www.Door-Step.net

Community InfoSource — Fri, 01 May 2009 11:11:42 +0000

Sorry – technical problem means the “Making Of” film can’t be viewed at the moment.

We’re working on it. Please check back later.

First Step: Paula’s Story – User Guide

Community InfoSource — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 14:50:29 +0000

Downloads

The Paula’s Story User Guide is printed in A5 booklet format. You can download the whole document here for on-screen reading:

First Step: Paula’s Story – User Guide

Or download each section separately, for smaller files and 2 pages per A4 sheet layout:

Introduction

Contents

Part 1: I’ve got my status now…

Part 2: Advice and information

Part 3: An offer of housing

Part 4: Home at last

useful contacts

Shared Futures in Glasgow: Refugee housing seminar report

Community InfoSource — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 13:19:41 +0000

A short report on the Shared Futures seminar: a Refugee Week 2008 event in Glasgow that brought together housing providers, planners, funders, support agencies, refugee residents and community organisations.

The Shared Futures seminar was organised by Community InfoSource and Govan Housing Association’s Community Inclusion Coordinator. The aims were to contribute to the local and national housing debate from a refugee perspective, and to update partners on the development of the Door Step project.

(click here to download pdf of this report)

The Home Office dispersal scheme began in 2000, and there are now around 2,000 asylum seeking households living in the city – just under 3,500 individuals including children – accommodated by the council (in GHA flats), a private landlord and YMCA Glasgow. There are no reliable data on numbers of refugees settled in the city, but it is estimated at around 5,000.

The Scottish policy response to dispersal has been relatively positive, but adapting to constant revisions of increasingly restrictive UK policy and legislation has been a struggle. Local policy has been described as ‘disjointed…characterized by contradictions between Scottish and UK policy goals’ (Scottish Centre for Research on Social Justice, 2004).

Dispersal in Glasgow was housing-led – with asylum seekers initially housed mostly in hard-to-let council flats – and refugee settlement has to a great extent followed that pattern; but over this period there have been radical changes in the city’s housing environment, starting with the Council housing stock transfer.

The Shared Futures event aimed to facilitate a conversation on housing and the wider community issues concerning refugees in this changing landscape. As a starting point, a question was drawn from the Vibrant City aim of Glasgow’s Community Plan:

Are refugees included in the plans to

“create a transformed and vibrant Glasgow where people choose to live, and where Glaswegians are fully involved in the life of the whole city”?

The housing conversation involved a panel of experts and plenty of input from the audience in what turned out to be a lively debate. See below for a summary of the main points covered.

Housing Conversation Panel

John Wilkes, Chief Executive, Scottish Refugee Council

Twimukye Mushaka, Poverty Alliance and Karibu

David Webster, Housing Strategy Manager, Glasgow City Council

Anne Lear, Director, Govanhill Housing Association

Chair: Michael Collins, Community InfoSource

Housing Options

One of the key issues of the conversation was around the available options in Glasgow for refugees when granted leave to remain. Long periods in temporary homeless accommodation, particularly for households in need of larger family homes, was of particular concern.

Twimukye Mushaka noted various reasons for leaving Glasgow, but stressed that overcrowding while awaiting family housing is a big factor. There are many families stuck in unsuitable temporary homeless accommodation, often for years after grant of status. This not only affects feelings of security, but the high furniture and service charge can also prevent people taking jobs.

From the audience, Henriette of Karibu women’s refugee community organisation talked of the home as the centre of life on which education, work and family choices are all reliant. Without a decent secure home, these things will suffer.

David Webster agreed that supply of suitable larger housing must be a factor in families decisions to leave or stay in Glasgow, but we still know little about the other push and pull factors. David gave a commitment to meet with John Wilkes to discuss funding research in this area.

From the audience, Duncan Sim of University of West of Scotland gave a brief outline of ongoing community action research (due to be published this autumn). The researchers are finding that the main factors contributing to refugees wishing to leave their accommodation are: overcrowding, disrepair and feeling unsafe in the area.

Anne Lear argued that lack of larger homes was nothing new for minority ethnic families in Glasgow, but that the current national housing strategy and funding regime will if anything make the situation worse. With cuts in grant funding, housing associations will not be able to build enough larger, homes, and refugee families will have to rely on the private sector, as BME families have for years.

Anne added that this squeeze on housing association funding is not just risking a reduction in supply of affordable larger homes, but also impacting on community-based associations wider role community and regeneration activities that could play a vital role in supporting new refugees to settle in Glasgow.

Information, advice and support

In addition to housing supply, access to good information and help with housing rights and options was a key theme of the day.

John Wilkes opened by stressing that to encourage people to stay, the transition from asylum seeker to refugee must be as smooth as possible, adding that consultation of service users is vital to develop effective services. In addition to specialist services, mainstream agencies need to be geared up to provide services to refugees, and public bodies need to be aware their duties. John added that Scottish Refugee Council is soon to publish research on refugees’ experiences of services in Glasgow.

