



To download the English leaflet
To download the Ukrainian leaflet
The Migration and Resettlement Team at Kirklees Council in collaboration with Migration Yorkshire are inviting you for Introduction to Migration training on Mon, 21 March 2022 13:30 – 16:00 GMT.
Aim
By the end of the course participants will:
If you have any questions please contact: migrationandresettlement@kirklees.gov.uk
Training Zoom link will be send prior to the meeting
To book your free ticket please click on the link
Password: AM22
Dear partners
The Migration and Refugee Resettlement Team at Kirklees Council wants to thank you for all the work that have you been doing supporting refugees living in Kirklees.
Special thanks for those who ran and supported activities during Refugee Week 2021.
The following information can be seen on the official Refugee Week Website.
This year Refugee Week 2022 theme is Healing. Through creativity and conversations, Refugee Week 2022 will be a celebration of community, mutual care, and the human ability to start again.
Healing means recovering from a painful experience or situation, so that we can continue to live. No-one understands this better than those who have lost their homes and had to build new lives from scratch. We have much to learn from refugees about holding onto hope when going on seems impossible – as well as about how art, creativity and community can help us to heal. Those going through the asylum system also know that healing is an ongoing process, made harder by poverty, housing difficulties and the threat of being detained or deported. Asking for change, so that refugees can truly feel safe, is an act of care.
Whether it’s about looking after ourselves and each other at difficult times, overcoming political divisions or coming together to fight for the survival of our shared planet, healing matters to all of us. Whoever and wherever you are, we hope you’ll join us for Refugee Week 2022 to imagine a world where healing replaces harm, and care becomes our shared currency.
Refugee Week 2022 is 20–26 June, and we are inviting you to think about any activities that can be linked to the theme Healing for the asylum and refugee community.
If you have any activities idea please contact:
MigrationAndResettlement@Kirklees.gov.uk
the above picture was taken from the Refugee Week Website during last year’s event. Please have a look at the full article .
6Million+ invites you to listen to a very special series of Podcasts prepared and recorded by a group of 16 young people and their families from across Kirklees. These are imagined conversations with each of the Weeping Sister puppets created over the last 5 years to Mark Holocaust Memorial Day.
many thanks to freelance audio producer Beth Parsons.
Dear friends, colleagues and supporters
Please see the attached publicity for the Holocaust Memorial Day 2022 event taking place on Wednesday 26th January 2022 at St Paul’s Hall, Huddersfield. The event will begin with a Procession of the Weeping Sisters through town beginning at 6.15pm and leading to St pauls’ for the commemoration event starting at 7pm which we are preparing in partnership with Kirklees Council, the Holocaust Exhibition & Learning Centre, the University of Huddersfield and Creative Scene. Survivor Liesel Carter will be talking to children from Flockton First School and CarltonJ&I School. he children will also be singing a song they have written with musician Andy Burton called One Day.
Following the commemoration event, there will be a special performance of Portrait of a Composer, the story of composer and musician Gideon Klein who died in Thieresenstadt and featuring the Gideon Klein Trio.
Please note that further government restrictions relating to Covid may lead us to change or adapt these plans. We will keep everyone informed via email and social media.
We are also preparing an online film/event involving all 5 local authorities in West Yorkshire to be launched on youtube on Wednesday 27th January. Details of this will be available very soon.
With very best wishes
Kim
for more information kim.strickson@6millionplus.org
download the leaflet here
To download the flyer please click here
As of Monday 1st November, The Welcome Centre will be reopening to the public for the first time since March 2020.
Since the pandemic began, The Welcome Centre has been closed to the public and we have been operating a home delivery service for our foodbank clients. Clients and referral agencies have been unable to visit our centre due to restrictions and for the safety of all those involved, however, as of 1st November that will change.
From 1st November, clients and/or referring agencies will need to collect their food packs from The Welcome Centre.
In exceptional circumstances, some clients may be offered a delivery service.
When making a referral for a food pack please consider your clients’ needs and only request a delivery if your client meets one or more of the requirements below
If you do not request a delivery it will be assumed that your client can collect.
Lone working or high risk clients
All packs for clients viewed as aggressive/high risk or pose a lone working risk will need to be collected by their referral agency.
We need your help So that those clients who are most in need receive our deliveries, it is vital that you support us with this process. We no longer have capacity to deliver 100% of our packs to clients and want to ensure that clients who meet the above requirements are prioritised based on their need.
Thank you
Sarah Mclellan
The Welcome Centre Virtual Assistant Support
07743 447966
We are looking for 3 x applicants who can speak English and Arabic or English and Pashto/Dari
You will work as part of a team to support children, young people and their families who are International New Arrivals [INA) which include asylum seekers, refugees and economic migrants, and children missing in education who have arrived in-to Kirklees and require educational provision.
