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REFUGEE ADVOCACY LEAD

Job Title: Refugee Advocacy Lead              

Location: Manchester – Office-based with some travel to our centres, including to partner meetings. This is a position which may include some evening and weekend work for meetings and events. 

Hours: Full time (37.5 hours/ week Monday to Friday 9:00am – 5:00pm with some travel )

Salary: £28,000 – £30,000 per annum, depending on experience. (Subject to annual cost of living review).

Leave: 28 days annual leave including Bank Holidays

Contract: 1 year fixed term contract with possibility of extension depending on funding availability

Reporting to: Chief Executive Officer

Closing date: 23:59hrs, Saturday, 27 May 2023.

Interview date: Week commencing 12 June 2023, in-person. 

African Rainbow Family is looking for a dynamic Refugee Advocacy Lead passionately committed to upholding the rights of LGBTIQ refugees and people seeking asylum at a critical time for the future of the asylum system and the rights of refugees.

You’ll be working with a small but friendly and specialist team that campaigns for the rights of LGBTIQ refugees and people seeking asylum from African heritage and wider BAME. We work with an extensive network of frontline partners to advocate for progressive change in the asylum and immigration system. We are based in Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, London and Cardiff.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Advocacy

  • Lead and manage the advocacy service and manage cases of LGBTIQ people seeking asylum especially those of a complex nature.
  • Ensure service users have access to quality, pro bono or legal aid legal representation
  • Work with the CEO, Move-On and Integration Officer, Campaign and Communication Officer and Advocacy Assistants and consult with service users to develop African Rainbow Family’s advocacy support services in line with the changing needs and demands of LGBTIQ refugees and people seeking asylum.
  • Oversee empowerment events and support delivery of other teams’ events, ensuring all events achieve a professional standard and high quality.
  • Conduct vulnerability assessments and prioritise people to receive ARF’s services.
  • Work with legal partners, other ARF’s centres’ staff and volunteers to organise monthly asylum meetings.
  • Provide one-to-one advocacy, emotional or practical support in person or over the phone

People management and supervision

  • Recruit, train and manage a team of volunteer advocates to assist with delivery of social events and other services and respond to queries to the office.
  • Oversee and organise training for staff and volunteers within the advocacy team
  • Manage a team of part time Advocacy Assistants across our other centres– Advocacy Assistants, working one day a week in each centre.
  • Provide supervision to volunteers and Advocacy Assistants.

Benefits include:

28 days annual leave including Bank HolidaysGenerous pension scheme
Equipment to support remote working.Flexible working policy.
Development and growth opportunitiesPaid 2 duvet days a year
Paid staff day off on their birthday.Salary review
Free parking at our office.Employee reward scheme
Employee wellbeing supportPaid Sick leave after 6 months.
We are an accredited Living Wage EmployerCost of living crisis support.

Attachments

HOW TO APPLY: Please read the job description and person specification carefully. Email your completed application form and optional monitoring form to recruitment@africanrainbowfamily.org. For more information on this role or for an informal discussion please contact Aderonke Apata, Founder and CEO: 07711285567. If you know of someone who might be interested in this vacancy, please ask them to get in touch.

We welcome applications from people of all abilities/disabilities and backgrounds as we believe that each person brings their own valuable experiences to what we do. We encourage people with lived experience of the UK asylum system to apply. The successful candidate must have the right to work in the UK, will be required to undergo an enhanced DBS check and to disclose all non-protected criminal records at the point of conditional job offer.

Check here for our other job vacancies.

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African Rainbow Family: Impact & Learning Report 2020

Introduction

About this report

african-rainbow-family-learning-impact-report-2020Download

This report provides a brief introduction to Manchester Migrant Solidarity (MiSol) and African Rainbow Family (ARF) and an overview of the work the organisations have carried out in 2020. It describes the impact that MiSol/ARF’s work has had on its Members and what has been learned from this.

The report has been written by an independent consultant, Sophie Ahmad, with support from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. It draws on interviews with MiSol/ARF’s Founder and six of its nine Coordinators/Assistant Coordinators, and on a discussion group with 14 other Members (from MiSol in Manchester and ARF’s four branches in Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham and London).

You can download the report here.

This is the first time that MiSol/ARF have produced an impact and learning report and the first time that Members have been invited to share their perspectives as part of an independent process. It is hoped that this report will be of interest to Members of MiSol/ARF, and their partners and funders. Although this has been a relatively brief, limited, exercise, it is hoped that it will prove useful in informing future approaches to evaluation and learning at both organisations.

