Migrants Forum

The International Centre Fife Migrants Forum Annual Report 2018/2019

1 TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABOUT 03

BOARD OF DIRECTORS / FUNDERS AND SUPPORTING ORGANISA- TIONS 04 STAFF & VOLUNTEERS 05 CHAIR’S REPORT 06 MANAGER’S REPORT 07

VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR’S REPORT 09

OUR SERVICES 11

MAIN REASONS FOR CLIENTS CONTACT 20

PRIMARY BARRIERS 20

CASEWORK - CASE STUDIES 24

FEEDBACK FROM CLIENTS 26

CASEWORKERS’ EXPERIENCE 27

PROMOTING VOLUNTEER DEVELOPMENT 29

EVENTS 30

2 ABOUT FIFE MIGRANTS FORUM

VISION Our main aim is to eliminate social injustice and to support our clients on their way towards a new adventure in life. The journey can be daunting at times and the role of FMF is to break barriers and give our clients a voice with opportunities to become responsible and active members of their new community.

ORGANISATIONAL OBJECTIVES Our objective is to help migrants in Fife overcome their poverty by providing:

Information, advice, representation and advocacy language support services in matters such as money, debts, welfare benefits, housing, training and employment.

The advancement of citizenship and community development by promoting the wellbeing of the migrant community, fostering community spirit and integration.

The relief of migrants, their families and dependents who are in conditions of need, hardship or distress and supporting such people in crisis situations.

The promotion of equality, diversity and racial harmony through addressing the problems created by lack of knowledge, isolation and prejudice, by encouraging understanding and sharing of cultures between the new international community and the indigenous community, and by promoting social and economic inclusion, including the integration of marginalised groups and minorities into the wider community.

THE FORUM Fife Migrants Forum delivers its various services to support individuals in realising equal opportunities and equal treatment, accessing and benefiting from public and third sector services.

I am really grateful to FMF to give me the opportunity to be a volunteer with them. I am part of this organisation since 2013 and thanks to this opportunity I have improved not only my CV but my knowledge in different fields, I have had the chance of meeting great people within the company and the opportunity of rais- ing my voice as a migrant at the and newspapers. I am more confident now personally and professionally than I was before. But the best thing about being a volunteer with them is how many good friends I have now. Thanks Fife Migrants Forum!

3 BOARD OF DIRECTORS/ FUNDERS AND SUPPORTING ORGANISATIONS

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Violeta Ilendo Chairwomen Donald Flynn Treasurer Selma Basha Trustee Carole Simpson Trustee Benjamin Anderson Trustee Colm Wilson Secretary

Thank you to all our partners over the years. Once again we offer our sincere thanks to all funders and donors whose generosity has enabled us to carry out our work over the past year:

FUNDERS

Scottish Government Carnegie Trust Fife Council Paths For All The Robertson Trust

OUR PARTNER ORGANISATIONS

Citizens Advice and Rights Fife, Fife Council, Community Mediation Service, Trust in Fife Tenancy Scheme, Fife Council Community Services, Fife Voluntary Action, Business Gateway, Fife Carers, Victim Support, Kingdom Credit Union, Greener Kirkcaldy, Fife Council Community Services, ESOL, Frontline Fife, COSLA, Skills Development Scotland, Fife Law Centre, Womans Aid

4 FIFE MIGRANTS FORUM STAFF & VOLUNTEERS

FIFE MIGRANTS STAFF & VOLUNTEERS

Gary Guichan – Manager Magdalena Augustyn – Lygas – Project Support Officer Colm Wilson – Volunteer Coordinator/ Caseworker Alicja Gasiorowska- Senior Caseworker Roxana Dumitru – Caseworker Katarzyna Slawek – Caseworker Safia Yassine – Caseworker Billy Lynch – Freelance Development Advisor VOLUNTEERS

Thank you to all our volunteers without you we would not be able to deliver all the fantastic work over the past year!

