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sdcas news & Blogs

English and art sessions at Kennington

15/8/2019

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English and art sessions recently started at our Kennington center, run by two of our brilliant team.

​Volunteer Hilary has just started running the English classes at the centre, having previously run courses at the Refugee Council. With the help of another volunteer, Abi, her classes are lively, interactive and fun ways for our clients to get to grips with the language.


She says the classes are a crucial part of asylum seekers and refugees integrating into life in London and feeling comfortable here. “Anyone coming to this country might find the different culture, climate, economic and political scene pretty confusing. Not being able to understand the language on top of that will make life extremely challenging. Helping them to learn the language should aid integration into their new community.”


She adds her clients always have interesting backgrounds. “Already, some have taught me more than I have managed to teach them. Having something useful to give in return is rewarding.”


Our other volunteer Kate, meanwhile, started arts and crafts sessions for Kennington clients in April. She says the aim is to provide a peaceful and relaxing activity. “A lot of the projects we do are very quick to complete - making lavender bags, or colouring postcards - allowing clients to finish a project in a short time, which I hope gives a sense of achievement.”


She adds meeting the clients is the most rewarding part of the work. “I really enjoy meeting the clients, and it's great to spend an afternoon doing creative activities. It's also lovely to see people’s different skills - I'm in awe of some of them!”


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Success stories this summer

5/8/2019

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Our clients face constant challenges. In the last month or so, we were glad to be able to help two clients who were facing difficulties getting access to the support they were entitled to.

One of them, ‘N’ came to the UK from North Africa several years ago to escape an abusive husband. She was badly mentally scarred and living alone, and came to us for help when her disability benefit was stopped by the Department of Work and Pensions last autumn. 

She was in such a fragile state that we immediately accompanied her to her GP and then on to the mental health team at King’s College Hospital A&E, who arranged a home care package. We also got her help from Southwark Law Centre and a benefits adviser to help her make a full submission appealing the DWP benefits decision. 

Some months later, the tribunal service was finally able to hear her case. One of our volunteers went with her to the tribunal, which quickly found in her favour. Her benefits were fully backdated, and her ability to live safely and more confidently has been secured.

Another client, B, fled with his family after suffering persecution in a Middle Eastern country some years ago. He is now taking professional exams to become more self-sufficient, but his mobility is severely limited by polio he contracted as a child. DWP had awarded him Employment Support Allowance, but last year - despite no improvement in his condition - it decided to stop the benefit. We referred him to the welfare benefits adviser at the Southwark Law Centre who prepared a full submission appealing the decision. Again there was a long wait for the tribunal hearings which were attended by one of our volunteers and the Law Centre adviser. And again the tribunal decided that DWP had got it wrong and should immediately restore and backdate the benefit.

In both cases, the benefits have made a material difference to the clients’ lives. But, also importantly, the assistance they have received has restored their confidence that they can get a fair hearing and genuine support as they try to rebuild their lives here.

We are constantly working to ensure our clients - who often have nowhere else to turn - don’t face injustice and lose the support they have. We work with some of the most vulnerable people in the UK. If you would like to help us support them, please sign up to become a regular donor here. 

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Our work to reduce asylum seeker homelessness

12/7/2019

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PictureWarren and Ola from the SDCAS team
Southwark Day Centre has teamed up with seven other refugee charities to research the best way to approach the issue of homelessness among asylum seekers. Warren Lee, one of our staff members, is involved with the project. 

How and why did SDCAS become involved in the project?
We were approached by Refugee Action to do a joint bid for funding on this project, which is called Asylum Early Action. Eight organisations are involved in total. Myself and another member of staff Ola started working on it in January 2019 as an extension of our other roles at SDCAS.

What is the timescale of the project?
The project is 3 years in total, and towards the end of the first year we will review the project and then draw up what will be done in the 2nd year.

What exactly are we doing? 
The project is the most exploratory thing we have done at SDCAS, at least to my knowledge. The whole idea around Early Action is something that Refugee Action have borrowed from homelessness charities such as Shelter, Crisis and St Mungo's. It is based on the idea that those who work in the sector know what the best way of doing things is. It means intervening and de-escalating crises as early as possible, rather than working on a firefighting basis. 

We are looking at what we do and have done, and showing how we have implemented more principles of Early Action into our work. We will then, in the future, be able to go to funders and say this is what works for us and our clients. 

So far we have interviewed a set of clients, staff and volunteers for their opinions and experiences of homelessness, and we are working on building an evidence base for the problems that we need to address. From this we’ll develop a set of recommendations for the rest of the year. 

We have also already started doing a few things that have come out from the interviews - for instance, we have created a directory of homelessness services that is kept up to date and can be used by staff and volunteers. 

We have begun destitution casework, which means we have a list of beneficiaries who are at risk of destitution or are insecurely housed. Ola and I work on these cases and try to join up all the work the three separate day centres do, as these cases are our highest priorities. We are also looking at more training and other measures we can take to address the gaps in our service.

How big a problem is homelessness for clients at SDCAS?
It is huge. Homelessness is experienced by a large number of our clients, exacerbated by London’s housing crisis. It is caused by a wide range of factors, and we have frequent situations where certain groups fall through the gaps. Some of these are asylum seekers whose claim for asylum has been refused, but who have no way of returning to their home countries. They receive no state support. 

Others have severe mental health issues, others have just arrived, and others have active asylum claims but are unable to access the support they’re entitled to. Some have been in the UK over 20 years but don’t have adequate proof - similar to the recent Windrush deportations.

You can find out more about the Early Action project here.

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. Thank you for any support you can give us.

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These boots were made for walking!

14/6/2019

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PictureOur walkers last year raised £1,000 and made some new friends on the way!
As part of Refugee Week we are joining the annual London Legal Support Trust walk sponsored walk this Monday 17 June. This is a 10k walk around central London- thousands of people walk to help make legal advice open to all.

Staff, volunteers and clients of Southwark Day Centre for Asylum Seekers and our friends at Southwark Law Centre are walking to raise funds to provide legal advice and support for disadvantaged migrants and refugees. Together we aim to fight the hostile environment and promote Southwark as a Borough of Sanctuary.

If you would like to join our team walk of walkers you'd be very welcome. Please e-mail office@sdcas.org.uk. 

​If you can’t walk with us please sponsor the walkers at London Legal Walk 2019. We're aiming to beat the £1,000 record we set last year!

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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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