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It has been another busy month in EYST! As we enter summer it has been great to welcome back clients across Wales for our activities, It is such a brilliant feeling to be able to witness the joy of young people and families taking part. It has been a month to celebrate Volunteers, Refugees and Youth work all of which are core elements of work. The challenges facing our clients continues and we thank our funders and partners for being a crucial part of provide the support needed #togetherwecan
Helal Uddin & Lloyd Williams
EYST Co-Directors
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EYST is a charity for the people, supported by the people. To continue the important work we do, every little donation helps.
Donate today: http://bit.ly/donateEYST
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Sanctuary Hub Receives Generous Funding!
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We're excited to announce that we've received funding from the National Lottery Community Fund for the Sanctuary Hub to continue providing support to those seeking sanctuary. This is a vital area of our work.
Aliya Khalil, our Refugee & Asylum Advice Worker says, “I love this job and I have enjoyed every minute of the last 10 years. I am so grateful to the National Lottery for funding our work to continue. Without it we would not be able to meet the needs of the vulnerable Sanctuary Seekers who need our help every day. Our clients are so happy, thank you from us and them. Shukrah - شكرا جزيلا!".
Furthermore, it has been a joyous moment to invite our partners to the Sanctuary Hub for the first time as an informal launch of the new site. It was a lovely day for the team to meet and greet clients and supporters over cake and tea! This was all part of Refugee Week as a way to recognise our work but also, celebrate the milestones in what has been a rough two years. Well done Sanctuary Team! 😊
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For Refugee Week, an Art and Poetry Competition was launched 2 weeks prior. Here is just one of the entries we were inspired by!
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Amazing Achievement on the Share Tawe Project
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This month, a Share Tawe Project Guest, Hisham Saeed shared a great achievement with us! He won Student of the Year in Maths, Science & Social Science, and The Inspirational Student of the Year awards at the Gower College 2022 celebrations. Hisham's case was rejected by the Home Office and became destitute years ago; however he didn't give up and through support and efforts from the Share Tawe Project, he was able to continue his studies and become the the first among his classmates in Gower College. Well done to Hisham and all the best for the future!
The project also saw an Informal Hosts Evening being arranged with its current Hosts. This was the first time Hosts were able to answer questions since the pandemic. Any concerns and queries were discussed during the session as well as previous experiences shared.
If you would like to learn more about the project / are interested in becoming a Host, please contact Sharetawe@eyst.org.uk or Awder on 07519551192.
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Busy, busy, busy on Wrexham Youth Team!
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In Wrexham, the Cultures Youth Project started in May with a lot of news. We changed facilities and have a more appealing and welcoming space where our young people and families can access our services on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays with a wide range of activities and services our team delivers. We are in a central area of the city with easy access. In two months, we acquired new equipment and games such as television, VAR, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and board games. We also have a play area for the little ones accompanying their parents at Families Drop-In.
At the Cultures Youth Project, we have three drop-ins in operation (please see poster).
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We have also been offering 1:1 sessions on Thursdays in which each young person individually has a personalized service according to their needs and interests. We support young people with job search and application, search for college or university courses, or if the young person desires, they can just come for a cup of tea and a chat.
We have welcomed new young people and their families in the last two months from Kuwait, Syria, Afghanistan, El Salvador, and Palestine. We have a larger team with three staff and volunteers who help us with support for families with translation.
Wrexham Cultures Youth Project is already preparing for Summer of Fun with trips and cinema sessions. We are in the city's heart with open doors for everyone who wants to join the EYST Wrexham family! For more information about the project, please get in touch with Arlete@eyst.org.uk
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Continued Youth Engagement in Cardiff
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The EYST Cardiff Drop-In is based at Butetown Youth Pavilion every Wednesday from 5pm-7pm. This has been running from the turn of the year and consists of a PS4, board games, cards, chill-out space, computers and food. With an average attendance of 14-20YP throughout the 2-hour period. We were also lucky enough to secure some Winter of Wellbeing funding which saw us engage with nearly 100 YP over 5 different trips/activities including Go-Karting, Laser quest, Mini-golf, and a meal at Nandos.
We are looking forward to welcoming 2 new Sessional Youth Workers to support the drop-in, for which we will be interviewing in July. In addition to this, EYST has been granted funding for our Summer of Fun programme thanks to Cardiff Local Authority. Watch this space! For more information, please contact Rizwan@eyst.org.uk
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BME Sports Project Engaging with Partners!
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It's been a fruitful month for the BME Sports Project as we engage with different partners and stakeholder groups to encourage sport and outdoor activities. An amazing trip to the Gower for females only was arranged and more recently, a trekking trip to Rhossili in partnership with Tread Gower and Partneiriaeth. Our recent partnership with Badminton Wales saw two of our young people enter a tournament where they came 2nd in singles and 3rd in doubles!
