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Southwark Day Centre for Asylum Seekers (SDCAS) seeks to help relieve poverty and distress, and to promote health and further education for asylum seekers and refugees.
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We aim to provide a wide range of holistic services which support, promote and secure the rights of asylum seekers and refugees in the London Borough of Southwark.
We strive to provide support services and a safe and welcoming environment through day centre provision, to help meet the needs of local asylum seekers. Through general advice and help we hope to facilitate access to a range of mainstream services, with particular emphasis on health, housing, employment, training, education and asylum issues. The sociable atmosphere of the day centres provides our clients with the opportunity to build their own social networks, which reduces the level of isolation so often felt in this disenfranchised group. SDCAS was founded in early 1996 as a practical response from local church leaders and community activists to changes in government policy that resulted in an increase of poverty, distress and homelessness amongst asylum seekers and refugees. The following year SDCAS became an independent charity and our client base grew hugely. The Annual Report for 2016 (PDF) gives an update of our current activites. |
Our services and activities
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Advice and advocacy
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Children and families
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Heath and wellbeing
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Leisure and Education
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Our clients
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Case study 1
A family of three arrive at the day centre for advice. The young mother and her two children are from Sudan and have just arrived in the UK to seek asylum. They have been living in Newcastle for a year but have fled due to serious racial attacks on their accommodation. They are without any cash, are sleeping on the floor of a Mosque in Southwark and rely on donations of food to support them. At the day centre they are invited to have lunch before being introduced to a welfare adviser. They meet other people and start to build new contacts. The mother is pleased that the children are able to eat a hot lunch and play with others in the crèche as they had not been eating properly. The mother joins the women’s group and begins to feel less isolated. The family continue to attend the centre for lunch and to seek advice. They are referred to the nurse at the day centre for a health check and a Sure Start children’s therapist as the children are still very distressed by their experiences in Newcastle. They are also referred to the Education Adviser. Their housing problem is addressed and the family are housed after 3 months in the area. They continue to use the centre for lunch and to socialise until the children start school. |
Case study 2
Ms. S is a 34 year old woman. She came to the UK from Somalia eight years ago and put an asylum application in but has not yet heard from the Home Office. She came to the UK from Somalia eight years ago and put an asylum application in but has not yet heard from the Home Office. She reported feeling scared for herself and her family, in particular if she had to go back to her country where she had been tortured. Her major worries surround her family back home. Ms. S described feeling as if the traumatic events were happening now, and she evidenced a high amount of emotional distress when talking around what happened to her, including visible anxiety, depressive beliefs and tears. She expressed a deep sense of shame at what she had been through and reported having lost interest in significant activities in her life. She also mentioned that she no longer expected to have a future, even though she wished for one. Ms. S was seen at the Maudsley Hospital and referred to CMHT where she has a care coordinator. She continues to come to SDCAS for support. We have facilitated several meetings in our centre with Ms. S’s care coordinator where she feels safe to disclose her feelings. |
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Our staff
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Our Funders
SDCAS is a registered charity. We are grateful to the following organisations for supporting our core costs and day centre work:
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