North East Showcase Event - Spring 2024

On Wednesday our North East team hosted their Refugee Employability Programme Quarterly Showcase event at Brunswick Methodist Church.

We were joined by representatives from Newcastle, Gateshead, Wallsend and Sunderland Jobcentres, as well as Mears Group, TKO Consulting, Emmaus, Back2Work Group, North East Migration Partnership, Groundwork, Gateshead Council, Newcastle City Council, and Northumbria Police.

The event started with an overview of the programme which highlighted the importance of its purpose – to prepare refugees for work and life in England. To emphasise this, Case Manager Adnan shared his story, from arriving as a refugee in 2021 to now supporting other refugees to integrate into their new communities.

We then took the opportunity to show attendees the ‘Service User Journey’ from referral through to exiting the programme, displaying the individual support on offer to help individuals with many aspects of resettling including improving their English language skills, finding employment, securing stable housing, and much more.

Finally, we were delighted to welcome some current Service Users who spoke about their experiences on the Refugee Employability Programme, as well as former Newcastle United F.C. player Olivier Bernard who spoke to attendees about his experience of being a migrant and the difficulties that it caused for him.

We would like to extend our thanks to all who attended for an excellent event, we look forward to connecting with you again in the near future.