Southwark Day Centre ​for Asylum Seekers
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About us

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.
​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.


Our latest Annual Report (2019, PDF) gives an update of our current activites.

Our services and activities

Advice and advocacy
  • Our advice and advocacy service helps our clients with issues relating to health, housing, employment and immigration issues
  • SDCAS is registered at General Help Level 1 with the Office of Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC) and the Advice Quality Standard (AQS)
Children and families
  • We support children and families with advice about parenting and access to school education
  • We have a rolling programme of parenting courses available in a number of languages
  • All our day centres have creche facilities
Heath and wellbeing
  • At our centres we provide a hot lunch and a safe space where clients can socialise
  • Outreach workers from the Guy's & St Thomas's Health Inclusion Team visit our centres
  • We have specialist staff to support our clients' mental health needs and run drop-in group therapy sessions for men and women
  • Our gardening project allows clients to help cultivate vegetables which we use for our lunches
Leisure and Education
  • We provide English classes for clients at our day centres
  • We have social events in our day centres and organise social and cultural outings for our clients to places of interest in the local area

Our clients

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 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.

Our management committee

  • Alan Robertson
  • ​Gillian Reeve 
  • Gay Barry
  • Mary Boley​
  • Tod Heyda
  • Sally Inman
  • Caroline McGill (Treasurer)​
  • Ajoke S. Ojji
  • John Rhodes​
  • Simon Taylor

Our volunteers

​Our staffing resources are limited so we are grateful to have a reliable team of volunteers. They work directly with clients in the day centres and also assist on specific projects and tasks like fundraising and administration.

If you are interested in joining our team 
please see our Support Us page.

Our staff

  • ​Pauline Nandoo – Coordinator (full-time)
  • Judith Ahikire – Administrator
  • Bettina Dreier – Centre Worker (Peckham Park Road Baptist Church & Copleston Centre)
  • Warren Lee – Early Action Development Worker
  • Vanessa Sutherland – Play Leader
  • Olabisi Taiwo – Early Action & Mental Health Development Worker
  • Peter Williams – Centre Worker (St Mary Newington)​
  • Alex Pottinger – Advice Triage Co-ordinator 
  • ​Madeleine Evans – Volunteer Co-ordinator 

Our Patrons

  • Riz Ahmed – Actor
  • Councillor Anood Al-Samerai – London Borough of Southwark
  • Rt Hon Harriet Harman – MP Camberwell and Peckham
  • Helen Hayes - MP for Dulwich and West Norwood
  • Sir Simon Hughes – Former MP for Bermondsey and old Southwark, Community leader
  • Dr Woyin Karowei Dorgu - Bishop of Woolwich
  • Rt Rev Patrick Lynch – Assistant Bishop in South-East London
  • Barbara Pattison – Chair, SE5 Forum
  • Veronica Ward –  Former London Borough of Southwark Councillor


Our Partnerships

Southwark Day Centre works with various agencies to ensure that we are able to provide our clients with the best support possible. Our current partners and referral agencies are as follows:
  • Action Reconciliation Service for Peace
  • Catholic Clothing Guild
  • Catholic Women’s League of England and Wales
  • Citizens Advice Bermondsey
  • FareShare Community Food Network
  • Goldsmiths University
  • Groundworks Employment and Skills Service
  • Guy's and St Thomas's Health Inclusion Team
  • Horniman Museum
  • Kids and Play
  • Lewisham Refugee and Migrant Network
  • Refugee Action
  • Robes Project
  • Southwark Law Centre
  • Southwark Refugee Communities Forum
  • Surrey Docks Farm

Our Funders

​

SDCAS is a registered charity. We are grateful to the following organisations for supporting our core costs and day centre work:

  • 29th May 1961 Trust
  • ARM Trust
  • Henry Smith Charity
  • London Community Foundation
  • People's Health Trust
  • Southwark Council
  • United St Saviour's Charity Southwark
  • Wakefield & Tetley Trust

Our Policies
  • Privacy Notice for Clients (pdf)
  • Privacy Notice for Supporters of SDCAS (pdf)​

Our Accounts

  • March 2017 (pdf)
  • March 2018 (pdf)
  • March 2019 (pdf) 

Our centres

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We have three centres in south-east London: Copleston Centre, Crossway and Peckham Park Road Baptist Church.
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Support us

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 Can you support us with a regular donation or by becoming a volunteer? Your support could make a real difference.
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© Southwark Day Centre for Asylum Seekers 2016 

​Registered charity no: 1143912 Company no: 07519992


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