You will work in partnership with other services e.g., Schools, Early support, C & K Careers, housing, health, and the voluntary sector to develop and extend effective home school liaison and positively impact on family integration, well-being, school attendance and pupil attainment.
You will need:
In order to be shortlisted for this job please provide examples of how you meet the skills, knowledge, experience and qualifications as detailed on the attached Job Profile. CVs will not be accepted.Closing date
11 November 2021, 11:55 PM
For more information and job description please visit Kirklees Council jobs page
Solace is recruiting therapists for two of our projects. This is an exciting opportunity to join a dynamic regional therapeutic organisation supporting refugees and asylum seekers. You would be joining an experienced team of 26 therapists working across the region to support people who have experienced war, persecution and exile. Solace has worked in this area for 15 years and has developed considerable expertise in providing therapeutic support to people who arrive in the UK from all over the world.
There are two roles available, one based in Sheffield delivering part of the therapeutic element of the SPRING project, ( http://www.vas.org.uk/what-we-do/spring-project/) and the second delivering the Child and Family Wellbeing Project to refugees who arrive as part of the UK resettlement scheme. (primarily Syria and Afghanistan)
Please see the job description – delivering the SPRING in Sheffield, click here.
Please see the job description – delivering the Children and families Wellbeing Project, click here.
If you would like an informal conversation about the roles please contact:
Please click here for an application form. The closing date is midday on the 17th of November. Please send your completed applications to kathryn@solace-uk.org.uk
We are pleased to announce that registration for the Yorkshire Integration Festival 2021 is now open!
Join us on Friday 19th November 2021, for a fantastic virtual event. You will hear from a range of local and national speakers and stakeholders, and find out about the excellent integration work that communities up and down Yorkshire and Humber are doing. With the theme of ‘Rebuilding together in a changing world’, the Festival will showcase and celebrate our region’s success in integrating refugees, asylum seekers, and other migrants.
We are excited to see you all there and to come together to enjoy an engaging day filled with inspiring content.
Please use this link to register your place: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/yorkshire-integration-festival-2021-registration-185653483567
Feel free to share this invitation amongst your networks.
We look forward to welcoming you to our event.
Session one:
Yoga and Meditation with Sally Talal
Monday 8th November
6.30-8.00pm
Session two:
Exploring Emotional Anatomy Theory with Jean Bosco Niyonzima
Monday 15th November
6.30-8.00pm
Session three:
Connecting with your Innate Wellbeing
with Shazia Govindji
Monday 22nd November
6.30-8.00pm
Session four:
Reflecting and sharing as a group, facilitated by Sally, Jean Bosco and Shazia
Monday 29th November
6.30-8.00pm
For full details on PDF, click here
To download leaflet click here
Animations aimed at healthcare professionals in England
The Public Health England National Migrant Health Team have produced two animations:
Clarifying NHS entitlements for migrants , which consists of six short sections:
Keeping up to date with vaccinations for migrants.
These animated resources address recommendations arising from a stakeholder engagement exercise to improve the Migrant Health Guide NHS entitlements page, done in 2019, which asked for more clarity about NHS entitlements and to adopt a more culturally sensitive approach. These outputs will also complement a suite of PHE and NHSE/I COVID-19 vaccination resources (for the general public) being made available to mitigate vaccination inequalities.
The animations aim to dispel fears of being charged for free NHS services, supports PHE’s role in reducing health inequalities by clarifying entitlements to healthcare and upholds the Public Sector Equality Duty.
Doctors of the World social prescribing resources to support migrants
New DOTW guidance on how social prescribing workers can support migrants.
COVID-19 translated advice and guidance is available on the PHE Migrant Health Guide here
PHE COVID-19 guidance collection page for the general public includes translated versions here
The updated guidance for accommodation providers of asylum seeker accommodation was published on Fri 23rd July here. The guidance is aimed at all staff involved in providing support to asylum seekers in all accommodation settings.
For an informal conversation about the post, please contact:
Anne Burghgraef anne(at)solace-uk.org.uk (Clinical Director) or Kathryn Ashworth Kathryn(at)solace-uk.org.uk (CEO)
The closing date is 9am on Monday 23rd August with interviews being held on Thursday 26th August (afternoon), or Friday 27th August, (morning) on Zoom.job-description-for-therapist-updated-July-2021DownloadApplication_formDownload
To go to Solace website click for vacancies, click here
From the WomenCentre……..We would like to share with you our newly launched report Digital Ways of Women Centred Working that brings together good practice principles for work with women migrants. The report shares practical, tangible examples of the adaption of services and support for digital, remote and blended ways of working.
The learning brought together in the report is summarised in six principles that offer guidance, with practical steps that showcase practice examples. The principles have emerged from work with women migrants and partners on Connecting Opportunities.