Ana Li’dia Brito Adela Stan Cathleen Stokes Jolanta Drywa Claire Miller Katarzyna Kanicka Clive Moonesamy Andrej Legen Cristina Noras Benjamin Jacob Anderson Dorota Rapacz Fadima Ouaiaou Jacek Czadek Iliyana Momchilova Izabella Antonik Michaela Pascari Jean Mcbryde Rev. Marc Powes Jacek Szuleta Sandra Nabais Kamil Lygas Margaret MacMillan Laurie Hayes Monica Turoni Margaret Terry Marcela Buranova Maria Auxiliadoza Sousa Barrera Dumitru Florian Bogdan Lesley Ratomska Katarzyna Czepiel Mariette Lobo Ibrahim Alaaskan Martina Legenova Linda Nicolson Dajana Legenova Stevie Stewart Mehriban Turan Justyna Majewska Patrick Glacken Ew Rogos-Chuchro Roger Brown Steven Stewart Marcin Czarkowski Mairead Mangto Tamara Brown Pauline Galloway

5 CHAIR’S REPORT/Violeta Ilendo

Current year 2018/19, has been another successful year for Fife Migrants Forum. Despite all the financial insecurities and challenges, twists and turns of the Brexit, and its implications for large num- bers of migrant communities, the Organisation continued with an excellent and widely recognised work. We have continued to develop and maintain our services and to ensure that we meet the needs of our clients and respond to them to support them through difficult times. We have also continued to provide through our services, substantial savings for statutory organisations. We have benefited from the hard work and expertise of our amazing and dedicated team of staff, who had further opportunity to continue developing their expertise and contribute to partnership working in Fife, and beyond. We have hugely benefited from effective partnerships with local organisations and agencies, includ- ing: CARF, Frontline Fife, Fife Council, Fife Law Centre and many other local, national and interna- tional partners. The political landscape remains challenging, and with the outcomes of Brexit still unknown, we are encouraged by positive attitude of the politicians, who support migrant communities, and value and highly praise their contributions to the Scottish economy and local communities. This year we had visits from: Lesley Laird, Jenny Gilruth, MSP, David Torrence, MSP, David Alexander, MSP, the leader of Fife Council. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those, who have contributed to another successful year at Fife Migrants Forum, and to our fantastic, dedicated and skilled team of staff, the Manager, our Volunteers and partner organisations. I would also like to thank all Board Members for their dedication and commitment, their time and skills they bring to the Board. Very reluctantly, we accepted a retirement request from Norman Bendex, who has been with the Organisation since its inception in 2010 and contributed immensely to its devel- opments by providing sound advice and assistance. We welcomed Benjamin Anderson and Carole Simpson. As an Organisation, we benefited this year from a new funding stream from Fife Council and , Path For All, Five Voluntary Action and Robertson Trust and we will retain and further de- velop existing services, and play an even more active role, leading on migrant issues across Scotland. From the very beginning the focus of Fife Migrants Forum has been to serve all the community not just migrants. We have been successful in this respect by having a thriving Credit Union collection point and offering welfare reform advice services to all sections of the community.

6 MANAGER’S REPORT/Gary Guichan

The year began with our new funding from Fife Council Employability team in place. This meant that we had a more formal focus on helping people find work, improve their work situation or improve their chances of finding work. These are things we have always done in the past but not had specific funding for this work.

Probably the biggest issue facing our clients has been the impending Brexit, with all that entails, in- cluding the EU Settlement scheme. I attended several sessions on how the scheme would work, and the funding opportunity for voluntary groups to assist EU citizens. Despite being the only voluntary organisation in Fife dealing specifically with migrants we were unsuccessful in our bid.

Fife Migrants Forum is a small organisation that attracts a lot of attention from policy makers, re- searchers and the media and its opinion is valued and participation at committee level sought out and welcomed. In this respect, the agency ‘punches way above its weight’ Our service is unique; it is about the people who come in with day to day issues that are made so complex due to lack of language and cultural understanding of the services here in Scotland. The in- formation and advice service has continued to be exceptionally busy. We continue to work towards integration and helping to build more socially cohesive communities. This work is essential in the longer term and can help to avert the day to day crises that clients face. We are the only agency in the area that has the experience, knowledge and understanding to make this happen.

We have continued to run our Conversational Cafes, with one or two changes, we now run Cafes in Kirkcaldy on Friday & Saturday, but our one has ceased functioning.

In November we ran a highly successful jobs fair in the postings. We had twenty employers, employ- ment agencies and training providers. We had over 100 clients attending and the stall holders recoded over 400 positive contacts during the day.

Halloween and Christmas parties were held for children, of all ages, and a hugely successful event was held to celebrate International Womens day in March.

