FROM SURVIVE TO THRIVE

Firstly, what people need to reach their full potential and thrive is to have their most basic human needs met reliably every day. According to psychologist Abraham Maslow, human beings’ physiological needs for food, water, clothing, shelter, and sleep must be satisfied in order for them to address more complex needs like mental and physical health, relationships, sobriety, long-term housing, and employment.

The United Kingdom was among the first countries to sign the 1951 Refugee Convention and the 1967 Protocol, which defined the term refugee and outlined the rights of refugees, that list comprises 149 countries.
Since 2016 there has been a greater commitment from the UK to work alongside UNHCR, the UN refugee agency where the UK has resettled over 20,000 refugees. The emphasis on resettlement has been to offer material and financial support to families as they begin their integration into their community.

More recently the Government has offered support for refugees from Afganistan, Ukraine and Hong Kong.

Over the years money has been made available to the local authorities which was used to provide support for the families. This support was provided with a varying level of success. There are stories of individuals and families that have become an integral part of their local community, other individuals have begun to work in sectors that are new to them and now support their families financially as well as emotionally, unfortunately not every family has this positive outcome.

How should we address the need?

Many different programmes have been delivered to the Refugees in the UK. There are excellent "Best Practice" examples out there and the results are good, significantly better than others. But equally there have been programmes that have had little to no success when helping refugees resettle and gain employment.

Drawing on some of the excellent work that has been delivered over the last 5 years we have put together a number of programmes that will get results that equal - if not exceed - those of the following examples.

Language and Integration Skills Training (LIST) Programme

Under the UK Relocation Scheme (UKRS) the Language and Integration Skills Training (LIST) Programme was delivered to groups of Refugees. The aim of the programme was to help participants integrate through teaching them the skills needed in order to be able to make an active contribution, not only in the workplace, but within their families and the wider community.

The basis of the programme was to work on practical language rather that English grammar, preparing the participants for life in the UK. The emphasis was to enable the refugees to carry out daily tasks without support. To be able to live a life that was not dependant on others, but rather to lead a life as a fully functioning part of society.

Step Programme

World Jewish Relief
www.worldjewishrelief.org

"​The bespoke programme is adapted to each individual's needs and helps refugees gain language skills, qualifications and training, as well as providing one-to-one assistance in CV writing, interview skills, finding work or setting up their own business."  World Jewish Relief - website​

This programme was designed to work closely with the refugees, typically on a one-to-one basis, helping them with a bespoke programme designed to get them into sustainable employment.

Aspire Work Practice

Aspire Oxford
www.aspireoxfordshire.org

"Eligible refugees and ESOL learners in Oxfordshire can benefit from our specialist employment support to help them into the job market. This project is designed to help refugees to build up their skills and employability, recognising that they have a huge amount to offer local employers, but need the right support to break down barriers to finding work." Aspire Oxford - website ​

The strength behind Aspire is their emphasis on working closely with local Employers. There are regular meetings held where employers are invited to work closely with Aspire to make jobs available to candidates that have come through the training. These candidates are better equipped and really motivated to take advantage of the hand that is being held out to them. Nothing stimulates loyalty more than offering sustainable employment to someone who thinks they are unemployable.

Each of these programmes has produced results that exceed the success of the majority of programmes around the UK.
We at Resource Refugees are commited to delivering programmes that not only achieve the success of these programmes but surpass this success.

There are three areas to work on

Education

INTEGRATION

EMPLOYMENT