During this year's Refugee Week, People First Health and Social Care Advocates got out and about delivering training across Lancashire. All about 'Speaking Up', the training was designed to support Refugees to know their rights, to develop skills and build confidence.
Over 95% of participants said that the training had helped them 'feel more confident to speak up for themselves.' Here's what happened.
Working in partnership
Health and Social Care Advocacy is a project to support refugees and asylum seekers living in Lancashire and Blackpool to understand their rights and explore their options and choices when accessing UK health and social care services.
As part of Refugee Week 2021 - time dedicated to highlighting the value and positive contribution of refugees - our advocates partnered with Al Hayat Language Solutions. Appearing in ESOL (English for speakers of other languages) classes in Fylde, Chorley and West Lancashire, the team delivered tailored training sessions, all on the theme of 'Speaking Up'.
'Speaking Up' training
Each session explored:
- What is ‘Speaking Up’?
- Identifying barriers to ‘Speaking Up’
- Developing skills in how to ‘Speak Up’
- Learning about what support is available when we need a little bit more help to ‘Speak Up’
The sessions included group discussions, information sharing and role play. This culminated with group activities. Each attendee was given a specially designed 'Speaking Up' Self-Help Guide to reinforce the training and to support its use in every day life.
Making and impact
One attendee told us “I like the practice. It was helpful.” Another added “The training was very good and nice. (I liked) talking about appointments, building confidence and knowing our rights.”
95% of people who attended told us that after the training they felt more confident to speak up for themselves.
We are grateful to Al Hayat Language Solutions for working with us on this project and we're looking forward to continuing to deliver this training in the future.
Thank you to everyone who took part.