Local Support Available for Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Huntingdonshire

Email: residentadvice@huntingdonshire.gov.uk

• Resident Advisors are part of HDC's Community Team; responsible for providing identified people in the community with the help, support and guidance needed to prevent avoidable/crisis situations

• RAIT provides general support for families with refugee status

• Communicates with those needing help by phone, email and letter

• Works with both internal and external agencies and organisations to signpost and refer people to the most appropriate forms of help.

Visit DISH website

Email: lucille@dish.org.uk

• DISH is a small charity offering information, support and benefit advice for people with disabilities (clients) living in Huntingdonshire and South Cambs

• Currently the only local organisation of its kind in the area that helps clients in their own homes

• Many DISH staff and volunteers have lived experience of disability, so are able to offer clients in-depth understanding

• To access DISH service online, clients click the contact tab on website to enter a self-referral, or an agency can refer a client

• Clients can be assigned a mental health and/or dementia case worker

• DISH provides support at any stage of a claim (including during the appeals process) to access Disability Living Allowance (DLA), Personal Independence Payment (PIP), Attendance Allowance and Employment Support Allowance and Carer Allowance (ESA)

• Provides emotional support – one-to-one, by email or by phone – for clients going through the claim process

• Offers assistance with benefit checks and client advocacy work, as well as support for housing, debt and poverty

• Available to help refugees with mental or physical disabilities, including providing assistance with benefit claims

• Currently, asylum seekers are not eligible for help from DISH, due to the government policy of 'no recourse to public funds' (NRPF).

Email: gailhigham@NHS.net

Visit NHS Social Prescribers

• Referrals made mainly by GPs; other services also make referrals, but what is taken up depends on capacity

• Offers help to patients in a range of ways, from putting up curtains, decorating and filling out forms to visits and identifying needs

• Encourages and supports patients to be independent by helping them apply for the right benefits, signposting helpful services locally and accompanying anxious patients to appointments

• Have been helping asylum seekers staying in the Dolphin Hotel who have been referred to The Grove Medical Practice.

Visit Help Charity website

Email: outreach@helpcharity.org.uk

• Registered as a charity is 2022, HELP offers people services and opportunities to help improve their lives

• Services include:

• offering one-to-one appointments
• assistance with learning English
• opportunities to socialise
• assistance with essentials such as food, clothing and toiletries
• translation needs
• building a CV
• applying for benefits
• school registration
• registering as homeless
• reporting hate crime

• Soon, HELP hopes to also be able to offer free immigration advice

• Acquires and distributes second-hand bikes; since April 2023, has delivered 50 donated bikes, helmets and locks; there is a waiting list for bikes, helmets and locks, maximum wait is about 6 weeks

• Works with people arriving via the Homes4Ukraine project; HELP staff greet them on arrival, meet the hosts, help with forms, schools, universal credit and food vouchers

• Employs a qualified ESOL tutor to provide English lessons for Ukrainians on Mondays and Thursdays in the charity offices in Peterborough

• Also runs a sewing group on Fridays

• Has recently implemented a trauma programme, involving organising weekly sessions in art and music for separate male and female groups over a period of 12 weeks

• Offers one-to-one counselling for refugees; could extend this service to the Huntingdon area, but refugees would need assistance with transport to the HELP offices

• Has good links with the charity Care4Calais and with the British Red Cross

• For employment guidance, recommends contacting Tom Wright who leads an employment service via the Peterborough Asylum and Refugee Community Association (PARCA)

Visit Cambridge Refugee Resettlement Campaign website

Email: catharine.walston@cambridgerefugees.org

Works closely with the Brampton Hub to support the Afghan families resettled there, as well as those resettled in Huntingdon (under the ARAP/ACRS schemes);

CRRC support for refugees includes:

• Seeking out properties from private landlords willing to accept local housing allowance rates

• Sourcing household goods, bicycles and tech items according to identified needs

• Financial help with driving lessons once the learner has passed the theory test

• Providing volunteer support and equipment for DIY and gardening

• Chaperoning beneficiaries at medical appointments

• Offering a doula service for expectant mothers

• Arranging counselling and advice for beneficiaries

• Helping refugees access legal advice when necessary

• Providing one-to-one help with homework and English language for school-age children

• Running ESOL classes for adults, with childcare provided for parents with young children

• CRRC volunteers give talks and presentations about refugee issues, particularly at local schools

• CRRC partners with individuals and groups able to assist with interpretation, translation and learning

• Also works with HDC to provide tech to Ukrainians, through its partnership with Laptops4Learning

• It researches and campaigns on issues identified as important to refugees (for example: barriers to driving; access to dentists; government policies such as the Nationality and Borders Bill)

Visit Brampton Hub website

Email: sheenacteeling46@outlook.com

• With assistance from CRRC and St Mary Magdalene Church, the Hub helps families to settle in, providing household goods, clothing, advice on access to services (for example: benefits, employment, health, English lessons), registration with schools and GP

• Initially, each family has a volunteer family caseworker

• All the families are now registered with CRRC, and thus benefit from access to CRRC services, funding and social events

• Families are provided with bikes and with support to access for driving lessons

• Hub support to access schools and further education

• The Hub runs English conversation classes every Thursday at the Methodist Church for Afghan wives; these have proved very popular; some Ukrainians also attend. Anyone welcome.

