Main Duties

• To enable the views of people seeking asylum to be heard and represented to Serco, Cumberland Council and other statutory services and in the community   (e.g.  to attend meetings and represent the views of people seeking asylum)
• To visit and make welcome asylum seekers and settled families in the Copeland and Allerdale area
• Provide support and guidance to new arrivals and assist them to register with GPs and access statutory and other community services, including education and volunteering 
• To recruit and support volunteers, coordinating their work to benefit people seeking asylum, refugees and WCRSN and to ensure volunteers benefit from working with WCRSN.
• To help the communities of West Cumbria to welcome people seeking asylum, enabling integration and participation in the life of the communities.     
• Support community awareness, education and media around asylum matters and immigration through social media. Any requests for media statements to be referred to WCRSN. 
• For all the above main duties, the employee needs to report back to WCRSN as soon as possible – and immediately for any urgent issues. 

General Duties

• Establish and maintain excellent communications with both the host organisation (West Cumbria Refugee Support Network) and the employer (Multicultural Cumbria) to ensure good information sharing and support for this role can be achieved. Both WCRSN and MCC recognise that procedures must be in place and adhered to by both organisations and the employee to ensure effective working practices and maintain health and safety of the employee
• To promote community cohesion, inclusion and equity for all.    
• Attend meetings as necessary.
• Participate in the supervision system. This post is remote from Multicultural Cumbria’s offices in Carlisle, so supervision will often be by video calls
• Represent Multicultural Cumbria and West Cumbria Refugee Support Network, promote their ethos by working in a positive way and giving comprehensive feedback to the organisations.
• Contribute to monitoring and reports.
• Abide by all Multicultural Cumbria’s policies, including those around safeguarding, confidentiality and data protection.
• Ensure that personal behaviour demonstrates integrity, openness and honesty; and is anti-oppressive, non-judgmental and supports diversity.
• Take responsibility for inputting and storing data, and compliance with GDPR.

It is the nature of the work that tasks and responsibilities are in many circumstances unpredictable and varied. Employees are therefore expected to work in a flexible way and tasks which are not specifically covered in their job description may have to be undertaken.

Multicultural Cumbria is the legal employer for this post, which is a joint initiative with West Cumbria Refugee Support Network.

Person Specification

Essential Skills, Knowledge and Experience

A successful applicant will demonstrate the following:

• Knowledge and commitment to people seeking asylum 
• A broad knowledge, or lived experience of the barriers faced by asylum seekers and refugees
• Experience of developing partnership and collaborations between people and across organisations.
• Experience of inclusion and advocacy for marginalized people.
• Good standard of education including ability to plan, report writing and computer literacy.
• Excellent organizational and communication skills.

Applicant must be a car driver and have access to a vehicle for work.

Desirable Skills, Knowledge and Experience

• Volunteer management or coordination of volunteers or staff teams.
• Supporting learners or delivering learning to people with English as a second language.
• Advocacy in any setting
• Working remotely and using skills, knowledge and experience to set own work priorities.

Multicultural Cumbria.

Multicultural Cumbria is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) registered charity number 1176060. Although incorporated as a CIO in 2017, the organisation has been working with diaspora in Carlisle for nearly 2 decades, with our founder, Saj Ghafoor setting up the Asian Women’s Network in 2007. We use the term ‘diaspora’ to include anyone who has come to live in the UK, and their descendants.  

Best known for Culture Bazaar, Multicultural Cumbia aims to aid cultural integration through education and celebration, leading to a stronger, more inclusive society.

Three years ago, asylum seekers began to be sent to Cumbria, and two hotels in Carlisle were used to house some of them. Multicultural Cumbria recruited an Asylum Seeker and Refugee Coordinator to work with the Council’s Resettlement Team and other charities to provide support and assistance. That work continues and is even more necessary today as asylum seekers are placed in dispersal housing across the city. Our Coordinator helps them to register with GPs, get bank accounts and legal advice, support their health and wellbeing and navigate Home Office and SERCO support mechanisms. The Coordinator also arranges social activities, often including food, and drop ins where asylum seekers can get advice and practice their English.

Through our projects, we have been able to provide free food, access to mental health services, SIM cards and many opportunities for socialising through sport, games, art and craft and cooking. We encourage and support asylum seekers to volunteer with us to assist us with events and activities and enable them to practice their English skills, build confidence and make new friends.

More about Multicultural Cumbria here: https://multiculturalcumbria.org.uk/

West Cumbria Refugee Support Network

West Cumbria Refugee Support Network is a constituted group established in 2018.

We offer friendship, social support and practical assistance to refugees and asylum seekers.

We work with a number of volunteers to provide 1 to 1 support, including transport to appointments, and attend Cumberland Council’s Conversation Cafes in Workington and Whitehaven Libraries to provide individualised assistance.

More about West Cumbria Refugee Support Network here: https://wcrsn.org.uk/

Working together

Multicultural Cumbria and West Cumbria Refugee Support Network are working together to bring additional assistance for asylum seekers and refugees housed in the West of Cumbria.

Increasing numbers of asylum seekers are being housed across the area, needing support to enable them to begin to be part of the community. Their support needs are varied and can be complex, requiring the post holder to build trust quickly and be responsive to needs.

Multicultural Cumbria is the employer of the person selected for this post.

The post holder will work closely with, and be directly supervised by West Cumbria Refugee Support Network. The post holder will be working principally in Workington and Whitehaven, but also other areas in the locality. 

Multicultural Cumbria will provide additional support for this post through their experienced Coordinator.

Funding for this post is by Cumberland Council for 1 year. Both Multicultural Cumbria and West Cumbria Refugee Support Network intend for this post to continue beyond 1 year, but this will be dependent on funding bids and is not guaranteed.