We are very grateful to the Paul Hamlyn Foundation for commissioning this independent report for us.

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MY TAKE ON THE NEW ASYLUM ASPEN CARD DEBACULE

An Aspen Card, as described by Privacy International  “is a debit payment card given to UK asylum seekers [people seeking asylum] by the Home Office. The Aspen Card provides basic subsistence support, but purchases on the card are closely monitored by the Home Office, making it an insidious surveillance tool.”

I believe that changes should not be made if there is going to be major failures. I liken the changes made to the Aspen card by the Home Office to the COVID-19 vaccine. Trials are made but the vaccine is not used immediately until there is 99% confidence in its success rate. With the Home Office Aspen cards, the opposite is the case.

On 21 May 2021, the Home Office basically introduced the change from one Aspen card provider, Sodexo to another, Prepaid Financial Services (PFS) and did not trial it to see how effective it would be. Instead, PFS issued cards en mass to people seeking asylum. This seemed like a trial and is failing in all ramifications.

I would like to reiterate that most people seeking asylum in the United Kingdom are given £39.63 a week as subsistence and also not allowed to work till their case is determined. This could take years. The £39 a week subsistence is not enough to cover basic needs. Now most people seeking asylum have not received the new Aspen cards. Where some have received them, there is no money in them. Some of these cards are being sent to wrong addresses or recipients.

This is absurd because this has been going on for weeks now and individuals/families are having to go without food or rely on food banks. More details can be found in the Guarding news:“Thousands of asylum seekers go hungry after cash card problems”

Charities such as African Rainbow Family and other organisations are being overburdened with this issue. These Charities are speaking out but as usual, just like the demands to increase the support, this demand is being kept in a waiting list or queue with the rest of our demands.

“I call this inhumane because we should call a spade a spade. I am calling for the Home Office to look into this immediately!“

You can make a donation towards food parcels for people seeking asylum here.

A big thank you to African Rainbow Family and other organisations that are supporting people seeking asylum with food parcels. I do urge people to support by raising their voices, donating and so on.

You can make a donation towards food parcels for people seeking asylum here.

End

BY NESSAKEM NWOSU – TRUSTEE, AFRICAN RAINBOW FAMILY.

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Join our Trustee Board!

We are recruiting for new Trustees to join our Trustee Board!

African Rainbow Family (ARF) is a small registered charity (registration number 1185902) that support LGBTIQ people of African heritage and the wider Black Asian Minority Ethnic groups. ARF was established in 2014 in the wake of some Commonwealth countries in Africa’s toxic and draconian anti-gay laws which seek to criminalise LGBTIQs for the preference of whom they choose to love. ARF provides practical support for LGBTIQ refugees and people seeking asylum and campaigns for global LGBTIQ equality.

We need experienced members of the public to join our existing Board. We are particularly keen to recruit members who have one or more of the following skills:

  • Experience of managing a growing and dynamic independent organisation
  • Financial management – able to act as our treasurer.
  • Experience of managing press and publicity.
  • Experience in a secretarial role.

 For further details please click here or below for the Trustee’s Advert

trustee-advertDownload

To apply, please click here or below for the Application Pack

arf-trustee-recruitment-application-formDownload

Closing date: 5pm Wednesday 30th June, 2021.

Need more information? Contact us at:

info@africanrainbowfamily.org

07711285567

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LGBTQ+ History Month: The History Decides the Future!

Photo credit: Nadim Uddin, African Rainbow Family‘s Media and Communications Volunteer, 2021.

Just like the Bible, history is more like a proof of existence. History gives meaning to the present. History is a reference when we need to gain strength.

https://wp.me/p4PTHR-BN

Throughout the month of February each year, over the past few years, we celebrate the LGBTQ+ History Month and it is a time we remember all those who fought for our existence and freedom.

African Rainbow Family‘s Media and Communications Volunteer, Vanessa Nessakem Nwosu writes:

“Personally, it means a lot to me because knowing that my queerness exists past and present gives me so much relevance. It means that I am not alone and it gives me strength to become more of myself. Knowing history adds to my relevance, as a queer woman seeking asylum, it is from reading about women like Audre Lorde that I gain strength in who I am. I am not ashamed, I am empowered just by knowing my queerness exist past and present.”

Nadim Uddin, another African Rainbow Family‘s Media and Communications Volunteer, writes:

“LGBT History Month to me, is to remember those without rights. To remember how we got rights. Raise awareness about historical and current progress and challenges for LGBTQ+ people. To support those raising awareness of sexual orientation and gender identity, equality and diversity. To learn how to change the world. To remember how far we’ve come, even recently.

