August 10th 2010

The Big Lottery Fund today announced its awards under the  Reaching Communities Programme. It made 33 awards nationally, totaling almost £8 million targeted on “support for communities and people most in need”. The Regional Refugee Forum was one of two organisations in the North East to receive an award, which totals £399,397 over 3 years.

The Northern Rock Foundation which has been funding our previous Capacity Building Project (SCAP) has also recently awarded us £149,544 over 3 years under the " Changing Lives Programme". 

Message from the Trustees 12th August 2010

“We are really delighted with this news and very thankful to the Big Lottery Fund for this award for our Training & Development Project. The Regional Refugee Forum, which for the last 10 years has been the Collective Voice of the refugee community in the North East, was created by refugee communities re-building their lives in the safety of the region. Our members want to be active citizens, fully participating in and contributing to the region that has given us a new home. But as new members of the north east community we face many hurdles and need additional support to understand the complex jigsaw of services and community engagement platforms that exist , how to access them and genuinely engage in them. This will give us more chance to integrate, and start giving something back to this region. Meanwhile service providers frequently contact us to request more contact with the community, to understand their needs and issues, and how to work with us. So the Big Lottery award and Northern Rock Foundation award give us the real opportunity to bring refugees and service providers together, to help build mutual understanding and help secure real inclusion of new communities within the region, which we truly believe will be in everyone’s interests”

“Many people in my community rely on me to do things ... but if I don’t know how to do it myself, how can I help them?”

What some of the region’s agencies say about this new project

Some of our clients face many challenges and most,  if not all, of our Personal Advisers require support to understand the issues surrounding Refugees and Asylum Seekers and how best to advise on those issues.

This is an exciting development and a chance for our programmes to build inter-cultural competence into professional practice across the region

A lot of refugees and asylum seekers still need personalised support to address their individual needs so that they could access mainstream services and support which enables them to become economically independent and active citizens