, from £1, £2 or £10 or more so please support us through our donations page!
See here for more information on our Remote Legal Clinic project