We have continued to receive support from local politicians and over the year welcomed MSP, Jenny Gilruth MSP, David Torrance MSP and Lesley Laird MP to our office. We have also had contact and support from Peter Grant MP and Stephen Gethins MP.

Last year the Fife Advice Partnership lost the Migrants Forums part of its funding for the Wise 2 Wel- fare project, but we continued to try and support the other partners as best we could. Unfortunately the remaining funding for the project ended in March 2019.

Events and topics we have attended and contributed to during the year have included Fife Voluntary Actions, Towards a Fairer Fife event and regularly attended their 3rd sector employability events.

7 In May 2018 we were able to employ Safia Yassine, an Arabic speaking caseworker with support from Fife Councils supported employment project, and we would want to thank the council for their assis- tance with this. We have continued to support the council’s refugee task group and core group over the year.

We have continued to work closely with the Romanian Consul in Edinburgh, including a visit by staff to the consul to discuss issues of concern. I also had the pleasure of attending Romania’s National Day celebrations in Edinburgh City Chambers.

Fife Centre for Equalities organised an Equalities Day with senior pupils at Beath High School Cowden- beath. I was invited to take part to talk to the youngsters about migration. I presented a joint session with Police Scotland on stereotyping, hate crime and migration. It seemed to be well received.

I have attended cross party working groups in parliament on behalf of the Forum on Poland and Hu- man Trafficking. This year has seen us develop a new partnership with Drummond Miller solicitors. One of their staff attend our office once a month to provide free immigration advice to clients. With a view to the future we have held three policy development days which included staff, board and volunteers to establish a strategic plan for the way forward for Fife Migrants Forum.

8 VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR’S REPORT/Colm Wilson

This has been another good year in terms of volunteering at Fife Migrants Forum. During this financial year, twenty new volunteers have joined FMF enabling it to expand its diverse bank of volunteers to sixty-nine.

Our volunteers have a variety of skills, interest and come from many different backgrounds. FMF’s volunteers speaks a total of twenty two different languages. This includes: Polish, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Lithuanian, Latvian, English, Italian, Bulgarian, Brazilian, Portuguese, Slovak, Arabic, Urdu, Punjabi, French, Czech, German, Ukrainian, Latin, Shona, and Hindi.

Fourteen of the volunteers are from the indigenous mainstream community who have lived in the UK all their lives and now what to spend their free time by helping others. Two of those volunteers (retired teachers) run Conversational Cafes for our clients; another three are committed to start classes in the near future. The rest of our volunteers are migrants themselves. Some of them have now settled and want to give something back by helping fellow migrants; some are newcomers who are looking for job experience and want to learn new skills which will allow them to begin their career paths in the UK. During this financial year eight of our volunteers have managed to secure better jobs and progress their career paths.

Volunteer Development and Involvement

We provide an excellent opportunity for individuals for integration through volunteering from all different ethnic minority backgrounds as well as the mainstream community. These volunteers play an enormous role in the development of FMF. They help us to improve and widen the services FMF provides to our clients. Most of our volunteers are referred from Fife Voluntary Action where our volunteering opportunities are advertised. Some of our volunteers were initially clients of FMF and others were self-referred following word of mouth advice. On average the volunteers contribute 71 hours every month to FMF. This includes office attendance, online contributions, and participation in trainings courses, workshops, meetings, and other events. During this financial year the 69 Volunteers have contributed 850 hours.

The main role for most of our volunteers is to provide language support to those clients who have limited English skills by providing direct client support and helping with communication. Furthermore the volunteers provide language support to the clients who attend weekly Job Clubs, monthly CARF clinics, weekly Credit Union collection points and English classes. Moreover the volunteers help with translation of FMF’s leaflets, information brochures and other marketing materials. 15 of our volunteers are also dedicated to do Administration Support. Those come to the office on regular basis and help with day to day office tasks and support staff with their casework. This includes reception duties, updating database, typing, gathering feedback and contacting clients and more. One volunteer is working on professional branding and other marketing materials for FMF such as leaflets, posters, cards, headed paper. Another provides server maintenance and IT services.

