LASSN Sponsored Walk and Picnic – Saturday June 29th

We are inviting all our supporters, volunteers and clients to join us for a picnic and/or a day exploring Leeds, making new friends and raising funds to continue our vital work supporting asylum seekers and refugees.

All you need to know

The picnic will be at 5pm in Park Square Leeds. Let’s hope for better weather than at our last walk – but if not we will have  an indoor picnic at LASSN’s office! Email us to let us know you are coming.

You are also welcome to  join us for our sponsored walk on the same day. The route will be a gentle stroll taking in some historic and fascinating features of Leeds City Centre.  It should take about 45 minutes and is suitable for all ages and fitness levels.  Children are welcome to come with their parents or guardians. You can start the walk any time from 3 – 4 pm with the aim of joining the picnic for 5pm. So please bring yourself, a comfortable pair of shoes for walking and some food for a picnic. Email us to join the walk.

Raising Funds

It may not be the longest or most challenging walk, but we would be delighted if you could raise whatever you can in sponsorship to support our work at LASSN. We can provide you with sponsorship forms, an online sponsorship platform and some fundraising advice to get you started!  LASSN receives no government funding so every penny has to be raised through charitable grants and donations to ensure that we can continue our vital work providing befriending, English language tuition and emergency accommodation for asylum seekers and refugees.

Set up your online sponsorship here: https://www.charitygiving.co.uk/lassn-walk

Why we need your Support

“Before, I was depressed and scared to go out.  Now I can go out and enjoy life and my children.”

These are the words of one of our clients, describing the impact of our Befriending service.  LASSN helps people to overcome the challenges of adapting to a new country and rebuild their lives.  Our English at Home project helps people to improve their spoken and written English. Our Befriending service provides a friendly face and practical support, enabling asylum seekers and refugees to become less isolated.  Our Grace Hosting service last year provided an astounding 3259 nights of accommodation to homeless men and women, and children who might otherwise have spent the night on the streets.  LASSN helps asylum seekers and refugees to feel safe, supported and confident, improving their mental health and wellbeing and their ability to care for their children.  In the long term, many people we work with are enabled to move on to college courses, volunteering or paid employment.

Because we work with volunteers, we’re an incredibly cost-effective charity.  Funds raised from this sponsored walk will help us to fund the costs of our experienced staff team who provide our 200 volunteers with the training, resources and ongoing support that they need to make life better for asylum seekers.  Our model of working with volunteers means that it costs LASSN just 80p a day to support each client – so if you could raise just £30 in sponsorship from your family, friends and colleagues, you could support one asylum seeker for over a month.

Opportunities for volunteer work placements for refugees and asylum seekers.

HACT, the Housing Associations Charitable Trust, runs an employability programme called Reach In, restricted to refugees and asylum seekers with permission to work. Reach In offers volunteer work placements within housing associations and Chartered Institute of Housing level 2 certificate in housing practise. They have been running the programme for more than 30 volunteers in London, Manchester and Birmingham and are going national for the last wave of the programme, including Leeds.

HACT are now recruiting for placements starting in August (information days and interviews will be held in July). Early applicants will be more likely to secure a placement.

If you have any queries, please contact Marcelle Dopwell, project manager Marcelle.dopwell( at )hact.org.uk

LASSN call on Leeds City Council to prevent destitution

At 1.30pm today, Grace Phiri, a trustee of Leeds Asylum Seekers Support Network will ask the 99 councillors of Leeds City Council to take action to prevent destitution among asylum seekers in Leeds.

Grace will speak of the struggles of surviving on little over £5 per day and of the even more devastating affects for those in destitution with absolutely nothing to live on.

A recent Children’s Society report highlighted the alarming levels of destitution among refugee, asylum-seeking and migrant children and young people, including many in Leeds.

Ten charities in Leeds are therefore calling on the council to write to Home Secretary about the impact of destitution,  to support the recommendations of the Children’s Society report and endorse the aims of the Still Human Still Here, a coalition of 59 charities seeking to end destitution.

Downloads and links:

Full text of Grace’s speech to Leeds City Council: Asylum destitution deputation to Leeds City Council

Briefing paper on destitution in Leeds: Asylum destitution briefing

Children’s Society report on experiences of destitution among young refugees and migrants

Still Human Still Here

One Planet Leeds

Latest edition – One Planet Leeds Spring 2013

In this issue:One Planet Leeds Spring 2013

  • PAFRAS 10 year anniversary
  • Interview with Isa Turkoglu on the Just Play Football Programme
  • Refugee Boy by Benjamin Zephaniah
  • Amnesty International and STAR Sleep Out
  • Leeds Kirkgate Market and the Arrival of Leeds Needs
  • What is Your Map Route of Leeds?
  • The Debt Free Project

Winter 2012/13

  • Welfare reform – what does it mean?
  • Volunteering
  • STAR – Student Action for refugees
  • What is the public perception of refugees and asylum seekers in Britain today?
  • A world without refugees – poem
  • The un-forgotten coat – book review
  • Refugees, Capitalism and the British State – book review

The silence surrounding women & violence - Summer 2012

Social security for refugees and Brits under attack - Spring 2012

Legal aid cuts push asylum seekers to the margins - Autumn 2011

If you wish to subscribe to One Planet Leeds, send an email to richie@lassn.org.uk