Evelyn Oldfield Unit News

EOU Newsletter - a brief summary of what is going on View this email in your browser Evelyn Oldfield Unit News Following the success of our McKenzie Friends workshop last September, we are now organising a visit to Bow County Court on Tuesday 17th May. If you would like to see and learn how you can support other women in court if you are not a legal professional, particularly in the absence of Legal Aid, this event is for you. See more and book here We are looking for volunteers! We need volunteers for two of our projects: Research for Action and Influence Support Volunteers and Supporting Women Project Volunteers We are announcing our Supporting Women Project Conference on 8th June. There will be host of guest speakers and we will be caelbrating the achievments of the SWP and discuss hopes for the future. Stay tuned for more updates We are holding the Research for Action and Influence Conference on 2nd June. An exciting round up of the course with students from RMCOs presenting their research and notable guest speakers. See our new flyer for it here and book here We held a Managing Secondary Stress workshop on Monday 25th April. It was a huge success and we were impressed by the number of attendees. We also held Current Challenges for LBTQ Refugees and Asylum Seekers Panel Discussion on Thursday 28th April at SOAS. The level of discussion raised was both impressive and enlightening and the ways of dealing with the issues discussed were realistic and no-nonsense. Invitation to Work towards PQASSO and Investors in People Quality Assessment. Our director has been licensed to provide training to voluntary and community organisations on implementing quality mark on PQASSO produced by the Charities Evaluation Services, read more here We are inviting RMCOs to take part in our Brain Trust pilot programme - find out more about it here We offer free desk space for up to one year to London based BAMER groups. Read more about our Enhance Desk Space Project here Free English language classes - The E3 project - learn new skills and improve English skills and help overcome the communication barrier, every Monday 6-8pm at Resource for London, call 0207 697 4100 or email mulat@evelynoldfield.co.uk to find out more and sign up Non EOU News First ever 'Global Diaspora Day' will take place in 2016. The MADE Working Group on Diaspora and Migrants in Development is will shorty be announcing plans for a Global Diaspora Day, which will be celebrated for the first time in 2016. In preparation, AFFORD is looking for inspirational articles, case studies or media projects highlighting the role and contributions of diaspora and migrants to development in their countries of origin, residence or interest. Read more here Over half of the unaccompanied kids seeking asylum in the EU in 2015 were Afghans (51%) according to Eurostat. More than half of the 45 300 unaccompanied Afghan youngsters were registered in Sweden. Unaccompanied Afghan children were the largest group of asylum seekers in fifteen EU Member States.Syria (16%) ranked second main for unaccompanied child asylum seekers The Refugee Journalism Project is looking for applicants. Are you or do you know a refugee with journalism experience who needs help breaking into the UK’s media sector? The project is run by the Migrants Resource Centre (MRC) and London College of Communication - find out more here The Migrants Resource Centre's Job Search Support Activities Centre has reopened! They offer FREE support in CV and cover letter writing, online job applications, interview preparation and job search. See more here The Joint Council for the welfare of Immigrants is fundraising for their 'I am a Refugee' campaign to celebrate the incredible contribution refugees have made and continue to make to life in the UK. Donate and find out more here Akwaaba is a new Sunday social event for refugees and migrants, organised by Green Lanes Methodist Church and the Hackney Migrant Centre - Come and join them every Sunday afternoon to relax, meet new people and take part in our activities. See more here Events National Day of Solidarity with Detained People - 7th May. 2015 saw a huge rise in the number of protests inside and outside of detention centres, let's make it bigger this year. See the flyer here  Hate Speech - Seminar and Round table discussion for Journalists and bloggers - 9th May 2016. This seminar as part of the PRISM project, in a concerted effort with European partners, will bring together the race equality sector in the UK, journalists and bloggers to counter hate speech in the media. To register your attendance click here A Contemporary British Bangladeshi Poetry Event - 9th May. Hosted by poet, Shamim Azad and will feature several notable Bengali poets and writers. £5 or £3 2016 Exiled Writers Ink members and asylum seekers. See more here Implications of Brexit for EU migrants - Public panel debate 10th May 2016. To inform opinion ahead of the EU referendum, the ESRC Centre for Population Change(CPC) invites you to discuss the wider issues around our recent research on EU migrants living in the UK, migrants’ attitudes to the forthcoming referendum, and the resulting social policy implications. Book here The Modern Slavery Act: Defining Risk and Compliance - 11th May. Focusing on The MSA and supply chain mapping, this event is one of a series designed to provide understanding and guidance to help companies develop a statement and policy that will comply with the MSA. Karen Bradley MP - Minister for Preventing Abuse and Exploitation will be the keynote speaker. Buy tickets here Webinar: Sanctuary Cities: Challenges and Opportunities. Join us on 24th May for “Sanctuary Cities: Challenges and Opportunities,” a 