9

Case Studies:

Volunteer M - joined our organisation in January 2016. She followed word of mouth advice. She was a full time mum and out of off work for 5 years. She had been looking for a job but she found it difficult. She felt she lacked self confidence and experience. She dedicated to volunteer for FMF 3 days per week. She became involved with FMF’s administration, she helped a tutor with running Conversational Cafe and she also supported clients whose English skills were limited. She learnt new skills; her self-confidence grew as well. Soon she started attending interviews and in March 2016 she was offered a part time job. She continues to volunteer with us although she now only commits to one day per week.

Volunteer G - joined FMF in January 2015. She was referred by Fife Voluntary action. She had recently come to the UK and was unemployed. She benefited from our services: Job Club and Career Guidance and was volunteering as Administration Support. In March 2015 she secured a full time job at a local grocery store. She continued to volunteer while still looking for another job which was more relevant to her qualifications and experience from abroad. In February 2016 she successfully passed an interview and has now started a full time job at an insurance Company.

Volunteer I - joined FMF in July 2015. She was initially a client of FMF and was advised to become involved with our organisation. She lacked self-confidence. She did not believe her skills were enough to move forward with her career. She Volunteered as Language Support, Admin Support and also became involved with arranging and supporting a host with running a Coversational Cafe. She has started to believe in herself, she felt strong enough to move forward. From November 2015 she has been successfully running her own business which has become her full time job.

“Genuinely love trying to make a difference in people’s lives and I enjoy every moment when I can spot how people are changing their life thanks to the Fife Migrants Forum”. - Magda -

(...) I stepped into the Forum and it changed my experience of moving from to another country. At the Forum I have met amazing people both in the workers and volunteers and it’s nice to share your time and your experiences with them. Here you will always find a biscuit a coffee and a warm welcoming environment. Here I found help and gave it, I found reassurance and they made me believe more in myself and my possibilities. My life now wouldn’t be the same without my Wednesday at FMF!” - Germana -

“I have been involved with FMF for 5 years now. I enjoy spending my day off at the office. Over those years I learnt a lot new things, I also improved my IT skills but the most importantly I have made fantastic friends! It is always nice to come to the office, help clients and staff. I am proud to be a Volunteer at FMF” - Dorota -

10 OUR SERVICES

Fife Migrants Service Landscape: our work reaches out to all aspects of our client’s daily lives.

Advocacy and Case- Skills Development work Support Scotland Clinics

Kingdom Credit Immigration Union Collection Clinics Point

Business Weekly Job Clubs Gateway Clinics

Syrian Refugees’ IT Classes Conversational Cafe

Conversational The Syrian Classes Women Group

Sole Sisters Employability Walking Group for Support Women

Volunteering training and Multilingual advice personal development and information ser- opportunities vice

Fife Migrants Forum has continued offering the following services: weekly Job Club, weekly IT classes, regular weekly conversational cafes, Credit Union Collection Point, weekly CARF clinics and many others to reflect the changing nature of clientele, Sole Sisters- healthy walking for women, Skills Development Scotland Clinics, Monthly Immigration Clinics and more.

11 Summary of Fife Migrants Forum activities during the reporting period April 2018 to March 2019

Daily Advice Clinics: Averting Crisis

Through providing timely help and intervention before issues escalate, our Advice Clinics have proved invaluable to many of our clients in difficult circumstances. Over the year our Advice Clinics have dealt with clients from different nationality helping resolve different cases relating to mainly social welfare, financial hardships, housing, employment and education.

Weekly Job Clubs

In partnership with Fife Employability initiative, the 50 Weekly Job Clubs, which offers Syrian Refugees’ Conversational Cafe practical help and advice, we have enabled more people achieve employment. Lee Robertson and Anne Hinojosa, members of Fife Team, facilitated these sessions.

‘’Fife Council’s Community Job Club Welfare Support Workers work with Fife Migrant’s Forum to deliver practical support to their clients requiring general Welfare Reform support such as completing job searching activities expected as a condition of receiving job seeking benefits. This includes practical support to access online job searching and create CVs. Job Club staff view their working relationship with Fife Migrant’s Forum staff and volunteers very positively and appreciate the opportunity to deliver support within an environment capable of delivering language support to clients from a wide range of nationalities’’ Lee Robertson, Fife Council

12 IT For All

As service provision and access from most provider shifts toward online and digital access, our IT 4 All training is offering to help people with marginal to no computer skill, empowering them to be self- sufficient.