Twimukye Mushaka raised the issue that many refugees, in addition to information on their rights, need to know more about the housing shortages in Glasgow, to understand how long it may take before suitable housing can be found, and to be kept informed and supported during this period.

John Donaldson, head of the Council’s immigration services, noted that the new asylum model is processing asylum claims much more quickly, leading to refugees moving on to mainstream housing and services with less local knowledge. John added that there are gaps in services, particularly since the end of the SUNRISE project piloted by Scottish Refugee Council. A recent good example of partnership working was the extra Scottish Government funding and Jobcentre Plus project in response to the Home Office legacy review which saw a sudden increase in families granted leave to remain. John identified a need for more joined-up thinking between local authorities, Scottish and central government, and for a joined-up support package for new refugees that just doesn’t exist at the moment.

Mick Doyle of SRC reminded participants that the discourse on asylum seekers and refugees is generally more positive in Scotland, but to make it easier for people to stay we need better communication and better-informed service providers, and we need to create forums where the views of refugees can be expressed and acted upon.

Michael Collins noted that these participative and community-based responses were at the heart of the Door Step project, before thanking the speakers and audience for an interesting and insightful debate, and drawing the conversation – for now – to a close.

Some housing, regeneration and integration developments since 2000:

asylum seeker dispersal beginning April 2000;

major housing and homelessness Acts of the Scottish Parliament;

major asylum and immigration Acts of the UK Parliament;

stock transfer, GHA ‘re-provisioning’, and the long-awaited second stage transfer;

formation of Glasgow Community Planning Partnership;

a new housing strategy and an £83 million Housing and Development Funding Programme for the city;

publication of Firm Foundations, the Scottish Government’s paper on the future of housing;

reform of the Housing Association Grant subsidy;

new asylum seeker housing contracts, now including private landlords and the voluntary sector;

an overhaul of Scottish Government and Glasgow Community Planning integration funding;

the Single Outcome Agreement framework.

What is Door Step?

migrantinfo — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 23:03:06 +0000

Door Step is a new project to empower refugees and migrants in Scotland to access their rights. Through an innovative mix of research, training, and the production of participatory multi-media resources, Door Step will create a network of specialist advisors who are themselves from refugee and migrant communities.

In March 2007 the Door Step project was launched, along with the report The Housing, Work and Welfare Experiences of New Migrants in Scotland. To download a pdf copy of the report, click here. (2mb). By the end of 2007, funding from the Scottish Government’s Scottish Refugee Integration Fund and Glasgow Anti-Racist Alliance (GARA) allowed the Door Step team to run a pilot project – First Step – in Glasgow, working with a team of refugees to produce a DVD, Paula’s Story.

You can view a clip of Paula’s Story on the media co-op website.

Who is involved?

Door Step is a Glasgow-based initiative of two not-for-profit organisations, Community InfoSource and mediaco-op. Door Step’s Equal Access training programme for specialist rights advisors will be mainly for refugees and new migrants.

Backing the Door Step project is an active Advisory Group including Shelter, Scottish Refugee Council, Citizen’s Advice Bureau, Oxfam Scotland, Positive Action in Housing, PATH Scotland, Scottish Federation of Housing Associations, a number of local housing associations and refugee community organisations, LintelTrust and the Barka Foundation (Poland).

Development funding for the project has come from Oxfam Scotland UK Poverty Programme, Big Lottery Fund and LintelTrust. Funding for the Pilot – Paula’s Story – came from the Scottish Government and Glasgow Anti-Racist Alliance

Why is Door Step needed?

Refugees and migrants contribute hugely to Scotland but too many are falling through the net of existing advice provision, ending up in overcrowded sub-standard housing, exploited in their jobs, or even becoming destitute and sleeping rough.

Fast-changing government policies on migration and asylum lead to widespread confusion about exactly what refugees and migrants are entitled to. They are often unaware of their rights here, and have nowhere to turn to for specialist information, in appropriate languages, from advisors who understand their situation.

What will Door Step offer?

Door Step is developing Equal Access: an imaginative training and research programme. Migrants and refugees will carry out Action Research in their communities and take an active part in producing accessible updateable information, including a multi-language DVD and a website. The newly-created resources will be available to mainstream providers of information and advice. The newly-trained specialist advisors will work with mainstream providers on placements and eventually as employees and sessional workers. They will also help train the next group of advisors. Door Step Equal Access will be a practical contribution to overcoming inequality and exploitation.

How will Door Step work?

The project will unfold in stages:

Initial research, development and consultation.
Action Research by a group of refugee and migrant trainees.
Training participants to Communities Scotland HomePoint National Standards for Type 1 advice and information.
Participatory production and piloting of an interactive multi-language DVD, with realistic case-studies.
Supported placements for Door Step trainees with advice services and housing providers.
Development of Door Step website, providing up-to-date information on migrants and refugees rights.
Distribution of the DVD and web resources to mainstream advice providers – as a training and information tool, equally accessible to advisors and their clients.
Training a new group of refugee and migrant advisors.
Setting up a new network of advisors to share information, promote the use of Door Step resources, organise community-based advice sessions and collectively improve the quality of advice and information available to Scotland’s newcomers.
Evaluation, monitoring and documenting throughout the process.
Production of a ‘how-to’ guide for reproducing the Door Step method elsewhere.

