Minutes of first Annual General Meeting of Herts Welcomes Syrian Families.
Quaker Meeting House, Welwyn Garden City, 25/01/2017
Chair: Irene Austin
Treasurer: Mick Hayter
Committee members: Samah Alharabi, John Borton, Catherine Henderson, Rachel Houghton, Veronica Raymond, Katie Seaton, Gary Sutcliffe, Vicky Woodcraft.
48 people were present, including 32 HWSF members, Refugee Council volunteers and representatives from several local organisations, including the Bosnian Association, Boxmoor Catholic Women’s League, Citizens UK, HWSF Dacorum, Herts for Carers, Herts for Refugees, North Herts Ethnic Minority forum,The Refugee Council, Rickmansworth for Refugees, People not Borders – Berko helping Refugees, St Albans for Refugees (StAR), The Stefanou Foundation, Together 100, University of Hertfordshire Refugee Support Group, Watford and Three Rivers Partnership and Welwyn-Hatfield Interfaith Group
(Apologies to anyone who was present and whose organisation is not mentioned here.)
Apologies - many apologies from those unable to attend were received and noted,
The meeting began with a screening of Katie Seaton’s powerful setting of the WH Auden poem ‘Refugee Blues’. (This can be seen on HWSF Facebook page)
Item 1 Chair’s Report. Irene Austin.(Copy attached)
Main points
Item 2. Treasurer’s Report. Mick Hayter. (Copy of report and accounts attached)
Main Points
Item 3 Adoption of Constitution
The constitution (Copy attached) previously circulated, was proposed by Mick Hayter and Seconded by Gary Sutcliffe. It was carried unanimously with no abstentions.
Item 4 Appointment of Trustees.
The appointment of Samah Alharabi, Irene Austin, Mick Hayter, Catherine Henderson, Gary Sutcliffe and Vicky Woodcraft was proposed by Rachel Houghton, seconded by Mione Goldspink and carried unanimously.
They will serve for an initial term of three years.
Item 5 Presentation 1: Hannah Picking, Refugee Council (RC) Project Manager, Hertfordshire Syrian Programme
Item 6 Presentation 2 Nina Moraitou-Politzi. Case worker.
Main cultural differences:-
Item 8 General comments.
Item 9 Concluding Remarks
Irene Austin thanked everyone for their attendance and participation. All suggestions for the ongoing work of HWSF will be considered at the next Management Meeting and members will be informed of all outcomes.
There will almost certainly be appeals for more help in the near future.
Vicky Woodcraft. 01/02/2017
Quaker Meeting House, Welwyn Garden City, 25/01/2017
Chair: Irene Austin
Treasurer: Mick Hayter
Committee members: Samah Alharabi, John Borton, Catherine Henderson, Rachel Houghton, Veronica Raymond, Katie Seaton, Gary Sutcliffe, Vicky Woodcraft.
48 people were present, including 32 HWSF members, Refugee Council volunteers and representatives from several local organisations, including the Bosnian Association, Boxmoor Catholic Women’s League, Citizens UK, HWSF Dacorum, Herts for Carers, Herts for Refugees, North Herts Ethnic Minority forum,The Refugee Council, Rickmansworth for Refugees, People not Borders – Berko helping Refugees, St Albans for Refugees (StAR), The Stefanou Foundation, Together 100, University of Hertfordshire Refugee Support Group, Watford and Three Rivers Partnership and Welwyn-Hatfield Interfaith Group
(Apologies to anyone who was present and whose organisation is not mentioned here.)
Apologies - many apologies from those unable to attend were received and noted,
The meeting began with a screening of Katie Seaton’s powerful setting of the WH Auden poem ‘Refugee Blues’. (This can be seen on HWSF Facebook page)
Item 1 Chair’s Report. Irene Austin.(Copy attached)
Main points
- None of the support given to Syrian families would have been possible without the generosity of members of the local community and a great deal of hard work on the part of the management committee and two working parties - IT and Charity Commission application.
- Close working arrangements have been made with the Refugee Council, as well as local councils, churches and other refugee-support organisations..
- Currently we are helping to support 17 families across the county - see report for full details - including provision of ‘non basic items’ which local councils do not provide and organisation of meals and other social events to combat family isolation.
- Critical issues are limitations on ESOL (English for speakers of other languages) provision in the county and difficulty - and expense - of cross-county travel.
- HWSF is applying for charitable status.