Credit Union Saving and Money Advice: “We are Making money, Saving make sense” The Credit Union initiative to help facilitate access to affordable credit, thus helping tackle financial exclusion for the local community and pioneering work to prevent problems. Collaborating with the Kingdom Credit Union, the weekly collection is helping promote saving, in order to help people with financial budgeting. It is also an opportunity to create a savings account with access to inexpensive, low-interest loans. Moreover we believe that joining CU can prevent our clients from getting into expensive debt.

Conversational Cafes

We have small informal support groups where people can practice English conversation among Scottish-born speakers. We host our sessions in four locations at different times so they can connect with the community, practice English, and make new friends in a relaxed atmosphere.

Kirkcaldy Conversational Café: FRIDAY AND SATURDAY 11am, The Postings Centre Hunter St, Kirkcaldy KY1 1HN

Rosyth Conversational Café: Tuesday 9.30am & Wednesday 6pm, Rosyth Hub 8 Aberlour St, KY11 2RD

13 14 Conversational Cafe All of our sessions are free Meet up with others in a safe, fun, social group to learn and speak English! We have small informal support groups where you can practice English conversation among Scottish-born speakers. We are always interested in learning from your experience and culture, over a fresh hot cup of coffee and delicious cookies. We host our sessions in four locations at different times so you can connect with the community. Practice your English, and make new friends in a relaxed atmosphere – you can do it!

Kirkcaldy Conversational Café: Monday & Friday 11am The Postings Centre Hunter St, Kirkcaldy KY1 1HN

Glenrothes Conversational Café: Saturday 2-3.30 pm St Pauls Glenrothes KY7 4 Glenrothes

Rosyth Conversational Café: Tuesday 9.30am & Wednesday 6pm Rosyth Hub 8 Aberlour St, KY11 2RD

Dunfermline Walk & Talk Café: once per month (CONTACT US FOR MORE DETAILS)

Fife Migrants Forum

email: [email protected] telephone: 01592 642 927 post: the postings shopping centre, unit 4, hunter street, kirkcaldy, ky1 1hn

15 Syrian Refugees Conversional Cafe

The aim is to learn how to communicate in English. We have started the first session by each one introducing themselves and which city in Syrian they are from. Talking about home where they are from made it fun and more exciting opportunity to break the barrier of lack of confidence. Safia always attends the conversational coffee to give them some confidence to speak out more and make it more as a safe fun and good environment to speak the English language. We even had to use some tools for our clients to remember what it’s been said on the conversation coffee by using what’s up and sending recordings to them so they can practice at home as well.

The Syrian Women Group

The Aim of creating this group is to let the Syrian women go out on their own without their husbands and show them that they can easily rely on themselves and give them some confidence. eW have Volunteers from St Andrews University (RASA) who come along to meet with Safia and the Group and speak English with the ladies to practice the language. The ladies are enjoying their time together and getting their children out for a play. They are ambitious and clever girls who needs so much support to achieve their potential aims.

16 Sole Sisters - walking group for women

Feel good/Have more energy/Reduce stress/Manage your weight/Have fun/Meet new FRIENDS!

17 18 Monthly Citizens Advice and Rights Fife Clinics

Clinics are run with the assistance of expert from CARF. Language support, which is provided by FMF, enables our clients to receive important and timely advice and help with complex issues. As part of an on-going partnership between CARF& FMF we have carried out monthly clinics at FMF over the past year. Approximately 60 clients were seen over this time on a wide range of subjects including benefits and employment issues. The link is a vital one as FMF provide an interpreter when required and provided valuable assistance where the client requires on-going assistance,which is the case in a large number of situations.

Richard Park: Bureau Coordinator Citizens Advice & Rights Fife

Monthly Immigration Advice Surgery FMF facilitated 6 Immigration Advice Surgeries with an average of 2 people per session. Advice surgeries are given by accredited immigration specialist in order to help our clients to receive relevant advice on all aspects of immigration, asylum, nationality and human rights law. This activity provides an invaluable service to our clients.

Monthly Fife Law Centre Clinic

Offers a range of advice and representation on civil law issues for those who have difficulty accessing legal services or cannot afford legal representation.

Weekly Skills Development Scotland (SDS)

Supporting people to develop and apply their skills, provide services that deliver the very best outcomes for people, businesses and the economy.

