December 2022
Newsletter

As we come to the end of 2022, we look back on a year that has flown by! We have had another amazing year where we have continued to grow and develop, not without some major changes!  In March, our long serving and much-admired CEO Rocio moved on to become the Children’s Commissioner of Wales, then in the spring we saw the end of the final COVID-19 restrictions where we have finally been able to get back to what we do best - supporting people face to face. The COVID-19 period was a challenge to us all but the staff continued to do amazing work. Our Team continues to grow; we end the year with 75 Staff and 49 Volunteers. We have celebrated a lot of success this year including obtaining our Trusted Charity Status and our Youth Work Bronze award, and we are very pleased to be awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Volunteering Award to finish off the year!

We would like to thank all our wonderful Staff, Volunteers, Trustees, Funders and Partners for all their time, effort and support this year. We are excited about the new year and the opportunity to continue to support our clients and the community we serve. We are clear that 2023 will present a lot of challenges to our clients especially in the light of the cost-of-living crisis but we will face these challenges head on and the only way we can…together.
 

Helal Uddin & Lloyd Williams
EYST Co-Directors

We start this newsletter with some exciting news. Please read our announcement below:

The Sanctuary Team participated in the Together at Christmas event, arranged by JR Events & Catering and Swansea Council, in the Brangwyn Hall earlier this month. The event aimed to provide the message that no one should be left alone and isolated particularly as the winter holidays are upon us. Najma, Volunteer Co-ordinator (pictured above) met and spoke with Mayor of Swansea Mike Day, who generously praised EYST's services. This is very appreciated and with Swansea becoming a #HumanRightsCity, we know our work is going in the right direction.

The Team also took to attending the Stop and Search in our Community Seminar, as well as Swansea City of Sanctuary's AGM and Awards distributing.

Lastly, Aliya from The Sanctuary Hub became a triple-gold medalist in a fun CharityLog Awards Ceremony as part of EYST's Staff Development Day. Her dedication to migrating to a new system has been praised and now the rest of us will have to catch up!

For more information, please get in touch with Nadir@eyst.org.uk

Earlier this week, our doors opened for an End of Year Volunteer Celebration - something we have not held since December 2019! We are so humbled to hear each Volunteer's story and how much they wanted to help others. Seeing the impact of EYST and Volunteering on individuals has reaffirmed our sense of belief that what we are doing is important and much needed in the community.

If you would like to volunteer with EYST, please get in touch with Najma@eyst.org.uk

This month in Wrexham, we organised an End of Year Youth Celebration meal. 65 children, young people and their families took part in an event to socialise, have fun and feast! We were funded via a Children in Need Goodwill grant, formed through our partnership with our local McDonald's in Wrexham. Huge shout out to Angeline and Kirsty who have been so pro-active with working with us and our families!

In other news, we have been busy working with amazing partners to establish new upcoming youth provisions:

• Wrexham Islamic Cultural Centre, funded through NWPs' Safer Streets distributed by Wrexham Local Authority
• Monmouthshire Muslim Community Association, funded through Monmouthshire Youth Service
• Haverfordwest Mosque, funded through Pembrokeshire Youth Service

We are particularly looking forward to welcoming a brand new cohort of learners for our 'A Stepping Stones to Youth Work' course! In partnership with Adult Learning Wales, this course helps to introduce and develop new workers to the sector. Watch out for more updates on this when it starts in January!

For more information about our work in Wrexham, please get in touch with Lee@eyst.org.uk

Fatiha has started delivering a series of Parenting classes to the Welsh Sisters Circle (WSC) at At-Taqwa mosque in Newport. In addition, Fatiha also attended 'One Newport Partnership' stakeholder workshops to contribute to the development of the Partnership’s Local Action Plan 2023-2028. 

Recently, Rema and Fatiha joined a conference in Cardiff chaired by Dr Fidele Mutwarasibo from the Open University to discuss addressing racial equity through meaningful partnerships and collaboration with black and minority ethnic communities. It was a great networking and learning opportunity. Now, we look towards 2023!

For more information, please get in touch with Fatiha@eyst.org.uk

Wrexham Foodbank has been keeping our in-house foodbank fully stocked for our families this winter. Not only has the Trussell Trust Foodbank been able to provide the food but toiletries, nappies and so much more. We have also received food donations from Wrexham Islamic Centre - a big thank you to these two organisations as it is a life line to our families.

Wrexham Sounds have been providing music therapy to one of our Young people. Sadly, this project is coming to an end soon and we are looking for funding.  

In more exciting news, our EYST family has grown - one of our clients has had a baby! The family received a baby starter kit from Wrexham BabyBasic Centre, whom we look forward to working together in partnership to help more families. 😊 If you know of any new families facing similar challenges in the Wrexham area, please get in touch with BabyBasic Centre at babybasicswrexham@gmail.com

For more information, please get in touch with Hajer@eyst.org.uk

The BME CYP Team in Cardiff has been busy delivering training to Refugee families on Welfare Benefits & School Admission. On the back of that, a member of the team supported a client on a 1-2-1 basis on finding a suitable property, a job and free cricket sessions.

