BRISTOL REFUGEE RIGHTS – Safety, Solidarity, Action for Change

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Introduction

Here we providesome information on the organisation that the new Director will lead and convey something of the ethos of Bristol Refugee Rights and the unique and valued working environment we cultivate.

History

Bristol Refugee Rights, (then Holding Refugees and Human Rights in Mind), came to life in 2006through a group of volunteers, refugees and professionals working in the field of ASR (asylum seeker and refugee) support. This group recognised that Bristol lacked a place for asylum seekers and new refugees to meet, obtain advice, receive practical and emotional support and find ways to meet engage with the wider community. At the time anti-asylum propaganda was rife in the media and damaging myths regarding the experiences and entitlements of asylum seekers in the UK were wide-spread. Asylum seekers and refugeescommonlyexperience isolation, deprivation, poverty, social exclusion, combined with this negative stereotyping and BRR aimed to counter such difficulties and social hostility by providing practical support and a truly warm welcome.

Driven from the start by values of equality, empowerment and inclusivity, BRR believed that offering practical support and building community was an important first step on the path to longer term social change. As a small charity dedicated to championing the human rights of asylum seekers and new refugees we developed a dual agenda:

1.To meet practical and social needs of a group that has severely restricted access to mainstream forms of support

2.To help to give a voice to this group, raise awareness of asylum issues with the wider public by public campaigning andfacilitating community cohesion.

In early 2006 Bristol Refugee Right's opened the doors of it's Drop In Welcome Centre for the first time, with 4 volunteers in a small church hall, offering tea and snacks, board games and willing ears. 6 members attended.

The Present

Fast forward to 2013 and BRR's Refugee Welcome Centre is well respected, thriving, lively, inspiring community space, visited by around 200 asylum seekers or refugees (our members) a week. We are open 3 days a week, offering a range of services;6 levels of English Classes, crèche, trips, activities, a comprehensive advocacy and information project, a nourishing hot meal, free clothing and food parcels, arts and crafts. All of our services are delivered by 100 strong diverse volunteer team (both member and host volunteers) and an able staff team of 9 (all part time). The ethos of the centre is one of equality and friendship between people of all backgrounds; strong relationships and community spirit have developed within the Welcome Centre.

We are committed to ensuring our members (asylum seekers and new refugees) guide, shape and drive BRR’s work and priorities, wherever possible, which we believe gives our organization a unique atmosphere. We function as a community – of members, volunteers and paid staff, working together, on as equal footing as is practicable – to deliver high quality, targeted services combined with genuine social connections and community integration.

The new post of BRR Director will replace that of the current BRR Manager as Caroline Beatty is retiring. The Directorwill join the organization at an exciting and challenging stage of development. We are settled into premises at the Malcolm X Centre in St Pauls after 5 years in Easton. We deliver our services to high standards, with emphasis on tracking and evaluating our work, in order to create more capacity to developwork around campaigns and longer term change.

Grant-funded through a range of sources, we nevertheless face a continual challenge to sustain our services. The sector as a whole is receiving further cuts and challenges as government restrictions on asylum seekers and new refugees.

Our slogan Safety, Solidarity, Action for Change reflects the importance of the Welcome Centre as the firmfoundation of our work – a fertile, dynamic, community base from which many other projects and campaigns have sprung. We take opportunities to speak to the media. We are developing a coherent and effective communication strategy to raise our profile and create greater awareness of asylum issues.

In this process we work closely with other local agencies in this sector including Bristol City of Sanctuary, Refugee Action, Red Cross, Bristol Hospitality Network, Borderlands, Refugee Women of Bristol and others. We have good relations with the City Council.

Who uses our services?

We work with people who are at any stage of making a claim for asylum in the UK who are currently living in Bristol and surrounding areas, and their pre-school children. (We are not currently working with school age children). Attenders at the centre include new arrivals and some who have undecided claims for up to 10 years. Many of our attenders have had their claims refused, and at any one time about 10% are destitute. We also welcome people during the first two years of having refugee status (here referred to as ‘new refugees’).

Our service users come from a spread of countries in the Middle East, Far East, South East Asia, Northern and sub-Saharan Africa. We welcome Christians, Muslims, Jews, Zoroastrians, Buddhists, and Hindus. On average we receive about twice as many men as women and the majority of attenders are under 40 years old.

Please look at our website - - if you would like any further information about the work of BRR.

Bristol Refugee Rights Recruitment September 2013