Visit Brampton Jobs Club website

Email: johnatitmus@gmail.com

Volunteers seeking to help and support people in the Brampton area who are unemployed and seeking work.

• Key objective is to guide, support and encourage clients in their search for employment, working one-to-one in a friendly manner to overcome the challenges; all strictly confidential

• Work with clients to identify their key skills, target those skills in the job market and follow job search pathways

• Help clients to write their CVs, job applications and cover letters; provide guidance on both online and face-to-face interview techniques and how to handle interview questions, using role play

• Several Afghan and Ukrainian people have engaged with the BJC; links established with Tom Wright at PARCA, who has been very supportive and is introducing the Afghan families to the PARCA Pathway which involves mentoring, skills assessment and English lessons

• BJC works closely with Edge and with the National Careers Service.

Email: Tim Perry Timperry100@hotmail.com / Catherine Ball catherine.ball58@gmail.com

Support for local asylum seekers at the Dolphin Hotel in St Ives includes:

• Teaching basic English through conversation and slides on a Thursday afternoon at The Free Church in St Ives

• Football and volleyball at Warners Park

• Where possible; helping asylum seekers join St Ives One Leisure sports centre, at a concession rate, allowing them free swimming at certain times and reduced gym membership

• Distribute donations of clothing and sports shoes, and in some cases buying shorts and T-shirts, to enable the men to partake in these activities

• Opportunities for canoeing and kayaking on the Ouse; and local walks with a small group

• Indoor, 5-a-side football opportunities

• Hosting of viewing sports events with pizzas included

• Help service users with second-hand mobile phones, sim cards and charger

• Run a WhatsApp group of 45 members to share activity details with the asylum seekers.

Email: michellelaing123@googlemail.com

• Offer of food and toiletry parcels for individuals or families who may be struggling

• Other support includes helping homeless people with form filling, attending appointments with them and help them furnish a new property when they obtain permanent accommodation.

Email: colin.burdfield@gmail.com

• Provide free English lessons to Ukrainians in the St Ives Corn Exchange, every Wednesday afternoon from 1-4 pm. Lessons are a mix of grammar, vocabulary and conversation; specific requests also catered for

• CELTA-qualified (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults), with 12 years of teaching experience and some knowledge of Ukrainian; some of the helpers also have many years of teaching experience

• Facilities are provided free of charge by the Corn Exchange in association with the St Ives Rotary Club, which also helps coordinate contact with the Ukrainian community

• The ethos of the lessons is friendship and flexibility; students can come and go at any time; all levels of English are catered for, and children of any age are very welcome.

Email: Ana.Silva@cambridgeshire.gov.uk

Did you know that Cambridgeshire Libraries offer a range of resources to support new arrivals into our communities?

• You are welcome to join the library without any documents. We will ask for your name, contact details and date of birth. The process takes about 5 minutes and your introductory membership will be valid for 3 years.

• Go Citizen gives those studying for the Life in the UK test access to study materials. PressReader gives library members free access to over 7000 newspapers and magazines titles from 140 different counties, with the option to translate into a number of languages and also a text to speech option. Learn My Way free digital skills courses include modules on managing money and health online, finding a job and using public services. We also have a range of foreign language and dual language books and language learning resources, both physical and digital, which you can browse and reserve on our catalogue.

• If you'd like to set up your own business, our Business & IP Centre Cambridgeshire & Peterborough provides free and low-cost business support and advice to start up business owners, entrepreneurs, and inventors like you. Our many events and activities give those new to the UK the opportunity to get to know their local communities in a friendly and welcoming environment. And if you’re looking to improve your English, you can join Cambridge Central Library's free weekly conversation group, which meets every Wednesday from 5-6pm (3rd floor).

• Last but not least, all our libraries offer free Wifi and access to public PCs.

Visit St Ives Rotary Club website

Email: president@stivesrotarycambs.org.uk

• We can provide donations of toiletries, trainers and coats with help from local business'

• Fortnightly community meetings at the Corn Exchange provides a much-needed informal outlet for Ukrainians to socialise with each other and talk in their own language. Light refreshments are served and we can help with donated clothing and domestic goods. There are currently about 30 families in the St Ives area registered with us and the fortnightly meetings are proving very popular. The HDC Ukrainian Liaison Officer and HDC translator attend these meetings to answer practical questions.

Weekly English lessons are on offer, and there is now a WhatsApp group.

Email: colin.burdfield@gmail.com

• Provide free English lessons to Ukrainians in the St Ives Corn Exchange, every Wednesday afternoon from 1-4 pm. Lessons are a mix of grammar, vocabulary and conversation; specific requests also catered for

• CELTA-qualified (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults), with 12 years of teaching experience and some knowledge of Ukrainian; some of the helpers also have many years of teaching experience

• The ethos of the lessons is friendship and flexibility; students can come and go at any time; all levels of English are catered for, and children of any age are very welcome.