Item 2. Treasurer’s Report. Mick Hayter. (Copy of report and accounts attached)
Main Points
- Just over £10.000 was received between May and December 31st 2016, from individual donations and as a result of fund-raising activities.
- Major expense has been provision of tvs, radios and tv licences for families.
- Our financial position is sound, with over £3,000 remaining, but more families will arrive in 2017, whilst families already here will need continued support.
- We are grateful for everyone’s generosity - and sincerely hope this will continue.
- Bank transfer or cheque donations are preferable to Pay Pal until we achieve charity status.
Item 3 Adoption of Constitution
The constitution (Copy attached) previously circulated, was proposed by Mick Hayter and Seconded by Gary Sutcliffe. It was carried unanimously with no abstentions.
Item 4 Appointment of Trustees.
The appointment of Samah Alharabi, Irene Austin, Mick Hayter, Catherine Henderson, Gary Sutcliffe and Vicky Woodcraft was proposed by Rachel Houghton, seconded by Mione Goldspink and carried unanimously.
They will serve for an initial term of three years.
Item 5 Presentation 1: Hannah Picking, Refugee Council (RC) Project Manager, Hertfordshire Syrian Programme
- At present RC are responsible for 65 people, brought to Herts under the government’s Syrian Vulnerable Persons’ Resettlement Scheme, During 2017 it is likely that about 60 more people will arrive.
- These are all people who have fled from Syria to neighbouring countries and have been identified by UNHCR with priority given to women and girls adrift, victims of torture and people in urgent need of medical care.
- Housing and basic furnishings are provided by the accepting Local Authorities.
- RC meets and greets families, brings them to their homes and gives support from caseworkers for 12 months from the day of arrival, ‘As much as necessary but as little as possible’ - the aim being to encourage independence.
- RC works with various providers - education service, schools, colleges (for provision of specialist English classes), Health Service, Job Centre, Police and local authorities.
- Issues and challenges include: wide range of literacy or lack of literacy among the families, difficulties in managing change and expectations, cultural differences eg queueing, lack of neighbourly interactions, managing money, local orientation - how ‘the system’ works - and family separation.
- There has been a great deal of community support within Herts but this has to be supervised. Family confidentiality is a major priority.
- Longer term issues include concerns re support after first 12 months - proposal for drop in sessions is under discussion - and increased integration into local communities.
- At present 5 resettled refugees are volunteering with various organisations. 1 has a paid job.
- RC volunteers work with the families to provide help with basic English, escort to hospital appointments etc.
Item 6 Presentation 2 Nina Moraitou-Politzi. Case worker.
- Nina outlined in some detail the framework of support for newly-arrived families, beginning with a very intensive Week One, where families are introduced to their new home and appliances, which may be unfamiliar, are shown how to use local buses, find local shops and town/city centre, buy mobile phones for emergencies and are registered with GP, have health screenings arranged, visit Job Centre and are helped to claim benefits.
- All this is done by RC caseworkers, working through interpreters.
Main cultural differences:-
- Financial. Credit cards are a new concept and families from small villages may never even have used banks.
- Dealing with children. Parents have to be introduced to the fact that it is not acceptable to smack a child, or to leave small children alone, even for a short time, or to hug an unknown child in the street.
- Women’s Rights. This includes their right not to be bullied.
- Confidentiality. Families find it hard to understand the danger of sharing too much information, re addresses, telephone numbers etc.
- Before arrival - children’s education, especially if this has been interrupted, and how the family will cope with an unfamiliar language.
- After arrival - fears for family members left behind and anxiety to bring them to UK. It can be hard to explain that this is not under our control - and that chances are slim.
- What will happen after Year 1? Will they be able to keep their home if they have not found employment/ learnt the language?
- Difficulties, especially for adults, in learning English.This is easier for young people in school or college - even so it takes 5 years on average to become fluent - but is much harder for older people, especially when ESOL provision is inadequate.
- Health issues - this includes having to travel to hospital by public transport when ill.
- Isolation - this is felt especially by families from small villages with a more communal way of living. More community events would help but travel is an issue here.
Item 8 General comments.
- The importance of addressing trauma, especially in young children, was raised as an issue.
- It was suggested that we apply for charity ‘chip’ collections in eg Waitrose, Asda etc
- It is important that HWSF continues its involvement with the families after the first year. This support needs to be formalised.
- Training and ongoing support for volunteers is vital.
- A break-down of tasks for which volunteers are needed would be helpful.
