The Coffee Mornings Connecting Refugees across Yorkshire
- Tuesday, May 7, 2024
- The Growth Company (GC) delivers the Home Office Refugee Employability Programme (REP) across Yorkshire and the Humber.
- The programme aims to help refugees into sustained employment through individually tailored support.
- Following positive feedback from participants, the team is hosting monthly coffee mornings in Yorkshire to connect local refugees.
The Refugee Employability Programme is hosting monthly coffee morning events to connect and empower refugees across Yorkshire.
Commissioned by the Home Office and delivered by the Growth Company, the Refugee Employability Programme helps refugees into work through tailored employability sessions, English language tuition, vocational training, job application assistance, and community integration support.
The programme also has a focus on providing locally informed advice to best support refugees to settle and thrive in their new communities.
To keep participants up to date with the support available, and encourage them to express their needs in a relaxed and informal setting, the REP team recently began hosting coffee mornings at its Yorkshire centres.
Coffee and Connection
Held in Sheffield, Bradford, Leeds, and Doncaster, the coffee mornings offer a chance for participants to connect with each other, meet with employment advisors, share their personal experiences, and discuss their goals and hopes for the future.
Many of REP’s employment advisors have similar lived experiences to the service users, so the events are also an opportunity for participants to connect with the team, hearing their empowering stories and learning how the programme can support them to overcome their own barriers. Support is also available from REP’s Employer Engagement Team, who advise service users on current and relevant job opportunities that best suit their skill set.
Reflecting on the positive impact the coffee mornings are having on both advisors and participants, Kate Liddle, REP Service Manager, said: “The coffee mornings have been a real success. It has been nice to see the advisors’ confidence develop as they deliver presentations during the mornings.
“We recently took a short break due to Ramadan but are now getting ready for ‘afternoon tea’ events throughout April, and we are on the lookout for host premises. As Summer approaches, we are looking forward to organising walks in local parks as another opportunity for refugees to connect with others in their area.”
Positive Feedback
The coffee mornings have been a great success with participants and are set to continue running as monthly events.
One participant from Doncaster said: “I really enjoyed the coffee morning session. It was very informative, and it was nice to hear other people’s experiences and their journey. The presence of the Employer Engagement Team was also very helpful.”
Reflecting on a coffee morning in Sheffield, another participant commented: “I was very happy and really enjoyed it. I stayed behind to talk to another attendees, as well as an advisor from the Employer Engagement team to discuss jobs.”
Find Out More and Get Involved
If you would like to find out more about REP, visit our website or call 0800 368 0990.
If you are interested in collaborating with us on our various integration events, get in touch.
The Growth Company
The Growth Company is an award-winning social enterprise with a 30-year history of enabling growth, creating jobs, and improving lives.
We help people and businesses across the UK to develop, grow, and succeed through a range of employment, skills, and business support services. We provide employment, justice, and health services across Greater Manchester, the Liverpool City Region, Lancashire, Cheshire, and Yorkshire and Humber.
Contact us today to find out more.
