Written by Gareth Hankinson – Youth Advocacy Worker, Refugee Action.
The Get Connected Project at Refugee Action has been running for a number of years and over that time has enabled unaccompanied refugee and asylum seeking children to exert their rights as protected by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Get Connected Project, supported by BBC Children in Need, works with those who are between 15 and 18 years of age, are claiming asylum and are without any one who has parental responsibility for them. Through the work of the project we have been able to uphold the rights of some of the most vulnerable young people as they go through a difficult process, were their immigration status sometimes comes before the fact that they are children.
The project supports the young people in three main ways: advocacy, personal development and community engagement. Through the advocacy the young people are able to come and speak to us in a safe and confidential atmosphere, were we talk through any problems that they are having and how they can be resolved. One such problem that we often find is accessing legal help, as there are a limited number of options for those in Liverpool, however we do are best to find them good representation and if there are any issues we can liaise with the solicitor directly to try clear up any problems. Through the advocacy we have also helped the young people ensure that they are correctly supported by Social Services. We helped a number of those involved in the project challenge Social Services over which section of the Childrens Act they are being supported under. This had an impact on the level of support that they receive on turning 18, so through this advocacy the young people got the correct leaving care support that they are entitled to. Throughout the project we have also helped the young people to access the health care that they are entitled to and need. In one situation a young person was not being registered with a GP because there was a dispute over which local authority was responsible for him, so he was being sent to the walk in clinic which was not really adequate. The project helped the young person to register with his local GP and so he received the proper medical treatment that he needed. As part of the advocacy we tell the young people what they are entitled to and how they should be treated so that they are confident enough to advocate for themselves in the future.
Every young person is entitled to an education, and we help the young people access this through personal development on the project. We help them register with the college on courses that they are interested in or find ESOL classes to get their English up to a level that the can take the courses that they want to. As part of personal development we listen to what the young person is interested and try and fine them what they need in order to fulfil these interests and ambitions. One young person was very passionate about cricket so we helped him to become a member of Liverpool Cricket Club, and we supported him to self advocate if there were any problems while he was there. We have also supported young people to get involved in athletics clubs and tennis. Young people have a right to express themselves and we have supported them to do this through helping them to access arts and drama classes, and one young person is a very talented artist who has had his work displayed in an exhibition and is involved in Young Tate.
Through are community engagement the young people have had the chance to mix with local young people and have discussions with them around a broad range of topics. This engagement helps to break down barriers for the young people so that they feel more confident within the general public. It also gives those involved in the project more opportunities as they mix with people that they might not normally and so find out about things that they didn’t know were going on. A particularly successful project that we ran was with the Fire Service, over a number of weeks the young people got to see what the Fire Service did and had a go for themselves, putting out controlled fires. This gave those interested in a career in that type of work some experience of what it might be like, while those not interested in that line of work learnt valuable fire safety skills. We run many projects in collaboration with other organisations, this way the young people get as many opportunities as possible, while the organisations learn about the young people so making them more accessible for the young people.
Posted by Sara Ayech