In the last month, we have accommodated a Placement Student for 3 weeks from USW who is studying BA - Working with Families and Children. The student will be completing a further 3 weeks in the Spring Term.

We've also been working in partnership with Cardiff University on a National Cycling research project to help overcome the under-representation of ethnic minority women using cycling as a form of physical exercise.

Lastly the team has had their hands full with the following: Supporting clients with school admission, PIP successful application with enhance rate, emotional support, racism in school, support with household items, housing and free school meals.

For more information, please get in touch with Fateha@eyst.org.uk

A couple of months into the Equal Power Equal Voice programme and the 2022-23 cohort is doing really well. A big part of this public life programme is supporting mentees to network, build contacts, and develop their understanding of public life and key concerns in Wales. 

So far, mentees have attended training on intersectionality, as well as disability rights, LGBTQ+ awareness and gender equality. There has been a networking meeting in Swansea for mentees as well as mentors experienced in public life, with future networking events planned in South, West and North Wales. After the new year, mentees will learn about the Senedd, with an opportunity to attend and network in person, further helping to support people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds, LGBTQ+ people, disabled people and women into decision making roles in Wales.

The feedback from mentees has been great, with increased knowledge, understanding and one-to-one mentoring sessions with Wales-based councillors, board members and other public life figures.

What a crazy and amazing year it has been, not just for RRP team but EYST as a whole!

We said goodbye to our dear Rocio (CEO of many years and a key driving force of EYST), wishing her well in her new adventure as Children's Commissioner for Wales. Covid restrictions was lifted and life resumed back to normal slowly, i.e. return to office. The new senior management made sure to provide continuity and stability for staff with the Board of Trustees supporting them.

The chaos in Afghanistan, the war in Ukraine meant we started receiving individuals and families through the various different programmes. Our team expanded rapidly to cater for the new arrivals.

The existing staff and the new staff mobilised and have been supporting the clients admirably on the various resettlement schemes.  A massive thank you has to go to an amazing team: Gonzalo, Mayada, Farzana, Mohammad, Mariya, Uljana, Nuriya, Sabina, Jainaba, Abiola and Ricardo.  The support you provide is second to none under very challenging situations.

We finished the year with a lovely all Wales EYST Staff Development Day and a meal. We love socialising here on the RRP project and had to do another end of year meal and get together with our Swansea Council team members!

We submitted 201 names to the Mr X appeal and the last 2 weeks has meant liaising with Mr X's team, picking up the gift bags, organising and distributing across our different projects. It is a team effort but special thank you to Mayada who helped out enormously in the collection and Ricardo with gathering the information and keeping a careful eye on the lists.

For more information, please email Sorupa@eyst.org.uk

As it gets colder, the team gets busier.  With an average of 4 referrals a week for the Family Link Project, we find ourselves primarily supporting homelessness/housing issues, safeguarding and care support in place. We have worked with amazing organisations such as the Waterfront Museum who have run craft workshops; the Youth Offending Services, which offered advice and volunteering; the Swansea Mosque with our BAME Contextual Safeguarding meeting; The Street Matters Project, and the South Wales Police on ‘Stop and Search’ focus group. This month, we also partook one of our Staff Development Day. Here we spoke about what success meant to us and the importance of resilience, and always getting back up and trying again.

For more information, please email Jorna@eyst.org.uk

Ystradgynlais-supported families had the chance to share any Q&A in a session at the welfare hall with their support workers and members of staff from The Job Centre, Housing Dept and Benefits Sections of Powys Council.  Three hours of queries passed in a flash but all involved enjoyed learning the what and the why about all the paperwork that confuses us all. Thanks to everyone who dropped in.

Syrian families in Llandrindod Wells and Newtown are really enjoying their ESOL lessons.  Following a successful first term, our families are now flourishing and benefitting from their commitment to classes. In particular we’d like to congratulate those with severe disabilities who have welcomed the additional stimulation of online lessons at home and take every opportunity to practice.

And in Carmarthenshire we have four families successfully move into new accommodation.  Following on from last month’s news, our kick boxing champ, Firas, was chosen to travel abroad to compete in Europe.  Unfortunately due to issues with travel documents and ILR he had to withdraw but the next opportunity will be just around the corner and we hope that any issues will be resolved and he can become an even bigger Champ!

A visit for Afghan families in Welshpool to see Santa in his grotto in Charlies Stores went down a treat. The families received presents, hot drinks and snacks courtesy of the Rotary Club and a good time was had by all!  We’ve also finally had a success with British Gas: £703 Debit has been turned into £438 credit. The family are delighted it has been sorted at last. A Parent/Teacher meeting for the Welshpool families has been another success so we can say Happy Christmas and every best wish for 2023 😊

For more information, please email Deborah@eyst.org.uk