Asylum Guides: How we co-created our multilingual resources

Asylum Guides is a programme aimed at organisations working with people seeking asylum. Our toolkits and resources enable volunteer Guides to meet with and help clients to understand the asylum process.

What did we do?

Last year we ran a co-creation project with partners in the Navigating Asylum Partnership as well as SIDE Labs where we developed multilingual videos about the Asylum Process and Asylum support in the UK. This was in an effort to solve translation and interpretation barriers our partners face. 

Who was involved? 

• ASHA
• DASH Huddersfield
• Manchester Refugee Support Network
• Microrainbow
• Plymouth Hope
• SWAP Wigan
• Wales Refugee Council
• … as well as other volunteers who kindly helped us make the videos! 

How did we do it?

We learnt from interviews with partners at the beginning of the project that translation and interpretation was one of the biggest barriers people in the sector face when giving information about asylum in the UK. 

We used this information to run a design-led co-creation project where we worked together over 2 workshops to come up with digital solutions to this challenge. Together, we prioritised and developed the idea we thought would have the most impact: Multilingual videos about the asylum process and asylum support in the UK. This would mean that for people coming through the door who speak a language that isn’t spoken by employees or volunteers of that organisation, it is a quick and engaging way to offer information about the asylum process in the UK immediately.  

With the help of people at Refugee Action, we wrote up to date content which was sent to partners for feedback before we got a translation agency to translate it into the languages our partners told us their volunteers speak.

We then worked with volunteers to develop the videos on an easy to use video making platform called Loom. This started with Polly going ‘on tour’ to visit partners and work with their volunteers. After a few sessions, we learnt it was going to be more effective to offer the training online so created this step by step ‘How to make a Loom video’ training pack along with some instructions and 1-1 support online. 

Once the LOOM videos were created, we edited them and added them to our Asylum Guides Youtube channel where we collated them into ‘playlists’. We also designed a new space on the Asylum Guides website called ‘Multilingual resources’ where the videos, as well as the accompanying script, slides and process diagrams can be found in each language. 

We are now finalising the making of the last few videos. If you are interested in helping us and speak one of the remaining languages shown in our call to action, please contact pollyr@refugee-action.org.uk.

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