19 MAIN REASONS FOR CLIENTS CONTACT

We Listen, Empathise, Advise, Learn and Influence

The strength in FMF service delivery approach lies within the aptitude of its staff and volunteers who have a great sense of compassion and dedication to their clients.

20 21 22 Employability Stats

There are 322 clients who have at least one employability outcome regis- tered. 39 Clients gained employment, 25 of those managed to sustain it for over 6 months.

23 CASEWORK - CASE STUDIES 1. Miss A is a Polish national and single mum of two who arrived in the UK in 2008. She worked part time in 2009 - 2011, then looked after kids only. She separated from her partner in 2017. She contacted our office as her ex partner decided to sell the property and no longer pay mortgage rates/rent. The client was supporting herself and her two kids from only Tax Credits and Child Benefit. She was also repaying a Tax Credit debt of over ten thousand pound which occurred when she was in a relationship. She was very concerned about her housing situation as she was not able to afford the rent and deposit. She was about to become homeless after the house is sold. She was depressed and scarred about her kids’ future. She was also very scared as her expartner told her that she will not get any benefits and she will be deported back to Poland. The client was assured about her rights in the UK. All procedures with homeless application and new claim for UC were discussed as well. The client received help as follow:

- Application for social housing was made and the supporting letters explaining her situation were written. Soon after that the house was sold the client was able to move into Fife Council accommodation. Also the application was made to Scottish Welfare Fund for a budgeting loan so as she can purchase the necessary goods for her new flat. This was successful.

- An application for Universal Credit was made in order to get housing costs covered. Here the caseworker expected that her claim will be rejected at first and the client was warned that her tax credits will stop and she will be without any income for around 3 months. After 6 weeks she received a decision that she is not eligible to UC as she has no right to reside. Mandatory Reconsideration letter was written based on the fact that she has a derivative right to reside from a child in education and she worked in the Uk in 2009-2011, therefore she is consequently habitually resident in the UK which makes her eligible to apply for benefits.

- During the time when the client was left without any income (only Child Benefit) and awaited MR decision, Miss A received foodbank voulchers, she also received help with applying for Crisis Grants (3 times). During the Christams time she also received new toys and other goods which FMF has managed to collect.

- Moreover a letter to Tax Credit was written to request the debt she repays to be made a joined debt therefore she will be responsible to pay back a half of the amount. This was successful and the client now has to repay half of the original debt.

- The client also received help with applying for Council Tax Reduction and contacting Fife Council re her rent debt and council tax. She also received school uniform and meals grant.

- Eventually, in January 2019 the client received MR decission and her Universal Credit is now bacdated to the original claim date. Tax Credit debt is being deducted from her UC payments. Rent costs are also backdated as well as Council Tax reduction. The client is now able to manage her financial situation. She is looking forward into future. She is actively looking for a job and gets involved in other FMF’s activities such as Fit mums, Sole sister and Job Club. The client still receives an ongoing language support via emails and appointments when needed other services.

24 2. A Romanian client got health problems and because she was working with a recruiting agency, they couldn’t give her any sick payment, they just put her on hold for another working place. She was the only person working in the family, the partner lost the job 3 weeks back too, and the son is 14-year-old in high school. Managed to help the client to survive financial by applying for Crisis Grant and helped the partner to find a job with a recruiting agency and then to apply for UC. Because of the language barrier I had to make some phone calls for her to the doctors for appointments. She came for some Conversational Café meetings to improve her English. Since June 2018 she couldn’t have the surgery till January 2019. Now after recovery, she is able to look again for work, she is attending our Job Club. Till now she relays on her partner’s job and they were able to receive UC payments. Soon she is hopping that they will have to cancel the UC because she is getting back into work.

