Building a Future for Refugees

Finding asylum is just the first step in the long process that refugees face in rebuilding their lives. We work to empower asylum seekers and refugees to build their new lives in Wales, with access to housing, health care, training and employment.

Three of our four offices now have a dedicated ‘Move On’ caseworker, specifically to help refugees whose applications for asylum have been approved. The caseworkers can offer practical help and advice to these clients after their BIA Asylum Support has been withdrawn. As well as general welfare advice, they offer specialist advice and signposting to accessing benefits and housing, family reunion, travel documents and accessing funds for education or special needs. The team works closely with local authority asylum teams, HACT, Jobcentre, social and private landlords and Refugee Community Organisations.

Recent and Current Projects

In addition to direct information and advice services, we provide a number of specialist projects working with refugee communities and service providers.

Housing Development Project
The Housing Development Project is funded by the Housing Associations Charitable Trust (HACT). It promotes best practice in the provision of housing services for refugees in Wales and builds on the capacity of agencies to enable them to support refugees effectively. We run awareness-raising sessions about asylum seekers and refugees for housing providers, work with refugee communities to provide advice and training on housing issues and work towards influencing housing policy in Wales.

Good Health Project
The Good Health Project, funded by the Welsh Assembly Government, ran for four years and ended in June 2006. Its aim was to tackle personal and structural barriers to healthcare and foster good practice in health for refugees and asylum seekers. The project led to multi-agency work in Wales and nationally, leading to the first health care conference dedicated to refugees and asylum seekers.

Healthy Minds at Work
A new project, Healthy Minds at Work, is looking at the mental health of refugees and members of BME communities working in Wales. The project aims to identify and assess the mental health needs of the groups, plus the support services that are currently available. Its aim is to identify ‘best practice’ and the findings will be fed into a larger, consultant-led future project.

Careers Advice
We work in close partnership with Careers Wales to provide information and advice on education, training and employment for people at all stages in the asylum process. A secondee from Careers Wales (Cardiff and the Vale) is based in WRC’s Cardiff office for three days a week, providing an advice and advocacy service to clients.

The Equal Project
Welsh Refugee Council is one of 15 core partners that form the Curiad Calon Cymru Development Partnership. Part-funded by the European Social Fund’s Community Initiative Equal Project, the project aims to improve job prospects for BME and European economic migrants by supporting employment, training and enterprise.

As well as tackling commonly-sited barriers, such as language, racism and xenophobia, our Equal project team are taking innovative approaches to tackle problems relating specifically to refugees. Elements of the project include getting recognition for overseas qualifications, providing accreditation courses for volunteers, ‘up-skilling’ those with existing skills or qualifications, and helping refugees get experience of British work ethics through placements.

Refugee Voice Wales
We have actively supported the development of Refugee Voice Wales, an umbrella group of refugee-led community organisations. Since December 2005, the organisation has employed a part-time Coordinator, part-funded by WRC. The Coordinator is managed and mentored by WRC, and is based in a dedicated space in our Cardiff office. Refugee Voice Wales plays an active role in promoting the integration of refugees in Wales by enabling the collective voice of RCOs to influence policy, decision making and delivery of mainstream services.

Refugee Week Wales
Refugee Week Wales, an annual art, cultural and educational event which promotes understanding about why people flee persecution. Events vary from football tournaments to exhibitions and film. Refugee Week Wales is organised by a partnership of agencies.