Item 9 Concluding Remarks
Irene Austin thanked everyone for their attendance and participation. All suggestions for the ongoing work of HWSF will be considered at the next Management Meeting and members will be informed of all outcomes.
There will almost certainly be appeals for more help in the near future.
Vicky Woodcraft. 01/02/2017
HWSF Herts Welcomes Syrian Families Chair’s report for AGM January 2017
Welcome to our first AGM. We would like to thank you to all for your generosity. Without your contributions and help we would not have been able to provide the support we have to the families. We are very aware that in terms of the global refugee crisis this is just a small drop in the ocean but feel that every little helps and are delighted to be welcoming families into Hertfordshire. Out of the 10 local authorities in Hertfordshire one (Broxbourne) decided not to participate in the scheme. Out of the 9 local authorities participating in the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement (VPR) Scheme. 8 are participating in the Refugee Council’s Hertfordshire Project whilst one (Dacorum) opted to make its own arrangements in receiving and supporting families. Currently 17 families have been received in 8 of the local authorities Hertfordshire, 16 through the VPR scheme and one through family reunion. Welwyn Hatfield is the only local authority to have not yet made housing available for Syrian families but the council have stated that this will happen in early in 2017. We also look forward to welcoming more families in other local authorities during the year.
We formed into an organisation initially to lobby our local authorities and HCC to participate in the VPR scheme and were delighted when Hertfordshire agreed to become part of the scheme. We became a constituted organisation a year ago. At that time we did not think we would be in for the long term and certainly did not envisage we would be going for charity status.
When we formed we had a number of key themes/ objectives:
So what does the future hold?
A national review of the SVPR scheme has been published http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm210617/cmselect/cmpubacc/768/76802.htm
Thank you again all for your support over the last year and we look forward to continuing to work with you in 2017
Irene Austin Chair HWSF
Welcome to our first AGM. We would like to thank you to all for your generosity. Without your contributions and help we would not have been able to provide the support we have to the families. We are very aware that in terms of the global refugee crisis this is just a small drop in the ocean but feel that every little helps and are delighted to be welcoming families into Hertfordshire. Out of the 10 local authorities in Hertfordshire one (Broxbourne) decided not to participate in the scheme. Out of the 9 local authorities participating in the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement (VPR) Scheme. 8 are participating in the Refugee Council’s Hertfordshire Project whilst one (Dacorum) opted to make its own arrangements in receiving and supporting families. Currently 17 families have been received in 8 of the local authorities Hertfordshire, 16 through the VPR scheme and one through family reunion. Welwyn Hatfield is the only local authority to have not yet made housing available for Syrian families but the council have stated that this will happen in early in 2017. We also look forward to welcoming more families in other local authorities during the year.
We formed into an organisation initially to lobby our local authorities and HCC to participate in the VPR scheme and were delighted when Hertfordshire agreed to become part of the scheme. We became a constituted organisation a year ago. At that time we did not think we would be in for the long term and certainly did not envisage we would be going for charity status.
When we formed we had a number of key themes/ objectives:
- To lobby and encourage councils to accept refugees under the scheme and more latterly to lobby on behalf of unaccompanied children.
- To network with other organisations and raise awareness of the refugee issue
- To support whoever was to provide the case workers for the families.
- To provide welcome and support for the families over and above what the councils can provide.
- To be an organisation supporting refugees across Hertfordshire. ( Most other organisations are locally based and there are very few formal organisations)
- We have provided families with the additional goods they need to help them settle. Lists of the type of goods we have given have been sent out in our newsletters. The main thing is to ensure they have had access to a TV, radio and TV licence as these are not provided by the scheme.
- We have also provided a welcome meal when they have arrive. This has been in some cases a ‘Welcome Breakfast’ as well as welcome lunches. Thank you to those who have offered us their premises at no cost to enable this to happen.
- There have been a number of events for the families and in one area, they have set up a regular meeting slot for the families. Events have taken place in Watford (thanks to the generosity of a sponsor who covered the cost of a meal for the families), St Albans, Ware and North Herts.
- We have worked closely with the Refugee Council over the past year, signposting volunteers to them, providing ESOL support and materials for their ESOL volunteers and have offered further ESOL support and training. We have also worked with them to collect goods needed and planned local events with them for the families. We have also offered our support to Dacorum who have their own case workers and support structure.