3. One of my Syrian refugee clients came to Fife with his family in 2016, he is 25 years old he and his Mum, Dad and two brothers came to Scotland for a safe and better way of life. When I first met him he didn’t speak or communicate in English. He was a hairdresser in Syria and they had a beauty centre alongside his Mother and Brother. But after the war they have lost everything, their certificate of studies and there business finally having to move to Jordan. He came to me with his Mother for the first time after hearing about me in the community. He was looking for a job and he said that it was difficult for him to overcome the many obstacles in finding a job. I have advised him that there is nothing impossible here and that I have been through that road before when I had no understanding of the English language and it can affect confidence but now because I have worked on myself I am enjoying my success and I’m happy sharing my experience with everyone. I kept applying for job(s) for my client and at the same time applied for an ESOL course with Fife College for him. Finally he was accepted to start a job in one of the biggest retail companies in Fife and in 31st August 2018 he started his English course as well. He was going to suggest to me that he couldn’t study full time as he was working but I advised him to speak to his manager about part time work (working only the days he is off college). Thankfully my client’s manager had accepted that situation and my client from that time started to work and study in college at the same time. My clients contract has ended after 8 months but I have helped him to get alternative employment in Edinburgh as a hairdresser and I helped him apply for a college course (SVQ in hairdressing) which I believe that will be a first step to achieve more qualifications in his area of interest which will lead him to achieve his dream of becoming a fully qualified hairdresser in Scotland and open his very own Salon in Scotland.

25 FEEDBACK FROM OUR CLIENTS

Our team have received numerous comments and positive feedback from our clients for our professional, efficient and free service

The case workers are amazing and they do a great job ...All of them are like a family

Mihaela, Romania

Thank you very much to Mrs. Kasia and Mrs. Alicjia for helping me. They are really good helpers and they can do stuff really well they do it really professional. ps. It would be great if they could come back to the Fife Migrants office because there was better because the customer had an appointment on the time and there wasn’t plenty customers at one time.

Beata, Poland

Thank you safia for the help you give me and my family. .مكتيعمجل اركشو يتلئاعلو يل كتدعاسمل ةيفص اركش

Saarad, Syria

26 CASEWORKER EXPERIENCES

Alicja Gasiorowska

I have been working at Fife Migrants Forum for over 9 years now. I have witness the growth of Fife Migrants Forum, its hard time when having limited funding and staff, and other positive changes such as expanding its services. There is however one aspect that remains the same about Fife Migrants Forum and it is the help and support we provide to our clients.

Year 2018/2019 had yet been another busy year at FMF. We have worked with our clients focussing on employment prospects. We have provided a range of employability services. Our clients managed to gain employment and have sustained it for over 6 months already. Action plan is being followed with majority of FMF’s clients by helping them to learn language and common skills, by engaging them in trainings, volunteering or getting a work placements. On a day to day basis we provide our support to wide range of issues. Categories include Welfare Rights, Employment, Financial, Children and Family, Education, Health Services etc. We often refer the clients for further help and continue the assistance for them shall they face barriers such as lack of confidence, language skills, experience and more. On the other hand we have witnessed a higher number of EU workers who have made their decisions about returning to their home countries. There is a lot of uncertainty around Brexit and Brexit might be another trigger for their decision.

Being a caseworker may be challenging, stressing and overwhelming at times. Some of the cases we have to deal with do not have a straight answer and are very complicated so additional research, time and assistance is required. Despite the challenges casework brings, it is a very rewarding job. There is nothing better than seeing the positive impact we make in our clients’ lives. It is very often when our clients will confirm that only thanks to FMF they manged to move forward: to deal with their problems, to develop their language skills and further career. I am proud to be a member of Fife Migrants Forum team and I hope that our charity will be able to sustain further funding so as our main service for the clients can be continued.

Roxana Dumitru

Working with Fife Migrants Forum showed me a side of me which I didn’t know that I have it, that to be able to speak with people, to show them compassion and understanding and to be able to give them the right information that they need for their situations. Working so long here developed my computer skills and my English language. I deal with Polish, Czech, Bulgarian, Portuguese people, but most with the Romanian clients. Help them with the welfare rights, with employability, and more than half of this year information about how BREXIT will affect them or not, how to apply for settled status and also helped them to obtain new passports or national IDs from the Romanian Embassy. When I see that more then 90% of the clients are happy with what they receive, that is a happy day for me too.