60-minute webinar that explores sanctuary policies and programs in Toronto and New York, what works and why it’s important, asking: Who does the sanctuary city seek to protect and why? See more here Migrant Women Conference 2016 - 28th May. One-day inspirational conference for migrant women from all backgrounds, cultures and origin to learn and share on the main theme of “Overcoming Barriers and Achieving Success”. Book tickets here Free Training, outings and events for unpaid carers in Camden - For a full list of events of carers in Camden please visit Camden Carers website here Training, Workshops and Courses The Women's Resource Centre has three upcoming training sessions - Writing successful funding proposals 17th May, Commissioning: understanding the basics 24th May, and Train the trainer 27th May. Read about them in their newsletter here mall charities fundraising training programme now open and will provide expert training to small charities from February to June 2016. It will help charities with an annual income of up to £1 million to generate more income to support their vital work. Find out more about it here Coram Children's Legal Centre offers several training courses and workshops and on mulitple dates. For example "Working with undocumented young people", "The rights and entitlements of young refugees and migrants" and "Registration of children as British citizens" Find out more here Responding to FGM: Training for professionals and frontline staff. FORWARD UK is organising, a one day accredited training course to increase knowledge, awareness and understanding for professionals on the practice of FGM, May 26th, see more here The Women and Girls Network (WGN) are hosting a series of training events open to women working against in VAWG in London. For more information on the courses and for applications, please visit their training website here and includes the course below: Gender Responsive Trauma Focused Approach for Engaging Women's Recovery from Sexual Violence: Supporting Survivors' Resilience. This OCN accredited course by the WGN will examine prevalence, explore definitions, and challenge popularist attitudes towards sexual violence, from a trauma focused approach. Starts on June 21st and see more here Developing leadership and activism in the community - free leadership workshop. Kanlungan and Unison are working together to deliver a workshop to explore how to get involved in the community and how to speak up about its issues. You will learn how to target specific issues, mount a campaign and how to influence people to support your cause. July 2nd, see more and book here  Free Online Courses - Me Learning Greenwich is offering free online courses on a number of topics including Safeguarding, Mental Health, domestic Abuse, Prejudice and Discrimination and many more. Find out more here Stop Hate UK Training Services - they can help your organisation ensure staff have the skills to access and/or provide effective support to customers, service users and tenants who are subjected to hostility and Hate Crime. Find out more here Becoming More Effective with Evaluation and Impact Practice - Inspiring Impact is a 10-year programme to improve the impact practice of the voluntary sector runby NCVO. They want to support groups to better understand their own organisation and the difference that they make. Read about it here The Train the Trainer programme with Parliament - Get a better understanding of Parliament and how to engage effectively with it, the Train the Trainer programme may be for you. Find out more here Jobs The Independant Academic Research Studies (IARS) International Institiute is looking for a new Equalities Projects Coordinator. The successful candidate will be responsible for the deliver of 5 projects. To see more and apply, click here Refugee Action - Project Coordinator Asylum Guides. This is an exciting opportunity to play a leading role in Refugee Action’s new flagship approach to increasing asylum justice and protection for those who need it. Read more and apply here Women's Refugee Commission has 2 jobs available - a Senior Program Officer of Migrant Rights and a Senior Accountant, see them here Refugees into Jobs - The Refugee Council offers guidance ans support to refugees seeking work with three current programmes - Refugee Health Professionals, Refugees into Teaching, Just Bread project. Read in full here The Refugee Therapy Centre is currently recruiting for: an Administrative assistant, Bookeeper, Members for Board of Trustees & Management Committee and a Sessional Bilingual Psychodynamic Counsellor/Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist. See full of vacancies here Solace Women's Aid are looking for an Advice and Support Caseworking and for Trustees, read about them here Manor Gardens Centre is looking for around 5 Bilingual Maternity Mentors to join their new and innovative Bright Beginnings Project and are alos looking for an Adminstrative Assistant. Find out more here Volunteering  The Refugee Council is looking for a Youth Development Project Volunteer in Croydon. Are you able to commit to every Wednesday 4:00pm – 7:00pm (plus planning time) for at least for six months? Their Youth Development Project is looking for a volunteer to help support the social activities. Read more here Solace Women's Aid are actively recruiting qualified counsellors and counsellors in their final year of training to work with us providing emotional support to survivors of domestic and sexual abuse/violence. Read more aboout it here The Indo-american Refugee Organisation is always on the lookout for positive, energetic people that are willing to donate their time and skills to IRMO who could do everything