Nadim reminds us that Winston Churchill famously said: “History is written by the victors.”

“The women I celebrate this month are Marsha P Johnson, Audre Lorde and Anne Lister. I choose these women because I see little parts of myself in them. I see the courage I am still hoping to build from them. I see my future in them. Learning from past heroes means looking at their strengths and finding ways to make yours. I want to be outspoken and bold as Marsha. I want to be confident and be a warrior like Audre and I want to live openly and document all my Sapphic encounters just like Anne Lister.” Vanessa continues.

Marsha P Johnson. Photo credit: NBC New

“History isn’t something you look back at and say it was inevitable, it happens because people make decisions that are sometimes very impulsive and of the moment, but those moments are cumulative realities.” Marsha P Johnson.

Audre Lorde. Photo credit: BBC 3 Free Thinking.

“When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.” -Audre Lorde.

Anne Lister Photo Credit: bridgemanimages 

“I know my own heart and understand my fellow man. But I am made unlike anyone I have ever met. I dare to say I am like no one in the whole world.” Anne Lister.

The above are my favourite quotes from my heroes and I hope it speaks to you. We can only write our history if we speak up. Document your life, do not be erased,do not be silent. For every closeted person there is an out person who lives an exemplary life for you to learn from. It doesn’t mean you have to come out, it means that you are not alone and you can be happy. This is what LGBT history means to me. Vanessa says.

Happy LGBTQ+ History Month, 2021.

Ends.

https://wp.me/p4PTHR-BN

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Covid-19 Impacts on LGBTIQ People Seeking Asylum

    On 5th October 2020, our own Nadim Uddin, African Rainbow Family‘s member and Media Coordinator delivered a presentation on behalf of African Rainbow Family to the National Emergencies Trust (NET)’s Equity Scrutiny Group (‘ESG’). The presentation was held on Zoom and based on ensuring that the ESG works to ensure swift, fair and equitable disbursal of funds during the Covid-19 crisis from a local perspective.

    Nadim presented to the ESG, the impacts of Covid-19 on LGBTIQ people seeking asylum including those that are not LGBTIQ. He presented African Rainbow Family’s emergency and ongoing response to our over 500 members across the United Kingdom. He also suggested what actions should be taken to reach, support all people seeking asylum especially during this pandemic and on the longer term.

    Details of the presentation can be found here.

    Nadim says:

    “The virus does not discriminate, and neither should we.”

    The NET said:

    “The ESG needs to know the impact of Covid-19 across the country (each nation has a different response), the structural/systemic issues and impacts on communities (each country has different policies, procedures and law), issues for the Covid-19 recovery and, longer-term, what are the likely issues we will need to consider if there is an emergency like a significant flood in Cumbria or Scotland or another bomb attack, like Manchester.”

    Nadim co-presented to the ESG with Paul Roberts OBE, Chief Executive Officer of LGBT Consortium.Paul presented from the national perspective. Feedback from the ESG was positive.

    A member of African rainbow Family says:

    “I don’t demand much, just enough to survive.’’

    Consider donating to support our life-saving work with LGBTIQ people seeking asylum.

    You can download details of the presentation.

    For further information on this or any other subject(s), contact African Rainbow Family here.

    End.

    8th Oct. 2020.

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    African Rainbow Family: Submission on Unequal Impact of Covid-19

    On 30th April 2020, African Rainbow Family made a Submission To Women and Equalities Committee on Unequal Impact: Coronavirus (Covid-19) and the impact on people with protected characteristics as it affects LGBTIQ people seeking asylum. You can read our recommendations to the Women and Equalities Select Committee here.

    The inequalities affecting Black Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities, which our members are part of, have been shockingly and brutally laid bare in the UK with the publication of the study by The Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre into Covid-19 deaths, revealing the pandemic disproportionately impacts BAME communities. Yet the reasons behind this, social inequality, lack of equity and racial discrimination are still overlooked by many. People seeking asylum are not allowed to work, they live on £5.39 a day and have a range of added inequalities of social isolation, lack of housing, finance and access to healthcare. LGBTIQ people seeking asylum are in particularly, hardest hit.

    Self isolating, observing the government’s guidelines of stay home, save life and save the NHS in those shared accommodations has been negatively impactful on our members’ mental health and wellbeing given the amount of homophobia they are subjected to on a daily basis. The following was a quote from TH, one of our members:

    “I don’t know how I am going to survive this! My other housemates always make homophobic comments at me whenever I pass through the communal areas. They usually say: it is because of these gay people that God is punishing the whole world and causing this unimaginable number of deaths. I wish for these gays to be struck down by lightening.” Says TH, member, African Rainbow Family.