27 Katarzyna Slawek

I have been on Fife Migrants Forum for more than 3 years already, during all this time I have given the best of me to improve the business and the services we offer to our clients. I am always working base on Humans and Person Centre approach to making sure my clients are serving with compassion and they have provided the best information and help for them. I learn a lot from my colleagues and my clients. We are all different but we have this same of feelings and needs. I believe that empathy is so important in my job. During all this time, I was a case worker and language support but in 2018 I have been leading the Conversational Café in Glenrothes along with Roxi and more engaged with the project. Fife Migrants Forum have organized the very popular Job Fair we had a few months ago with a good attendance of 6000 people. Also, a Christmas Party for children in Glenrothes which had very good attendance and received very good feedback, we have organized the Brexit Event hold in the Town Hall. During Christmas time, we secured the toys for Christmas gifts for the children in poverty. We also set up a new project called the International Women’s Forum. On International Women’s Day we brought together 140 women from over 20 different countries which was the largest gathering of women in Kirkcaldy for some time. I do think that Fife Migrants Forum should have more projects to help our clients and also to help them and motivate them to get integrate on British culture as well as better management or their lives.

Safia Yassine

I started my new role as a Caseworker in Fife Migrants Forum on May 2018. I started as a Volunteer working with the Syrian refugees doing language support and applying for travel documents. I used to come along once a week from 11am to 1pm. There was a small number of Syrian refugees coming along to our organisation for help and support and once it spread in the community that there is an Arabic speaker and caseworker helping people through their journeys in Fife. Most of them started coming to meet me and our organisation. I was successful in putting some of individuals into employment and others into college and also what made it more exciting was the Fife Migrants Forum conversational coffee for Syrian refugees to help them with the communication and learn how to book appointments and how to pass security questions through the telephone etc. I have also started a Syrian women’s group project where the Syrian ladies catch up once in every week or two with their children and talk about the challenges they are facing in Fife their concerns and how we can sort them all out. They are very ambitious ladies, clever and they need the help in every aspect of life here that is why I would always be there for them. I am currently working with people from all around the world and I help them in everything from advice and support to employability to welfare rights and even if I don’t speak their language there is always a solution and the solution can be from calling for a volunteer who can do the language support to using some other tools to break the language barrier. I love my job so much and I enjoy working in Fife Migrants Forum, the staff are amazing and are always helpful and being a caseworker who helps people through there difficulties is an amazing job that I cannot see myself doing anything different.

28 PROMOTING VOLUNTEER DEVELOPMENT

We provide an excellent opportunity for integration through volunteering for individuals from all different ethnic minority backgrounds and the mainstream community. The volunteers play a huge role in FMFs development. They help us to improve and widen the services FMF provides for clients. They support clients whose English skills are limited, they support staff in their daily duties and moreover, integrate with others from the Fife community.

• On average the volunteers contribute to FMF 65 hours in total every month. This includes office attendance, online contributions, and participating in other events,workshops and trainings.

• One volunteer is working on professional branding and other marketing materials for FMF such as leaflets, posters, cards, headed paper.

• Most of the volunteers are working on FMF leaflets by converting them into their native language as well as doing final quality checks of designed leaflet (translation into Polish, Italian, Spanish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Czech, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian and Romanian).

Our volunteers provide a wide variety of supporting services to the organisation including: • Server maintenance and IT services. • Language Support sessions for Credit Union clients • Language and IT support for clients who attend Job Club

29 EVENTS WITH FIFE MIGRANTS FORUM

Welcome and thank you to the new volunteers who completed the Volunteer Training in Dunfermline this morning. We are always looking for new volunteers to take part in our new projects

A big thanks to Claire Baker MSP for coming along to meet the team and our Syrian friends

30 International Children’s Day ! We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did! A Huge Thank You to All of Our Volunteers and Staff - Great job! We appreciate your time and effort

31 Volunteers Lunch

32 Fife Migrants Forum Development Day

33 Jobs Fair at the CISWO in Glenrothes

34 Fife Migrants Forum Strategy Day September 2018

35 Successful meeting with Romanian Consul in Edinburgh

Brexit Event Just Right Scotland

36 Jobs Fair Event organised by FMF in The Kirkcaldy Shopping Centre

37 Christmas Conversational Cafe

International Women’s Day 8th March

38 Halloween and Christmas Kids Parties in Glenrothes

39 EU Citizens Rights and Brexit Event

40 Fife Migrants Forum Developing long term strategic goals event

41 42 Fife Migrants Forum

The Postings Centre, Unit 4 Hunter St, Kirkcaldy KY1 1HN

T: 01592 642 927 E: [email protected]

Fife Migrants Forum Registered Charity Number S0C43053

Fife Migrants Forum

https://fifemigrantsforum.org.uk/

43