- We have given a number of talks across the county to groups to raise awareness of the issues. A public meeting last January attracted over 200 people. We would like to thank all the organisations and faith groups who have offered their premises and accommodation. We are still happy to come and talk to any group who would like a speaker.
- The Facebook page and website are there to keep people aware of the issues and to enable other groups to post on our page. Newsletters are sent out to keep you all informed about what we are doing and plan to do.
- In some areas, local groups have been established – Dacorum, North and East Herts, Welwyn Hatfield are examples of this but in other areas we have worked cross county.
So what does the future hold?
- We hope to welcome more refugee families to Hertfordshire and are happy to support other refugees and asylum seekers who are not part of the scheme if we are made aware. We also want to offer ongoing practical support as needed. We are aware that although Hertfordshire has done better than some other authorities in receiving families, there are still very few families in most of the areas. We also wish to lobby for the County Council to accept more unaccompanied minors. .
- We recognise that high quality English language provision is critical to the integration and well- being of the arriving families and will do what we can to support this.
- We would like to put on more events for the families and organise more outings – this is a real challenge given the distances and difficulties in travel across Hertfordshire. We need some creative solutions here and help to organise more local events and outings.
- To achieve all this we need continued funding and this is one of the main reasons we wish to become a charity.
A national review of the SVPR scheme has been published http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm210617/cmselect/cmpubacc/768/76802.htm
- The report makes some interesting observations and recommendations. To date only 13% of the 20,000 Syrian Refugees have been resettled but they say that number can be achieved if all local authorities who made an initial commitment took up the places they pledged. We need to ensure that Hertfordshire does. It also talks about the need for ESOL provision and we are aware that in areas of Hertfordshire this is real issue.
- Community sponsorship under the VPR scheme was introduced last July and we would like to support any group wishing to undertake this.
Thank you again all for your support over the last year and we look forward to continuing to work with you in 2017
Irene Austin Chair HWSF
HERTS WELCOMES SYRIAN FAMILIES
Treasurer’s Report 2016
We started receiving donations in May 2016. Our sincere thanks must go to all the individuals and church congregations who gave so generously. We didn’t need to organise specific fund raising events but we are very grateful to those who organised the concert and coffee mornings. This enabled us to achieve a financial surplus.
We have adopted a “One for All” approach so that donations are used where needed at the time rather than in the council area of the donors. We now have a PayPal account although, in view of the charges made, direct donations are preferred.
Looking at the expenditure in more detail:
. our major expense has been the provision of tv’s, radio’s and tv licences
. the parties were very popular with our families although, in view of the travel distances involved, transport by taxi proved to be expensive
. the Committee decided that the Club should take out a Public Liability insurance policy, to cover volunteers for certain types of incidents
In closing this report, I wish to express my thanks to Howard Cropp, our Independent Financial Examiner, for checking our accounts in such a prompt and helpful manner, and also to my fellow Committee members for their help and support.
Looking forward, our financial position is sound. However, the 16 families already here will probably need on-going support and, assuming we have a similar number of families in 2017, we will need an increased level of support next year. I’m confident, based on the generosity of our supporters this year that we will be able to meet the demands placed on us.
Mick Hayter
Hon Treasurer
12th January 2017
HERTS WELCOMES SYRIAN FAMILIES
Treasurer’s Report 2016
We started receiving donations in May 2016. Our sincere thanks must go to all the individuals and church congregations who gave so generously. We didn’t need to organise specific fund raising events but we are very grateful to those who organised the concert and coffee mornings. This enabled us to achieve a financial surplus.
We have adopted a “One for All” approach so that donations are used where needed at the time rather than in the council area of the donors. We now have a PayPal account although, in view of the charges made, direct donations are preferred.
Looking at the expenditure in more detail:
. our major expense has been the provision of tv’s, radio’s and tv licences
. the parties were very popular with our families although, in view of the travel distances involved, transport by taxi proved to be expensive
. the Committee decided that the Club should take out a Public Liability insurance policy, to cover volunteers for certain types of incidents
In closing this report, I wish to express my thanks to Howard Cropp, our Independent Financial Examiner, for checking our accounts in such a prompt and helpful manner, and also to my fellow Committee members for their help and support.
Looking forward, our financial position is sound. However, the 16 families already here will probably need on-going support and, assuming we have a similar number of families in 2017, we will need an increased level of support next year. I’m confident, based on the generosity of our supporters this year that we will be able to meet the demands placed on us.
Mick Hayter
Hon Treasurer
12th January 2017