from English teaching to running women’s groups and activities for children. See more here Volunteer opportunities for Women at the Women's Therapy Centre - Volunteer to help support women to access low cost talking therapies? More info here TESYouth is looking to employ volunteer, part-time, full-time staff, as well as interns. If you have a passion for community service, a desire to help young people and wish to assist in managing the growth and progress of various programmes, find out more here Volunteer opportunities at the Migrants Resources Centre. They are looking for people with excellent interpersonal and communication skills, and can help unemployed adults on a one-to-one basis. See more here ESOL Coordinator volunteer needed to join team to help with a migrant-support project, Akwaaba run by the Lanes Methodist Church and the Hackney Migrant Centre . Find out more about this project and other volunteer roles here Marketing and Communications volunteer - British Somali Community is looking for a creative and tech-savvy volunteer to join the team and help drive their marketing and communication To apply, see here Women and Girls Network is currently recruiting for: Honorary Counsellors and Advice & Helpline Volunteers. See more here Research and Publications  Detention Limited - Ten of thousands of people are held in legal limbo - often in breach of the Home Office's own guidelines - inside Britain's privatised detention centres while they await a decision on their fate. These ‘centres’ do not provide the proper medical care and detain pregnant women, children, and survivors of torture. To deal with this situation, anti-detention NGOs are currently campaigning for a 28 day time limit on immigration detention. To read more click here Cuts to EU migration could hit agriculture, hospitality and retail - Oxford University’s Migration Observatory says in a new report that sectors could be hardest hit by a UK vote to leave the EU due to current immigration rules. An EU exit could mean tighter controls on the migration of EU nationals for work. The report uses current government policy to restrict non-EU labour migration for its analysis—while recognising that post-Brexit immigration policies may be more liberal than the current rules. Read more here More talk about immigration in UK but no increase in understanding or knowledge of the facts - new study A new Ipsos Mori study finds concerns about immigration have indisputably risen over the long term. And even though people in the UK generally think there is more discussion of immigration, they overestimate the numbers of migrants in the country.Read more and download the full report here Domestic workers and carers, most of whom are migrant women, should be given an official status in the EU. Recognizing their work as "real" jobs would discourage exploitation, forced labour and human trafficking, say MEPs in a resolution voted on in late April. MEPs recommend establishing easy-to-manage models for legal employer-worker relationships, citing examples in Belgium and France, to end precariousness and undeclared domestic work. Read more here Higher social cohesion reported in ethnically diverse areas - Ethnic diversity seems not, in and of itself, to drive down community cohesion and trust, according to researchers. Residents of more ethnically diverse neighbourhoods actually reported higher levels of community cohesion than those who lived in less diverse areas, once levels of economic deprivation and segregation were controlled for. Read all about it here Call for evidence! - on Gender equality and empowering women and girls in the UK. The British Council has commissioned a study to provide a stock-take of the current status of gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls in the UK in relation to other countries. To help inform this research, we are looking for evidence of good practice that supports gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls This may include current and recent research, quantitative and qualitative data and information about current and recent interventions. Read in full here Naturalisation fees have risen sharply before the EU referendum - is this a coincidence? - Going through the naturalisation process to become a British citizen is tricky, intrusive, time-consuming and costly. Is all this really necessary or just an obstacle course designed to discourage the faint-hearted and fleece the determined? Read more here What the 35k pay threshold means for us all? -The £35k salary threshold is due to come into force for Tier 2 workers on 6th April. Anyone who has, or will, come to work in the skilled worker visa category must now earn at least £35k within 5 years in order to apply for settlement in the UK. How will this affect the many skilled workers who are approaching the five-year mark? Read more here The growing bias against Afghan refugees - There is a terrible trend catching on in UK and EU member states. One after another, countries are singling out refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants coming from Afghanistan with new policies and campaigns designed to reduce the number of Afghans granted legal status. This alarming development raises serious questions about discrimination and the right to protection. Read more here Do migrant mothers need to be ‘forced’ into citizenship or do they contribute to new meanings of multi-ethnic citizenship? When David Cameron declared in January 2016, ‘We won't let women be second-class citizens’ he suggested that migrant women, in particular of Muslim background, need to be ‘forced’ into citizenship. In our recent research project on ‘Migrant Mothers Caring for the Future: Creative Interventions into