(For info.)
Press Release
hact, CIH, Bradford Opening Doors
Opening the gateway
Bradford Opening Doors partners a step closer to Gateway after fact finding
visit to Bolton
St Vincent’s HA hosted the visit to Bolton to provide key Bradford Opening
Doors partners with a detailed insight into the Gateway Protection Programme.
“Bradford Opening Doors partnership is committed to developing a Gateway
project,’ said Anil Singh, Chief Executive of Manningham HA and hact board
member. ‘We see enormous benefits in this co-ordinated approach to welcoming
people who have suffered alienation and long-term statelessness. Ensuring a
package of support is crucial to the longer term prospects, health and well-
being of new arrivals. Our visit to Bolton gave us an important insight into
the kind of operational support systems that can be achieved and demonstrated
the need for a champion with vision and political backing.’
Working with CIH and Opening Doors project partners, hact is keen to open up a
Gateway for some of the world’s most vulnerable refugees. Representatives from
the hact/CIH supported Bradford Opening Doors partnership, which includes
Accent Group, Bradford Community Housing Trust, Horton HA, Manning ham HA,
along with Bradford Action for Refugees, Africa Network, Yorkshire Housing and
Bradford MBC, met key Bolton Gateway partners and refugee families to share
best practice and help them take forward a proposal for Bradford.
Stuart Whyte, Director of Business Development, Accent Group and Chair of
Bradford Opening Doors said, ‘Being involvement with Gateway is a win-win
situation for housing associations and refugees. It not only makes good
business sense, but offers help to those in need.’
The visit began at St Vincent’s Urban Care Centre, a local community resource
providing a variety of employment and training service including a driving
project for refugees. Opening Doors partners spoke with staff of St. Vincent’s
HA and Refugee Action and learnt more about the support plans for each refugee
family, the barriers they face and how careful planning and joint working can
promote effective integration.
The group also met with children and their families at Starting Point, the
school in the Belmont area of Bolton where all new immigrant children start
their new school life before entering mainstream education.
Jon Lord, Head of Bolton Community Homes, who helped the group to understand
the mechanics of running a Gateway programme, said,’ Gateway is important to
Bolton in a number of ways including, underpinning cohesion work in an area and
showing the humanitarian issues facing refugees to local communities and
creating a local response to that. The partnership with St Vincents is
essential to developing expertise within the housing sector, and critically
locking that into an RSL that see’s a role in regeneration with the community
as a partner, and engaging new communities within that work.’
For more information, visit:
- http://www.hact.org.uk
- http://www.hact.org.uk/downloads.asp?PageId=173
- http://www.cih.org
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