Description
The Tamil Relief Centre is a voluntary community organisation that seeks to provide a range of needs-led quality services related to community welfare and integration for refugees and immigrants, to enable them to settle in the UK, and make a positive contribution to society in general. In addition to providing welfare services, TRC through a range of education and training programmes aims to empower disadvantaged people of the wider local community to sustain themselves by developing their skills, knowledge and general attributes in order to better themselves by getting employed and thereby their employers and the community at large.
OBJECTIVES
- To relieve the poverty of Tamil and other immigrants and refugees.
- To advance the education of the public in Tamil culture.
- To provide classes in English Language and encourage the learning of English and other European languages
- To preserve and protect the mental and physical health and well being of refugees and their dependants.
- To assist Tamil and other refugees in overcoming cultural and other barriers and to integrate with the local community.
- To promote the development and advancement of Tamil culture.
IMPLEMENTATION OF EACH OBJECTIVE
- Provide services to Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Migrants to resettle in this country.
- Provide services to the disadvantaged to get out of the poverty trap and into employment avoiding recourse to state benefits.
- Provide services to disadvantaged children to improve their performance in school.
- Provide services to the targeted group to lead a mentally and physically healthy life.
- Provide services to enable the client group to live independently and with dignity.
- Provide services to enable the client group to live independently and with dignity.
- Provide services to encourage these people to make a positive contribution for the betterment of society.
- Provide services to facilitate the appreciation of each other’s cultures thereby creating unity in diversity leading to integration with host community.
TRC services are provided under the following five areas:
- Advice and Information
This project provides advice and information and representation for asylum seekers and refugees and minority ethnic communities on immigration and to acquire welfare benefits, housing, education, training, and employment. The project works closely with statutory and non-statutory organisations to meet the needs of service users. It actively participates in the local Refugee Forum and Enfield Refugee Action Group. The Advice and Information Office who manages this project is also the supervisor of the welfare projects. - Women’s Outreach Development Project
Many refugee women become almost housebound because of language and cultural barriers as well as the lack of self-confidence in dealing with the wider community. This project seeks to address isolation by visiting women at home, and by providing counselling, advocacy and support, in order to enable them to access services, and follow ESOL classes, increase self confidence and independence, and enter further education, training or employment. The Women Outreach development Officer who manages this project is the named caseworker in welfare benefits. - Elders’ Project
This project helps elders to overcome isolation and emotional problem by providing information, advice and advocacy to lead an independent and dignified life; facilitates them to meet together to talk to people from their own community in their own language by organising weekly drop-in and monthly luncheon meeting, taking suitable exercises for them to keep fit and healthy, to visit beaches and places of interest during summer months and to attend temples and churches periodically for prayers and worship; arrange to provide care and support and make relieve arrangement for carers; assistance for frail, disabled and vulnerable elders who need help with shopping, collection of prescription, hospital visits etc.; conducts talks and seminars on issues related to them and working in partnership with providers and facilitate the provision of services. - Legal Education & Advice Project:
This project targets advice needs of the socially excluded members of the community about their entitlement to the services around welfare benefits, debt, health and community care, immigration, housing, education, training and employment and provide them with awareness programme about the availability of legal services for them to access information and guidance to get one to one support. Also this project guides the users who are vulnerable and secluded to access appropriate services to overcome poverty and to enter into education, training to bridge their language and cultural barriers, improve their skills and knowledge and become independent. This would eventually make them socially included, integrate into the society and improve their standard of living. - Education, Training and Employment
EETC was originally set up as a division of the Tamil Relief Centre to support members of the Tamil community by providing ESOL, adult Literacy/Numeracy and IT training for adults and support classes for school-age children. EETC has been able to generate income from various government agents, trusts and charities to deliver its activities. Over the years its operation and turnover have increased significantly, and it is now bigger than some of the community training providers in North London. Services provided at EETC are:- Support class for school going children to help them improve and achieve in the national curriculum.
- ESOL Classes for adults to become independent and follow further education and training and enter into employment.
- Basic Skill Training for Adults – literacy and numeracy
- IT Training for Adults
- Work Placement for adults to gain confidence to enter employment.
- Information, Advice and Guidance on further education, training and employment and job search
- Exit guidance and after care
Part of TRC’s long-term purpose and direction is its commitment to continuously improving the quality of its services. It will achieve this by having clear aims, objectives and standards for each of our services and activities. In addition, TRC need to continuously monitor, audit, inspect and evaluate our services and activities in order to improve them, ensure their effectiveness and inform the development of new services such as front line services to Tamil community particularly residential home to elders.
The Centre’s Business Plan will enable us to outline, , the way TRC plan to proceed, during the following 12 months and the ensuing two years, towards our aims and objectives. The Business Planning process will incorporate a monitoring and review stage to evaluate the achievement of our objectives. It will review the progress made towards the Centre’s aims and objectives in the previous year.
It will enable us to quantify the overall achievement of our objectives and to compare our success or failure to meet our targets year by year. It is intended that planning information will cascade downwards from the Centre’s management to its various projects and review information to flow upwards from the projects to the Management.
The Business Plan will be influenced by the review of the previous year and a timetable will be agreed to achieve the review and planning. It will be necessary for us to break down the objectives into manageable targets and agree on standards by which these targets should be achieved.
TARGETS TO ACHIEVE NEXT TWO YEARS
- Maintain the Centre: Raising its profile and widening the funding base by developing frontline services by working in partnership with local authorities and voluntary organisations
- Widening Participation: Increased engagement with the community; increased guidance and support for staff and service users; and promoting a culture of achievement.
- Quality and Retention: Consolidating on the reviewing and monitoring of Quality Assurance Measures and establish a Quality Assurance System resulting in meeting the required standard of the CLS, OISC and funders; the retention of staff and service users as appropriate.
- Partnership: Continue to develop effective partnership with service users, statutory and non-statutory organisations, community organisations and funders.
- Self-sufficient: Establishing frontline services by working in partnership with local authorities and voluntary organisations and setting up a trading arm to generate alternative sources of funding to enable TRC to become more self-sufficient.