Citizenship’, funded by the Arts and Humanities Council, we looked at what happens if we take the contributions of migrant mothers in bringing up their children seriously as a contribution to citizenship. Read more here Funding and grants  Islington Council's Community Chest Funding For Local Community Groups 2015/16 - Funding of up to £5,000 is available for community organisations that: Work with Islington residents; Have an annual turnover of less than £100,000. Visit here to find out more  The Jack Petchey Foundation small grants for youth programmes - The Small Grants Fund allows those organisations who are running the Achievement Award Scheme well, to apply for a small grant of up to £750 to enhance their work with young people. See here for how to apply DM Thomas Foundation for Young People - DMTFYP provides funding for organisations which work to improve the lives of children and young people across Europe. Grants are available of up to £1,000 each. Find out more here Morrisons Foundation - The Morrisons Foundation provides grants towards projects undertaken by registered charities. There is no limit to how much you can apply for, although the project must benefit people in the UK. Visit their website to find out more here Go for It Grants - Go For It grants give funding for not-for-profit projects and regular activities that can bring communities together and encourage people to take part. Location: Newham, Maximum Value: £2000. Find out more here Royal Docks Trust Minor Grants - Your project must take place within the Trust Area, that is those communities south of the Newham Way (A13)- Beckton, Canning Town (part), Custom House, North Woolwich, Silvertown , and West Silvertown.Maximum Value: £2000.  Deadline: ongoing. Find out more here Sir John Cass's Foundation - Grants to Schools and Organisations - Grants are available for schools and organisations to support education and rehabilitation projects in inner London boroughs. Find out more here Fredericks Foundation London Small Business Micro Loan Fund - to help people set up and grow their own business in London. This Fund will enable people who cannot access finance through usual channels to realize their potential for the benefits of themselves, their families and the community. Maximum value £20,000. See here for more detail Lloyds Bank Foundation - Invest provides longer term core or delivery funding for charities which meet the programme aim and are delivering clear outcomes as a result of their work. We found 'core' organisational costs (including running costs and salaries). By 'core' costs we mean those related to the day to day running of your charity. We also fund costs associated with the direct delivery of your work. Full details here Resources The NVCO has updated its UK Civil Society Almanac 2016, in its 15th edition, and has all the voluntary sector facts and figures you could ever need. It's a fantastic reference tool to help your charity plan its operations, write funding bids and much more. See it here Refugee Week offer free educational resources, see them here  The Refugee Council in partnership with the Equality and Human Rights Commission have produced a Employers' guide to refugees for employers on understanding refugee documentation.  The short guide shows the standard identity documents a refugee will possess and will use to evidence their permission to work. Read it here The Migrants' Law Project provides a range of resources to enable charities, groups, and legal practitioners to better understand how to use public law to protect and promote the rights of their clients - asylum seekers and migrants. See them here The Refugee Council Archive at the University of East London represents one of the largest collections of materials relating to the study of forced migration and the refugee. It is a source of information and analysis on displacement, flight and exile; on legal, political and social issues; and on refugee community life. Find out more about it here Refugee Action's resources library - the place for reports, briefings, and facts about refugees and asylum seekers. See it here Free HR support for you organisation - Are you a small organisation based in Hackney? People Skills can offer you Free HR support. Find out more here We at the EOU, have created our own Supporting Women Project Toolkit and is a good resource for finding help for vulnerable asylum seeking and refugee women. See it here  We welcome feedback about this ever evolving e-bulletin! If you would like to find out more information about the work of the Evelyn Oldfield Unit, or request to put something on this e-bulletin, please email us at: volunteer@evelynoldfield.co.uk or  call us on: 0207 697 4100 If you have any comments, please forward your email to the Director: mulat@evelynoldfield.co.uk Website: www.evelynoldfield.co.uk You are receiving this email because you have subscribed to receive updates on EOU’s services and other providers. If you would like to no longer receive this email you can unsubscribe here Our mailing address is: Evelyn Oldfield Unit 356 Holloway Road London, N7 6PA The EOU is an independent, membership-based, charitable organisation. The EOU's aim is to provide, develop and co-ordinate specialist aid and support services for Refugee and Migrant Community Organisations and individuals. We endeavour to increase their capacity and potential for meeting the needs of their communities and to support RMCOs to set up partnership initiatives with mainstream agencies and to engage their members with the wider community. The Evelyn Oldfield Unit has achieved the following Quality Standards: ISO 9001 – 2015 Customer Service Excellence – 2015 PQASSO – 2013 Investors in People – 2009