Resources & Guidance
Resources and guidance:
Co-created resources and guidance exploring how organisations can effectively and meaningfully run groups and bring trustees in to their board.
Iman Alharithi is a trustee for St. Augustine’s Centre in Halifax and Curious Monkey Theatre in the North East. She was recently appointed Development Worker for Calderdale Valley of Sanctuary.
Maha Khalifa is an active member of Refugee Women Connect’s Women’s Advocacy Group in Merseyside.
Sipilien Birani is a volunteer caseworker and trustee for PAFRAS in Leeds. He is also a trustee for Racial Justice Network and is a human rights activist and founding member of Zimbabwean Human Rights Organisation.
Shukry is a trustee for NACCOM and also works as Project Coordinator for the Arts and Homelessness for the Coventry City of Culture Trust and Volunteer Coordinator for the Coventry Independent Advice Service.
Jonathan Kazembe is the Expert by Experience Manager at Refugee Action. He has a background in teaching and facilitating previously working for Freedom From Torture as Service User Group Coordinator.
Ana Asatiani is the Expert by Experience Coordinator at Refugee Action. She has a background in human rights and is an active member and facilitator of the campaigning group RAS Voice.
There has been a growing interest in co-production, participation and inclusion work involving people with lived experience across the refugee and asylum sector.
People know that this is the right way to work in principle and the most effective in practice when it comes to meeting the needs of refugees and people seeking asylum. Refugee Action has prioritised this approach in its current strategy, it is one of the Asylum Early Action Principles and we are exploring how to embed this within our Good Practice and Partnerships work.
Although there is a lot of knowledge and practical experience in our sector we found that there is very little written information or guidance to draw upon or contribute to. Organisations often end up starting from scratch and reinventing the wheel.
We decided to do something about this! We formed an action group to develop guidance and resources for the sector, working closely with Experts by Experience, and providing training and support. Four members of the Early Action Expert Panel joined, alongside Refugee Action’s Experts by Experience workers and NACCOM’s development worker.
This work wouldn't have been possible without Jo Pettitt, who helped us bring our ideas and thoughts into this guidance.
You can view the guidance as a Google Doc, or download a PDF of it.
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