Refugee Council - 110 volunteers,
300 staff (London Area)
Managing diversity
The Refugee Council is the largest organisation in
the UK working with asylum seekers and refugees.
Yetty Shofola is Outreach Volunteer Co-ordinator at
its largest centre in Brixton, London: 'We have a lot
of volunteers here, and they do all sorts of things
from working in the kitchens through to taking clients
to the Home Office. Twenty to thirty percent of the
volunteers are ex-clients or have refugee
status.'
Chris Badman, Volunteer Development Co-ordinator, explains
further: 'We try to make it easy for refugees and asylum
seekers to volunteer, because English isn't always their
strongest language. That means keeping the application
form and interview simple, being flexible
about references, and making sure everything's clearly
explained.
'Our clients come from all over the world, and the
volunteers in Brixton have about 25 languages
between them. We can match clients' needs with the volunteers'
skills - diverse groups of volunteers allow you to do
that. Clients find it comforting to walk into such a
diverse environment and we're really lucky that we have
all these skills at our fingertips.
'There are very few tensions between volunteers or
between our clients and volunteers, even though some
are from opposing sides of intense conflicts. We make
it very clear that we've got an equal opportunities
policy and that people can talk to us
if there's a problem. Occasionally we have to ask someone
to leave - but we still give them a reference, and offer
to help them find another organisation.
'There are volunteers and clients who've been through
great trauma and torture. If they're
clients who are receiving a counselling service from
us, then we wouldn't take them on as volunteers because
there's a conflict of interest. And if volunteers are
uncomfortable - for instance a client's story resonates
with them too strongly - then we won't let them continue
with it. We have a debriefing session
every day where staff and volunteers can talk about
anything that's troubling them, or any problems they've
encountered.'
Yetty adds: 'It can be boring for asylum seekers when
they're in emergency accommodation and they're not allowed
to work. Volunteering means they can do something positive
instead of waiting around for a decision from the Home
Office - they get experience, and can use us as a stepping
stone to better things.'
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