Get inspired by learning from women migrants about the transition and adaptation of support services; explore the resources that are available on the website and consider the steps you can take to make your work more women centred. To download the report please click: here
Which EU citizens can live in the UK ?
After 30 June 2021 all EU citizens (adults and children) living in UK lost their right to
be in the country lawfully with the exception of :
Other EU citizens may be visiting the UK as a tourist or with visas allowing them to stay for a set period or to join family members. These people do not have the same rights as those with settled status living in the UK.
People who do not have the right to live in the UK but who are living in this country do not have rights to most benefits, NHS treatment other than for emergencies (and some other exemptions), to be employed, to enter into a rental lease for property, to access further or higher education, or to have a UK bank account. They may be removed from the country by the British authorities.
How does an EU citizen get the right to live in the UK?
The government maintains that the deadline to apply under the EUSS was 30 June 2021, which has now passed. Almost everyone who has did not apply before this deadline is now unlawfully resident in the UK as explained above.
However, the Home Office have effectively extended the time limit for applications, allowing late applications until at least 28 July 2021. During this period from 30 June – 28 July 2021 applicants can apply as before, but must explain why their application is late. During this initial 28-day period following the 30 June 2021 any explanation for lateness can be minimal and requires little or no supporting evidence, and can still be expected to be processed as normal.
Beyond 28 July 2021 applicants will likely need to provide stronger explanations for their late application. The Home Office guidance provides a helpful non-exhaustive list of accepted reasons for lateness. Some of the common reasons will involve age, medical condition, capacity, vulnerability (e.g. victims of trafficking or domestic violence), and a useful catch-all of any other compelling reason e.g. waiting for anew ID/passport to be provided.
This allowance for late applications does not change the legal position and lack of rights now that the 30 June 2021 deadline has passed. At present no indication has been given about the government’s policy after 28 July 2021 and whether they will seek to remove EU citizens with no right to remain. Late applications to the scheme can be made after 28 July and there is, at present, no end date for these, but the government could begin enforcing much harsher measures against those who have yet to apply by 28 July 2021.
The process for applying under the EUSS remains much the same. Applicants can apply online using a valid national ID, passport, or BRP/BRC. Now, applicants with an expired passport or national ID can use the online application process. Those without a valid or expired ID document will need to use some alternative ID, such as a Birth Certificate, and apply via a paper application form.
Most applicants will still need to prove their residence in the UK before 1 January 2021, as a minimum. Applicants will also still need to prove “suitability”, which is effectively proving they should not be excluded from the EUSS based on serious criminal history.
There remain other, more complex, routes by which applicants can apply including non-EU national family members, victims of domestic violence, carers of British citizen children. Do check with a legal professional if you feel someone might be eligible under these routes.
How does someone prove their right to live in the UK?
People with settled or pre-settled status can prove this by obtaining a “share code” online and logging into the UK Immigration – ID check website (link below). They will need details from the same ID document they used when applying to EUSS and have access to same mobile number or email address used to make the initial application. Some EU citizens may have a Biometric Residence Permit or an entry in their passport to prove their status but the majority will need to access the online site. If people are looking to rent or to prove their right to work there are other online sites that can be used by a prospective landlord or employer.
This document is for guidance purposes only and reflects the situation at the date of writing. Readers should take specific advice or research their position before taking any action. Useful websites include :
Solace is looking to recruit volunteer trustees who have lived experience of the asylum system, or being a migrant.
For further information click here
New look Toolkit – guide to the asylum and immigration system
Click below for full details:
New look Toolkit-our guide to the asylum and immigration system
Find the information you need for your situation using the contents bar on the left (within the link below).
There’s information about asylum cases, human rights cases, and immigration cases.
Your situation might fall into more than one of these categories.
The Right to Remain Toolkit-A guide to the UK immigration and asylum system
We learned a lot! We wrote quite a bit about in this blog post here.
Over 80% of Toolkit website users came via a google search. (You can see what else we learned from looking at our website stats here:
What we’ve learned about how the Right to Remain Toolkit is being used (part one).
We had a lot of thinking and processing to do from all of the learning described above. We started to make some draft changes to the Toolkit (see below), but before making anything public, we tested these ideas out with our primary users/target users: people currently navigating the asylum and immigration system.
We tested out different versions of titles for sections of the guide. We asked people if they preferred pages with or without “accordion boxes” (dropdown panels that expand to reveal more text when you click on them). We asked people about how they would navigate different topics to find the information they need. This is called “usability testing”, or “user testing”.
In a usability-testing session <Toolkit guide usability testing> , a researcher “asks a participant to perform tasks, usually using one or more specific user interfaces. While the participant completes each task, the researcher observes the participant’s behavior and listens for feedback.” We carried out these sessions using zoom, with some of the asylum support groups we work with sourcing participants. It was fortunate that this element of our project was very easy to conduct online, which wasn’t what we had planned pre-pandemic.