    African Rainbow Family takes the health and safety of our members and the population at large very seriously. We encourage our members to keep safe and healthy at home. We urge the Home Office to consider increasing the amount of weekly subsistence for LGBTIQ and non LGBTIQ people seeking asylum urgently during this Covid-19 pandemic lockdown. Some deaths can arise out of hunger and inadvertently counted as due to Covid-19.

    Finally, there is need for the government to make a statement to address homophobic attacks upon LGBTIQ people seeking asylum in Home Office shared accommodations to avoid some of them becoming homeless or having suicidal ideation.

    You can read our recommendations to the Women and Equalities Select Committee here.

    End

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    ACCEPTING MYSELF

    "At a point I put my hands up and gradually I started to accept myself, sounds easy but there were and are still moments I fall back because of homophobic comments and all that stuff but I always come back stronger after I look within."

    “At a point I put my hands up and gradually I started to accept myself, sounds easy but there were and are still moments I fall back because of homophobic comments and all that stuff but I always come back stronger after I look within.“

    They say your life begins when you find yourself because then you see your path clearly but is finding yourself easy?

    I’d call that a rhetorical question because nothing on the surface of the earth is easy. Growing up wasn’t easy, In fact I had the type of childhood you would see in the Willoughby’s but not that it ended in me rescuing my parents lolz.

    When you grow up in a family that’s all about reputation, religion, education you automatically want to do everything to be that or fix that box even when you were made to stand out. Everyone who knew me from way back knows I wasn’t like the other girls, I was a tomboy or girl boy like they call it and it wasn’t that I wanted to be a man and get all the girls, I just loved dressing up like that, with no makeup I was comfortable that way. Under that whole tomboy I was the most feminine woman you can imagine with hips I couldn’t escape lol … To be honest I’d never trade my hips or bum for anything and no, it’s not for a man. I mostly wore shirts, trainers and trousers and when I wore a skirt I still looked like a tomboy.

    Talking about being a tomboy, there was a point in my life where I would get angry if you called me that partly because I had not accepted that I love women and because of the stereotype. My excuse would be I grew up with imaginary boys around and I adopted their behaviour and style well I mostly had boys around me but it wasn’t because of them. I just was a tomboy. If I ever looked at a guy I did so because I wanted to copy his dress style or make mine.

    My mum hated that I wouldn’t wear heels and dress up, make my hair and all that comes between and I would tell her “guys love me like this”. Well they did I must tell you and if you ask me I don’t know why. That part of me (being a tomboy) I struggled with because no matter how feminine I tried to look you can tell by the way I walked, I was hiding who I was and it’s safe to say you can call me a TOMBOY and I won’t blink because I finally love myself.

    Another part of my life I struggled with was and is my sexuality, it has been there right in front of me even when I try to run from it. I started off thinking I was just having girl crush like the one I had for Genevieve Nnaji where I imagined meeting her and we would talk and she would like me and blah blah! Some say when you go to an all girls secondary school you become a lesbian and when I hear that it sounds funny to me because before secondary school I had started having these feelings even if I didn’t know what to make of them.

    Every LGBTQ person must have at one point tried to pray away who they are or given in to religious talks because apparently religion rules our thinking. No matter how you see me I love JESUS and at that I felt like me being myself was driving him from me or I was the worse sinner on earth. I went to church, prayed and even fasted but still it was like GOD kept saying “don’t run from who you are”.

     At a point I put my hands up and gradually I started to accept myself, sounds easy but there were and are still moments I fall back because of homophobic comments and all that stuff but I always come back stronger after I look within.

    It’s a gradual process that should not be rushed at all, live your life, doubt yourself, question yourself but never belittle yourself or try to change who you are for anybody and I’ll say the way I accepted myself was I said to myself if it’s Love then it’s not a sin. If you love who you are, you are who you are meant to be. Accept yourself and others will keep up…

    End. London 29th June 2020.

    Vanessa Nwosu: Member, African Rainbow Family, London branch.

    @Nessakem

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    Press Release: Coronavirus

    COVID-19

    African Rainbow Family’s Organisational First Response: Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19)

    Ongoing arrangements for the office, meetings and support for members:

    As a small Charity we are aware of the need to act to support and protect our members, coordinators, volunteers and staff especially those of us who are or can be ‘vulnerable’ for whatever reason. We hope the following statement clearly explains our response to the current COVID-19 situation and the channels through which we hope to maintain contact with and offer support to all of our members and stakeholders.

