RA-C’s “Food From Home” Foodbank has been up and running for about a month now and is such an exciting and essential extension of our organisation. Many of our clients from African and Middle Eastern countries can now access ingredients that are expensive to come by and would not be found in Colchester’s general food […]
Category Archives: In the Community
Domestic violence is always a shocking and difficult issue for anyone to survive. For our clients there is often a layer of immigration related difficulty woven into the story that makes it even more complex. In the first lockdown we saw, as reflected in the national trend, a rise of around 45% in DV cases. […]
Recently there has been a big change in the clients we have seen and the type of support they need. Coronavirus has played a huge part in the increase in clients we have seen since lockdown began. It has meant that people surviving on the goodwill of others now no longer feel able to do […]
Community activities of limited numbers and in keeping with Covid regulations for Community groups, continue to take place. Volunteers who are able, continue to maintain established relationships and give support. And new activities are being explored and organised. Small Forest Schools continue and the growing project thrives. On 19th September the participants in Together We […]
Community activities continue to be popular and to provide some pleasure and purpose during this difficult time. The library service supplied us with packs of books and activities for families and these have been distributed by volunteers and case-workers. The Mercury theatre asked us to take part in their production of short videos related to […]
Just before the Covid 19 lockdown we were excited to receive a generous grant from Colchester Borough Council specifically for use with our Forest School activities. For about 2 years we had had the occasional Forest School in High Woods, Colchester, under the supervision of Tim, a volunteer who is a qualified Forest School leader […]
There are now Webinars available which try to demonstrate to people how to engage with clients during lockdown and the Covid19 experience. It hasn’t really been an issue we have faced. Our community is already so bonded that most referrals come in from previous clients and our existing groups have all continued. One group – […]
Every Friday during term time between about six and ten Sixth Form students, along with teachers Kerstin and Alison stay behind when lessons finish at 4pm at The Sixth Form College, North Hill. They do so to provide one to one help with homework for school age young people in the refugee community. The club […]
We are very pleased to announce that Refugee Action – Colchester has received a grant from Colchester Council to enable to us to run our popular Forest Schools for the next three years. The money will enable us to purchase our own equipment and pay for sessions to be run with targeted groups within our […]
As the monthly Community Meetings have gone from strength to strength we are also attracting more volunteers who want to get actively involved in Refugee Action – Colchester. This is just as well as the calls for help from sanctuary-seekers from many countries, are increasing all the time, as people realise the precariousness of the […]