Dear Malvern Welcomes Syrian Refugees Supporter,
At the start of this New Year we would like to bring you up to date on what is happening with Malvern Welcomes Syrian Refugees.
As you know, last December, Malvern Hills District Council voted, unanimously apart from one abstention, to look into the possibility of accepting twelve Syrian refugee families to our area under the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Relocation scheme. However, since then we have encountered several obstacles and we have been obliged to become a campaigning group, which had not been our original intention.
However, we do believe that after a great deal of hard work and patience by many people we are now close to achieving our objective.
We are, therefore, making the following preparations to accept some Syrian families.
1. We know that we have a rich resource in the many people who have offered their skills and time to assist on a voluntary basis. We are now preparing a human resources database.
If you would like to help in anyway, however big or small, please let us know with this form [LINK]
Or if you prefer you can print off the form (links below) and return it to us by January 30th 2016 at:
Sue Wolfendale, Amnesty Bookshop, 3 Edith Walk, Malvern (copies also available there)
2. Training workshop day:
Malvern Welcomes: Getting Ready
March 5th, 2016 Council Rooms, Avenue Road, Malvern
(10:00 am to 4:00 pm)
To prepare our community to welcome these refugee families we have developed a day-long programme to train volunteers to communicate an accurate version of the asylum seeker/refugee experience and to encourage the general population of Malvern to be welcoming. By raising awareness in this way we hope to reduce the possibility that refugees will experience racist harassment and open up understanding and dialogue as a preparation to building a united and integrated community.
We are fortunate to have the expertise of Professor Jenny Phillimore (Director of the Institute for Research into Superdiversity at the University of Birmingham) who will be running the day.
The purpose of the day is to train volunteers to deliver short, 20-minute awareness-raising presentations to various groups within the community, e.g. schools, sports groups, parent and toddler groups, public sector, U3A, Health, Faith, councillors, Women’s Institute etc.
Full training will be given and all materials will be provided. You do not need to have formal training experience but you do need to be friendly and comfortable talking to groups.
These activities need not be greatly demanding of time and you can arrange who you would like to train and the timing of your sessions as personally convenient.
We see this as an essential part of the process of welcoming refugees and we need as many people as possible to convey the message of welcome. Please only attend if you are prepared to volunteer to run some sessions with groups of your choice although we are very happy if people would prefer to visit groups in pairs.
If you would like to attend this course please email us by February 15th to register your interest.
PLEASE NOTE:
CHANGE OF EMAIL ADDRESS AND NAME OF OUR ORGANIZATION
New email address: info@malvernwelcomes.org
We sincerely hope that soon Malvern Welcomes Syrian Refugees volunteers will soon start delivering services to support and welcome families who arrive in Malvern under the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme.
With best wishes for a peaceful festive season,
Malvern Welcomes Syrian Refugees