    All group meetings are suspended for the present, though we are exploring ways to keep contact with each other. The office in the Monastery will be accessed on a daily basis by Jacqui to pick up mail and send emails. Jacqui will still receive emails and phone calls remotely and respond as usual. If an appointment or a conversation is needed please contact her on the mobile number 07711285567. You can do so by giving her a missed call and she’ll call you back or sending a text message on messenger, sms or WhatsApp. 

    Current suggestions for social support include:

    • Having an online meeting. We know this would not work for everyone but may be useful for some members.
    • Setting up a buddy scheme with people regularly speaking with each other via phone and other forms of technology. Although we are aware that many members already have social support, we realise that this is not true for all members. 

    We have had offers of practical support in the form of:

    1. Food and essential shopping to be dropped off at the person’s door at a prearranged time, for members who need to quarantine or maintain isolation to reduce their risk of contracting or and spreading the virus.

    2. Lifts to and from unavoidable appointments for people who need them. For instance, if you have an underlying health condition, you may need to reduce your use of public transport but still have to attend medical appointments. Travelling in a car can potentially reduce your risk of contracting the virus.

    If any of the following underlying health conditions apply then you are most at risk from the coronavirus:

    • Heart problems that have caused you to see a doctor
    • Lung or breathing problems such as asthma or chronic bronchitis.
    • Diabetes
    • High Blood Pressure
    • Cancer
    • Any conditions relating to immune system such as Crohn’s disease, Lupus or HIV/AIDS
    • Any blood condition such as anaemia.
    • Reduced mobility
    • Any other serious medical condition not mentioned above.
    • Mental distress or mental health conditions

    If you have any of the above but not exhaustive list, then please contact Jacqui on: 07711-285567 so she is aware of the support that would be useful to you.

    An alternative number will be shared in the near future for anyone needing to access this support on a regular basis.

    For more information, follow this link.

    Lastly, all suggestions would be warmly welcomed, so please share ideas, thoughts, concerns, good practice that other groups are adopting, so we can update our actions and approach on an ongoing basis.

    Do get in touch if there is anything further that we can do to assist at this challenging time.

    END

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    The Report: Unreported! Sexual Abuse & Exploitation of LGBTIQs Seeking Asylum

    African Rainbow Family
    A World Without Prejudice

    Unreported! Sexual Abuse & Exploitation of LGBTIQs Seeking Asylum

    On 11th August 2018 in Manchester, African Rainbow Family held our second annual conference, Unreported! Sexual Abuse & Exploitation of LGBTIQs Seeking Asylum.

    The conference attracted delegates from diverse walks of life with speakers whom are  ‘Experts by Experience’ (our members), including speakers from the House of Lords – Baroness Liz Barker, European Parliament – Julie Ward MEP, Manchester City Council – Councillor Bev Craig , No5 Chambers – Barrister S. Chelvan, grassroot organisations such as The Outside Project – Carla Ecola, Safety4Sisters – Sandhya Sharma as well as LGBT Foundation – Sophie. The report from the conference is available here.

    ‘Experimental’ data released by the Home Office in November 2017 for LGBT+ asylum cases (01/07/15 – 31/03/17) shows that over two third of  3,535 asylum applications made partly as LGBT+ were rejected. 2,379 clear LGBT+ claims were rejected, with only 838 approved (Home Office Asylum claims on the basis of sexual orientation EXPERIMENTAL STATISTICS 2017).

    “In view of the immense pressure placed on LGBTIQ people seeking asylum by a way of the high bar sexuality proof policy of the Home Office, people feel desperate to prove their sexuality and or gender identity hence fall prey to sexual predators, abusive relationships, modern day slavery and all sorts of abuse” says Aderonke Apata, LGBTIQ activist and Founder, African Rainbow Family. The full report can be accessed here. You can also DOWNLOAD now.

    The conference also enjoyed good will and generosity from various individuals and organisations that sponsored different parts of the event.  Sponsors are The Federation, Co-op Digital, Olimpia Burchiellaro, Kirit Patel, Sandhya Sharma and Toby Bakare. We were also ‘supported by the Co-op Foundation and Omidyar Network’, Greater Manchester Unite Social Action Branch, UNISON NW LGBT SELF ORGANISED GROUP and UK Lesbian & Gay Immigration Group.

    African Rainbow Family relies heavily on volunteers in delivering the essential work we do with LGBTIQ people seeking asylum. Should you feel like supporting our work to make practical social change, do consider donating here or contact us through info@africanrainbowfamily.org to discuss different options on how you might like to support our work.

    END