Our Project Officer Nicky has been working hard to secure important partnership meetings including meeting with Welsh Rugby Union and Swansea Council with a host of other organisations to discuss how to encourage health and well-being. We were delighted to receive a visit from Cricket Wales who came to talk to our young people about paying for coaching, job opportunities and tournaments.
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Cricket Wales paid us a visit at our youth drop-in centre!
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We are now distributing free gym passes for use at the LC2 in Swansea as a way for the public to access fitness. As of last month, we have also started running table tennis sessions 3 times a week.
Please contact Nicky@eyst.org.uk for more information about any of the activities mentioned above.
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The All Wales Team set to help tackle some important topics!
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The All Wales Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Engagement team were excited to be part of the Stakeholder Moment, which saw the Welsh Government launch the Anti-racist Wales Action Plan. As well as the main document, the Action Plan is available in an easy read and a Young People’s version. A point of interest taken from the Stakeholder Moment is that we, in Wales, are leading the world with our Action Plan - there is no precedent for such a plan world-wide. Wales is the role model for the rest of the world! See here for the documents: https://gov.wales/race-equality-action-plan-anti-racist-wales
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Guest Speaker Hannah Sabatia (SCVS) showed a moving video encouraging others to run and take up activities to improve their health and wellbeing
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The forum this month tackled the topic of “How Poverty affects the Obesity Crisis”, with engaging discussions of how the lockdowns affected levels of obesity, childhood obesity and links to poverty, cultural outlooks on obesity (with some cultures seeing overweight people as “healthy”) and what individuals who are in poverty can do to tackle obesity. Keep a lookout for the notes on our EYST website. A special thank you to the highly informative Key Speakers, Mizan Rehman and Hannah Sabatia (SCVS). To keep up-to-date with our projects, feel free to follow our Twitter page @AllWalesEYST
For more information, please contact Selima@eyst.org.uk
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Equal Power Equal Voice is back to recruit!
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The Equal Power Equal Voice mentoring scheme, supporting underrepresented people into roles in public and political life, has been nominated for the Wales Online Diversity & Inclusion Awards 2022 as Peer Network of the Year!
It’s very well deserved as they have supported around 100 mentees over the last year through training sessions, one-to-one mentoring with prolific mentors across Wales, and opened up networks across public, private and political sectors.
After June’s successful visit to Westminster, Equal Power Equal Voice mentees headed down to the Senedd in July to hear speakers, join the Senedd tour and network with decision makers in Wales, further supporting their aspirations to understand and build skills and experience in making an impact in Welsh political and public life.
If this sounds like something you’re passionate about and want to learn more about becoming a voice for your community and speaking up on issues that really matter to you, Equal Power Equal Voice are recruiting mentees for the next cohort!
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Applications close on 10th July and all the details can be found here: https://epev.cymru/
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The EYST Multi-lingual Helpline continues to drive its network across Wales
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June has been a busy time for the EYST Multi-lingual Helpline Wales. Due to temporary shortage of staff, our opening hours were maintained at 10am-3pm this month. Meanwhile, two new Call Handlers have been recruited and they will join the team in the upcoming weeks. We are thankful for the support from other teams of EYST, especially for cases that needed immediate escalation.
This month has seen an increase in referrals from various statutory as well as third sector organisations. The ongoing partnership between EYST Multi-lingual Helpline and Citizen’s Advice Cymru have been important in undertaking several referrals. Clients have been encouraged to use the text and email facilities to access the Helpline services so that every incoming client contact is picked up in due course and is prioritised accordingly. Clients facing language barriers have been supported over 3-way calls by accessing the pool of interpreters in 80 languages who partner with the Helpline services.
For more information, please email helpline@eyst.org.uk
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We Say a Goodbye to BME Invest Project
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The BME Invest team bids farewell to the Active Inclusion project this month, as funded by European Funds (ESF) and managed by WCVA (Wales Council for Voluntary Action). A summary has been put together below, detailing all that has been achieved on the project since its inception:
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A massive thank you to Deb, Mikayla, Anna, Rajmin, Jess, Assia and all the colleagues who have worked on the project over the years. The project has provided great opportunities for participants and us at EYST 😊 While we are sad to see this project go, we know the impact has been huge and hope to welcome another employability project in future.
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We're now on AmazonSmile!
Every time you make a purchase on Amazon, they will donate a small percentage of your sale to our important work 😊 Simply visit AmazonSmile and follow instructions to select ‘Ethnic Youth Support Team’ as your chosen charity.
Support us to make our vision of Wales where everyone is welcomed, valued and can contribute, a reality.
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