Appeals rights exhausted and Upper Tribunal possibility
What’s changed:
For more detailed information about guide click below:
Entering the UK to claim Asylum
Find out about different aspects of the asylum and immigration process by watching our legal information videos below.
The Google Toolbar means that people can get all of the Toolkit content auto-translated.
We wrote about this process for Refugee Action here:
Google toolbar to get Toolkit content auto-translated
Right to Remain Email Campaign
Social Media
Individuals do not require an NHS number or GP registration to receive the COVID-19 vaccination and should not be denied vaccination on this basis. Individuals who do not have an NHS number or are not registered with a GP are still entitled to free COVID-19 vaccinations.
While registration with a GP is encouraged to access the vaccine, individuals can request to book COVID-19 vaccination appointments as an unregistered patient through a local GP practice.
Local outreach services are available in some areas to provide COVID-19 vaccination to those who are eligible but have difficulties accessing vaccination.
If an individual has an NHS number, they can find it through this online tool.
If someone is denied care because they do not have an NHS number, they can contact NHS England’s customer contact centre.
The above guidance on COVID-19 testing, treatment and vaccination free of charge (MS Word Document, 92.1KB) has been translated into 40 different languages by the Department of Health and Social Care.
For more information about the vaccination process locally for asylum seekers and vulnerable migrants please contact MigrationAndResettlement@kirklees.gov.uk and we can respond to your questions.
Asylum Support Payments (ASP) Project Update The Asylum Support Payments (ASP) project will soon be introducing a new payment card for service users (SUs). The new card will function in a similar way to the current card (whilst maintaining the same name), however its colour and provider will differ
The new Aspen card will be dispatched out to SUs from 10th May, ready for funds to be switched over and cards to be used for the first time on Monday 24th May 2021. These will be distributed by our service provider, Prepaid Financial Services (PFS). Timelines High-level summary of the transition timeline:
From 10th May – The new Aspen card will be dispatched to SUs, along with an instructional pin mailer (see below for further details on SU comms). •
For more information (translated information as well) please see attached documents below:
Fusion Foodbank
Huddersfield Branch
Pearl House,
10 John William Street,
Huddersfield HD11 1BA,
Telephone: 01484 425522
Dewsbury Branch
2nd Floor Empire House,
Wakefield Old Road,
Dewsbury WF12 8DJ,
Telephone: 01924 454770
The Welcome Centre
General enquiries telephone: 01484 515086
Referral’s telephone: 01484 340034
Batley Foodbank
Town Hall Annexe,
Batley WF17 5DT,
Telephone 01924 474999
Local Welfare Provision Team – Kirklees Council
Telephone 01484 414782
Holme Valley Foodbank
Telephone 07534 855 332
Lindley Food Bank
Contact by email – cahal.burke@kiklees.gov.uk
Batley Salvation Army Foodbank
483 Bradford Road,
Batley WF17 8PA,
Telephone: 01924 443718
Heckmondwike Foodbank
Oldfield Lane,
Heckmondwike,
Telephone: 07597011588
Useful information around food and budgets
Two short practical videos, to help with preparing economical, healthy meals and guidance on managing a monthly budget.
This first video is a step by step guide on how to make easy, nutritional and low cost meals https://youtu.be/K7LXYcrT83E
The second video is an easy step by step guide on how to budget and manage finances https://youtu.be/-20eZ-9EM0I
The Libraries of Sanctuary Team has started “Reading Friends Project” which aims to:
> Combat loneliness and isolation, through the proven power of reading (research has shown that reading and sharing stories enhances the well-being of refugees and helps mitigate some of the negative states of mind that are associated with refugee/asylum seekers experience, including loneliness and isolation).
> Connect people by starting conversations through reading
> Give people opportunities to meet others, share stories, make new friends, and have fun in an informal setting – initially online (probably a mixture of virtual and phone sessions).
It has a focus on those who are considered vulnerable, isolated, at risk of loneliness and are digitally excluded.
For the pilot, we anticipate a group of around 10 individuals; we have started to identify people who may be interested but we expect to be able initially to accommodate another 8 individuals.
We are purchasing digital tablets to loan, which will enable the people using them to connect to the internet even if they don’t have (for example) wifi connectivity where they live. These will enable people to participate in the project.
If you would like to participate or have any further questions, please do get in touch with Abed Moubayed Abed.Moubayed@Kirklees.gov.uk or David Summers david.summers@kirklees.gov.uk
Click below for English and other language translations.
A challenged world is an alert world. Individually, we’re all responsible for our own thoughts and actions – all day, every day.
We can all choose to challenge and call out gender bias and inequality. We can all choose to seek out and celebrate women’s achievements. Collectively, we can all help create an inclusive world.
From challenge comes change, so let’s all choose to challenge.