Pledge to make a difference, together.
Our organization exists to support the Syrian community in Manchester. We are a group of Syrian's running this group, we have been through the experience of leaving our country and coming to the UK. At present, there are still a lot of barriers for us to reach our goals.
We understand the needs of our community, we know that even though some Syrians have been her for a few years they face many barriers, and they don't know how to apply their skills in the right place, become independent and integrate.
Our aim is to support the community to become more independent, for women, men and children and everyone. We want to support people to break down barriers like language, confidence, not knowing how or where to go for help or how national systems work.
Our objectives are:
To promote social inclusion for the public benefit of people in Manchester who are refugees or asylum seekers (in particular, people of Syrian heritage) and who are socially
excluded by:
increasing opportunities for members of the Syrian community to engage with service providers, to enable those providers to adapt services to better meet the needs of that community;
providing peer support and other activities that build people's confidence and enable them to participate more effectively with the wider community.
promoting social and recreational events involving the local community.
building people's knowledge and confidence in their own cultural heritage and its potential contribution to a multi-cultural society
We have hosted two activities. Our first gathering was in October with 50 people attending which we self-funded. We got people together to share information about our group and ask the people how we can support them. The second activity was a Christmas get together in December with 60 people. This was about socializing for the community, the children did crafts, we watched the world cup final, and many people were introduced to each other. From these events we have gathered feedback so we can know the needs of the people and can create regular activities. This feedback has shaped our proposed activities. The outcomes we had achieved learning of the community of their needs and bringing the community together.
We are planning many activities for the future. We will host regular English classes for adults. In the lessons they can practice, grow in confidence, and meet people. Lessons will focus on functional English covering topics like going to the doctors, supermarket, cooking. These classes will be practical, exploring everyday topics and challenges and may involve trips to different places. Lessons may also include experts or speakers to cover topics like health, education, and employment.
We hope to host social events too, like we have done with the Christmas party. These events give the community an opportunity to socialize, build and strengthen social support networks. These get togethers help reduce social isolation and improve general wellbeing. We hope to run a range of social events in the future but at the moment we will make it a community meal.
Other projects we want to run in the future are a digital skills class for adults and an Arabic class for children.
Outcomes we hope to achieve in future to prepare all to enable them become more independent and more courage also confidence to enable them to deal with every day challenges including studies ,applky for jobs or dealing with any upcoming situation without struggling .
We are part of the syrian community, we are well connected to a wide community of Syrians living in Manchester. We draw from your own experiences and listen to the community.
Syrian Community Council works with people who are Syrian refugees or asylum seekers many are socially excluded and disadvantaged. People are struggling on daily basis and can't afford to pay for bills, food, travel, due to the cost-of-living crisis and migration status. People face multiple difficulties; low income, out of work, vulnerable, new to the community and don't know area and support or services, don't know the language. we are group of 5 running the group and we have 5 more volunteers of different backgrounds and different skills. The community inform the groups activities, we take their feedback via social media, via conversations. We encourage everyone to give suggestions. To reach more people we are using social media and ask our community to tell others about our group and events. We have been reaching out to lots of local groups so we can share our activities with them and reach more people.
There is a large syrian commmunity in manchester, some have been here for several years, some are new to the UK and many are still arriving. We know that there is not enough services, support, or social opportunities for Syrians. Many are still isolated even if they have been here for a long time due to language challenges, trauma amongt many other things. As other world crisises has happened we have been forgotten about but many Syrian's still need support to integrate and become independant and truely feel at home in Manchester.
Our English classes help people gain confidence and language skills which can help them be less isolated. The sessions are fun and social and bring people together providing a space for shared learning, a safe space to learn. They provide a regular space for people to get out of the house, meet others and gain skills and learn about the local area all of these things help reduce isolation.
Social meals bring people together to make friends and enjoy, reduce isolation, improve wellbeing and mental help. People build social and support networks
Impact -
People more connected to their local community, feel they are not alone and have support netowrks.
People are more informed about the local community and national services and groups and support they can access
More confident to find work, volunteer, join education
As a team of trustees we have a lot of experience in Syria working and volunteering in different projects which we bring to the group. We have managed events, listened to the people and cooperating with them, explaining things and reporting things. We are experienced in gathering information form the community to run activities. We all have an open mind to everyone. We have run events and activities for children. We always ask for feedback and complaints to enable us to find a solution, to learn and cover the communities needs. We are experiences in providing services which people are happy with. Our first two events in Hulme were very successful.
We are confident this project will be a success. We know the venue, we know the community. We have lots of skills in the trustee team and volunteers and the communtiy is very skilled and resourceful. We are proactive and postive and good problem solvers.
Safeguarding is really important to us as we are working with disadvantaged communities. We have safeguarding policies in place which all trustees and volunteers will read and we will make sure everyone follows the right steps. We will always make sure we have enough volunteers for activities where there are children, but volunteers will not be working with children in unsupervised settings.
We have lots of experience with human rights organisations and lots of knowledge about safeguarding vulnerable people. One of our trustees has specific knowledge about teaching and working with children.