CONTACT US

Michael Collins or Sheila Arthur
e-mail: info@door-step.net
tel: 0141 946 6193
Door Step: Suite 301, 355 Byres Road Glasgow G12 8QZ

Door Step development research: Polish workers

migrantinfo — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 18:55:50 +0000

As part of the development of the project, the Door Step team undertook research into the housing, work and welfare experiences of new migrants in Scotland. Published in March 2007, This report details the findings of the initial stages of our research, focusing on Polish migrant workers, who comprise the largest new migrant community in Scotland.

…download the full report here (pdf 2mb)…

Executive Summary

Methodology
The development of this report has involved a review of the existing research and consultation with the Door Step Advisory Group and other stakeholders. However, the principal method has been direct community consultation with Polish migrant workers.

Summary of Key findings
For many migrants, the experience of coming to the UK has been, on the whole, a positive one. There are concerns, however, that government policy is adding to inequality, abuse of rights and exploitation of migrants in the UK. There is growing evidence, confirmed by migrants participating in this research, of migrants living in poverty, very poor housing, and experiencing homelessness and destitution.

a. Migrant workers’ rights

There is an inequality of rights in relation to work, housing, and welfare support. New migrants have less rights, and face difficulties exercising the rights they do have.

While a number of research reports have been published recently on migrant workers in the UK and in Scotland, most have focused on the impact on local economies and the labour market, as opposed to the impact on workers’ rights.

There is still a lack of practical solutions for the employment,welfare and housing needs of the new migrants.

TUC research into migrant workers reveals that exploitation within workplaces ranges from discrimination in conditions and payment below the minimum wage to situations that amount to forced or bonded labour.

All those questioned in our study were aware of the obligation to register with the Workers Registration Scheme. Around 75% of workers were registered through their current employer.

Only 6% of participants in the study considered that they were working at the level of their educational or professional qualifications and experience.

Most accession state workers are living in, or have experienced, overcrowded, expensive, private rented accommodation, with limited security of tenure.

Less than half of those interviewed who were aware of housing associations (70%) had actually applied. Several who did apply did not receive an acknowledgement.

There are different entitlements to homelessness assistance in England and Scotland, with more housing rights under Scottish law, but equality of exclusion from housing benefit under UK law.

There is inconsistency in local authorities’ interpretation of homelessness legislation in relation to migrants, and the guidance is in dispute.

There is evidence of “gatekeeping”by local authority housing and homelessness services, preventing migrants from accessing services, including those who are entitled to services.

b. Access to advice and information

There are barriers to migrant workers exercising their rights and to seeking help to do so. In general, migrant workers are less aware of their rights and are the least likely to access formal information, advice and support services.

There is confusion amongst housing and support providers as to the entitlement of migrants to social housing.

Information and advice is most prevalent in the form of printed or online welcome packs.There is less evidence of rights-based independent advice services meeting the needs of migrant workers.

For help with problems, most participants in the study had sought advice and support and information from friends and colleagues rather than agencies.

Most people interviewed had not seen the welcome packs produced by the Scottish Executive or Glasgow City Council.

Almost half of those interviewed in our study stated they did not know where to go for help in the event of becoming homeless. “Sleep under a bridge”was a common response. Only one participant suggested approaching the Local Authority.

Housing advice cannot be usefully given in isolation, as the housing situation of migrant workers can be linked to their residence status and employment status.

Accommodation is often tied to employment, so losing a job can mean becoming homeless. Thiscan be a disincentive to seeking help and must be an additional consideration for advice services.

Although most migrant workers are aware of social rented housing, there are often misconceptions of entitlements to apply, and the nature of social housing provision. Less than half of those who are aware of housing associations actually apply.

The right to homeless assistance is tied to right of residency, which is dependent on economic status; losing a job can mean becoming homeless and losing the right to Local Authority support at the same time.

Conclusions and recommendations

Migrant workers are currently ‘falling through the net’ of advice provision. Many migrants do not have access to reliable, accurate, culturally-appropriate advice and support to enable them to access their housing, labour and welfare rights.

There is confusion among housing and support providers as to the entitlement of migrants to social housing.

Successful housing advice must be integrated with advice and information on labour and welfare rights.

There is an unmet need for a network of advisers with specialist training in the rights of migrants and refugees.

In the view of the Door Step team, the people best placed to receive this training, and to develop advice resources in a participatory way, are migrants and refugees themselves.

We believe that the Door Step methodology offers an innovative, effective and sustainable way to create a network of migrant and refugee advisers across Scotland.

…download the full report here (pdf 2mb)…