Our AGM was held on 7th November at Firstsite – guests were treated to tea and delicious Syrian baklava and basboosa before the presentations began. Organisation Update Rosalind Scott, outgoing chair, reviewed how Refugee Action – Colchester CIC has undergone some major organisational changes during the year thanks to a Lottery Development Grant provided to […]
What do all children need in order to grow into healthy, happy members of society? Security. Stability. Love, care, the latest iPhone (even refugees just want to be cool!). But jokes aside, it’s vital for a child’s mental wellbeing to know where they belong. For three young people in our community, a group of siblings […]
For many of our clients, paperwork is a life raft. It’s the difference between a safe home and healthy existence, and the ongoing struggle to survive. But it can be impossible. A lack of English speaking and writing skills is an enormous barrier to filling in asylum applications, NHS forms, welfare statements, school applications, job […]
Around 40% of the people we help are NRPFs. This is a UK status that means ‘No Recourse to Public Funds’ – basically, no benefits, no housing. But with no legal right to work – being forced instead to rely on the generosity of strangers, or live on the street. Often this is a temporary […]
This week we celebrate two years as a fully-fledged CIC – a Community Interest Company. Why do we not have charity status? As a non-profit CIC, we can be more flexible with our income generation drives (which we need to pay rent, office supplies and services in order to do the work we do). It […]
As part of our work to make Refugee Action-Colchester into a sustainable organisation, we have started what we call ‘Stakeholder Meetings’, the first meeting being held in July 2019. We plan to have three meetings a year giving all volunteers an opportunity to come together and share information on new developments. We value our volunteers […]
RA-C central team has continued working on our development into a Community Interest Company, CIC. We are keen to understand the practices which have grown organically and to find a way of streamlining parts of the work we do so that we can be more effective. It turns out that this has revealed the nature […]
Our AGM for 2018 took place on the 15th of November at Firstsite – we had around a 60-70 people attend the meeting, which was divided into three main parts. After the formal presentation of our accounts for the year, Maria presented a captivating ‘alternative view’ of our account from a non-finance perspective in which […]
We’re delighted to have been granted funding to enable us to develop and transform Refugee Action – Colchester as we grow and meet the changing needs of refuge seekers contacting us. This ‘Development Grant’ will enable the RA-C team to review our work including revisiting our goals and what we do, formalising the Community Interest […]
Refugee Action – Colchester has evolved as a network of volunteers, partners and friendships across Colchester and beyond. We have become a trusted provider of help to people seeking refuge in Colchester, often called upon informally and formally by statutory services, voluntary organisations and individuals. So far we rely solely on donations and in particular […]
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