The advocacy service is an excellent addition to the work of the Help Desk, offering a confidential place with more time to spend with each asylum seekers. Each week we interview up to 9 clients, some are new to Assist and some are existing clients having their regular review. With help and support from our advocacy team and befrienders many of our asylum seekers have been able to access statutory support, which is good for them and enables us to take on new clients.
Our Befriending Team are now working with clients living in Assist housing, meeting with clients who have to ‘sign on’ at the Immigration Offices, taking clients to see solicitors and giving general social support. Teresa (our volunteer development worker) is attending the Mentoring and Befriending Associations training on developing good practice in this area of work. This will be useful as it covers good practice for lone workers which we can incorporate into our Befrienders’ training and induction sessions. The course will also cover the best ways to evidence the impact of this work and use the evaluation for further grant applications.