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sdcas news & Blogs

Meet our staff: Peter Williams

26/4/2019

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Peter runs our Thursday day centre at St Mary’s Church in Kennington and also volunteers on Tuesdays at the Copleston Centre in Peckham. He has worked for SDCAS for twelve years in total.
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 Why and how did you start volunteering and working here?
I was working at a university library but have always been interested in asylum and refugee issues. You know that asylum seekers and refugees are around - but a lot of them are living under the radar, they’re not that visible maybe. It was an eye opener really, to know that there are all these people who are getting by on almost no resources. You feel as if you’re helping.

What are the best and worst things about this work?
A lot of it is quite frustrating because there’s a limit to what you can do. But people are very grateful for the extent to which you’re able to help them. It’s a nice atmosphere to have people from all over the world working together - not just the clients, but the volunteers are sometimes a cosmopolitan group of people as well. It’s an interesting place to work.

What is the one biggest change that is needed for asylum seekers in the UK?
The legal system. The whole system, the legal framework, the restrictions on what people can do here, are all geared up to make people go back to the countries they’re from. But in my experience, hardly any of them do. Even living as they do in London with no resources - they rely on charities for food and clothes and real basics - they still choose to carry on doing that, rather than go back to their countries. People have real reasons for coming here, and it’s a frustration for us when we can’t help as much as we’d like because the law is as it is.

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Are there examples of when the system can work?
There was one man who we worked with last year. We haven’t seen him for several months as he’s now living in a different part of London. He rang me in January to say happy new year, and I was waiting to hear what he needed help with. But he didn’t need help - he had just rung me up to ask me to lunch. I went to see him and his family, it was nice.
That family got loads of support because, along with Refugee Action, we found a couple to host him when he was here on his own (before his wife and sons moved out here to join him), and that family have been a massive help. They’ve done loads for them. That is sometimes what happens with hosting. We’ve used that system for several of our clients. If people have spare rooms in their houses and they’re willing to let asylum seekers who are otherwise homeless stay in their houses, that’s really good because it gives them a grounding in this new country. It’s good for integration, although it does depend on the individual. It’s not the answer for every asylum seeker.  

We are looking for volunteers to help every Thursday at our day centre service in Kennington with Peter. The role involves helping day centre clients with queries and advice, and general assistance in providing our overall day centre service. No previous experience is necessary. Go to our volunteering page to find out how to apply.

As a small local charity providing a crucial service for hundreds of people, SDCAS relies on donations to fund its work. If you can support us financially every month, you will be making a huge difference. You can join our Friends scheme on our donating and fundraising page, or make a one-off donation - £10 a month, or whatever you can afford, makes a big difference to the charity. Thank you for any support you can give us.





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Come along to a discussion about our research on well-being among asylum seekers

24/4/2018

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How do asylum seekers understand and evalulate their well-being? What does well-being mean for those caught up in the UK's "hostile environment" for those who seek refuge in the UK? What can we learn from their understandings and experiences?

Come along to a discussion about our research report: "Beneath the surface: how asylum seekers understand and evaluate their well-being" presented by our team of researchers, Alessia Cogo, Sally Inman, Pip McCormack and Maggie Rogers.

When? -  Wednesday 2nd May at 4.30 pm
Where? - London South Bank University, Room V202, K2 Building, Keyworth Street, London SE1 6NG (see MAP)

​You can read the full text of the report on our Publications page.
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Can you help thousands of local refugees with your IT skills?

16/3/2018

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​The Southwark Day Centre for Asylum Seekers needs help in purchasing and setting up new computers and printers to be used in its three centres in East Dulwich, Peckham and Kennington. These will be used to operate its new cloud based database software, which is replacing a paper-based system. The Centre which is the largest local resource for asylum seekers and refugees depends heavily on volunteer and pro bono workers for the thousands of really vulnerable clients it helps each year. But we could be ready to make a reasonable payment if needed to ensure a successful launch for the new system. It will very substantially improve our ability to help resolve hundreds of housing, immigration, benefits and family cases faced each year by local asylum seekers and refugees. We also expect that there will be a continuing need for expert assistance in maintaining and upgrading the IT network. The project will require daytime working with staff and on premises that are typically shut overnight. But some ' out of hours' flexibility might be possible.

If you, or someone you know, has the skills and enthusiasm to help us make a massive shift in our ability to help really vulnerable clients, please contact Pauline Nandoo or John Rhodes at SDCAS at office@sdcas.org.uk.

(Photo: Creative Commons via Plymouth District Library)
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Southwark Day Centre in the local press!

22/7/2016

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If you live in Southwark you may have seen a couple of articles about the day centre in recent edtions of local newspapers, Southwark News and the Peckham Peculiar.

This is an important time for our organisation. We've just lost two major sources of funding and our future is far from secure at a time when more and more people are fleeing their countries because of civil war and persecution.

We're grateful to the two newspapers for covering our story.

Here are the two stories:
  • The Peckham Peculiar visited our Wednesday day centre at Peckham Park Road Baptist Church and spoke to Ali (right), one of our clients who had a long history in the UK before finally being granted Leave to Remain this year.
  • Southwark News visited our Copleston Centre recently, the week before our runners took part in the London Vitality 10k Run. You can still donate to our efforts on our JustGiving page.
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Our partnership with Action Reconciliation Service for Peace 

2/11/2015

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Daniel Lewis, UK Programme Coordinator for Action Reconciliation Service for Peace (ARSP) writes about ARSP’s partnership with Southwark Day Centre:

ARSP is a German organisation, established in the late 1950s to run reconciliation programmes in countries that suffered under the Nazi regime, both before and during the Second World War. As time passes one challenge ARSP consistently faces is how to diversify its programmes whilst remaining true to its original aims of not only facilitating reconciliation, but also fighting racism, discrimination and prejudice wherever they occur.

As asylum seekers often find themselves excluded from UK society SDCAS is a perfect partner for our current UK programme, which brings around 12-16 young people from Germany and Poland to the UK every September to work in various charities across London and Coventry for a year. Providing support to these often vulnerable people corresponds directly to ARSP’s goals of fighting intolerance and exclusion and raising awareness of contemporary forms of discrimination in the thirteen different countries we currently operate in. Each year I ask the volunteers to present their projects to their peers. Usually the volunteer shows the short film produced a few years ago about SDCAS. The volunteers are always struck by the power of this film and the difficulties often encountered by asylum seekers, as well as the incredible support they receive at SDCAS. The film is always followed by a long discussion and many questions, perhaps because issues around immigration continue to remain so central to the political discourse in the UK, reflecting the relevance and importance of SDCAS’ work.

In my view it is imperative that asylum seekers have the opportunity to establish themselves in the UK and am delighted that ARSP works with an organisation like SDCAS that does so much to make this a reality.

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