Garfield Weston partnered with us with a grant of £15,000 towards our core costs, awarded in May 2022. It has been an incredible year for Refugee Roots and our participants.

We could not have achieved what we have without such partnerships and support, which are crucial to our service delivery. In the current financial year (1 July 2022 to 23 May 2023) our progress looks like this;

• 64 participants supported through Befriending and Navigating. We are confident that by the end of the current financial year we will work with the target number of 75.
• We have seen incredible growth with the Access project with 382 participants supported (our target was 50).
• Our Women’s group also saw more than we expected with 51 being involved (our target was to support 25 women).
• Working with Growing Forward, 11 participants were supported with therapeutic horticultural sessions. This is less than we hoped for (20) but at our Wellbeing Day coming up in June, we are offering a range of wellbeing activities and support to participants which we are confident will be a success.
• We have seen more volunteers who care involved in our work this year to date, with 150 supporting projects like Access, Befriending and Navigators and much more too. We aimed to involve 100 volunteers.
• We have worked with 697 participants supported across all activities and support, which we could never have imagined and is far higher than the 200 we expected. Support like the funding from Garfield Weston played a significant role in our capacity to cope with these immense challenges. 

We are so glad to be able to report that:

• 80% of our participants reported a reduction in loneliness and social isolation. 
• 80% indicated they feel more socially connected. 
• 80% reported feeling more confident. 
• 70% were helped and able to move on positively with their lives.
• 60% felt they had developed skills that help them reach their potential.

We have learned so much during this funded period with Garfield Weston as an important partner. 

We have successfully worked with more partners to deliver sessions together and taken up new opportunities to collaborate. This has meant we have been able to increase the capacity of the Access project in particular. 

Demand has required us to increase our staffing capacity with a full-time Project Coordinator. We are also aware that we will need to build our Advice and Guidance capacity due to high demand for support. We are now raising funds to respond to this. 

We are grateful to our partners and funders that have enabled us to grow our capacity. We have increased our partnerships, secured new sources of funding, expanded the staff team and created more sustainable ways of working as a result. 

We are proud to have met most of our goals and to have learned along the way. We have seen significant growth for the charity leading to better outcomes for participants. Everything we do is focused on our participants and we are proud of our work with participants like Yana:

This is where we find warmth, this is where we find different cultures and meet new people…We came here with nothing, having to leave our home and family. You have given us a safe place, you gave us food, friends and help when we needed it most.

We have been able to provide crucial support to Ukrainian refugees in Nottingham, asylum seekers in temporary accommodation, friendship and belonging for dispersed asylum seekers, and timely assistance for newly recognised refugees at pivotal moments in their journey. We are so pleased that we have been able to provide meaningful support and connections to refugees.

Find out more about how you can be involved:

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