BIRCH network’s main purpose is to offer support and friendship to people seeking sanctuary, who are on the periphery of society. We focus on three main groups: migrants with no recourse to public ...
Youth Hub Volunteers
Practical details
Volunteering • Longer term volunteering
Contact person
Helen Hibberd
Provided
#121292
Scan me or visit www.volunteerbrum.org/o/Birmingham-Community-Hosting-BIRCH-Network/activities/Youth-Hub-Volunteers/121292 to join
We are looking for volunteers to help us run our Youth Hub for unaccompanied asylum seeking children and young people (aged 16-19).
We are looking for volunteers to help us run our Youth Hub for unaccompanied asylum seeking children and young people (aged 16-19).
Our youth hub was set up in response to an increase in the number of unaccompanied asylum seeking children and young people who are age disputed. We support these young people to challenge their age assessments and to try to help them claim back their correct age.
This process can take time and often these young people have experienced trauma and are feeling very isolated and struggle with their mental health. Our hub acts as a point for us to get to know these young people, for them to meet other young refugees to form friendships and peer support. Many are new to Birmingham and need help with local orientation, learning English and gaining confidence to attend other activities. Most will not be able to access college for some time and are struggling with boredom and a lack of routine. Alongside offering a regular youth hub, we also try to link young people to other activities which can help improve their wellbeing.
The sessions run term time from a venue near the city centre on a Thursday 2-5pm. We try to offer a range of social activities, games, English classes, as well as spending time getting to know the youth hub attendees. Our staff offer casework and advocacy support at the sessions. We are looking for volunteers to help us with these activities during the sessions. We also run a range of wellbeing activities e.g. cinema trips, bowling, going to concerts, theatre shows, farms, picnics etc and volunteers are often needed to help us coordinate these events.
We are looking for volunteers for two different roles:
- General youth hub volunteers
- Cooking volunteers
1. General youth hub volunteers
We are looking for volunteers who can offer the following:
- English classes - volunteers to help the young people to improve their spoken and written English - previous experience teaching ESOL desirable but not essential. There will be a mix of abilities and different attendees attend the sessions so we are looking for people who are flexible and able to respond to the needs on the day
- Befriending support - we are looking for volunteers who are willing to spend time getting to know the young people, have time to listen to them and help to build up their confidence. This could include picking them up and helping them navigate their way to the sessions and helping them to get back.
- Admin/advocacy - during the youth hub we offer a range of advocacy support and this can include, helping people access bus tickets, referrals/signposting to different agencies, linking up with sports clubs etc - we are looking for volunteers who have good admin skills and who want to offer this kind of advocacy support
- Sport/game playing - the Church hall has a variety of inhouse activities e.g. pool, music instruments etc which the young people enjoy, we also bring games to play which can have a focus on improving English but also help with peer relationship building. Many of our attendees also love football, basketball and other sports and weather permitting, we are keen to support them to go to the local park which is situated next to the hub to play sports. These sessions are so beneficial to their wellbeing. We are looking for volunteers who can help us coordinate these activities.
2. Cooking volunteers
We are looking for volunteers to help with planning and cooking a meal for our youth hub attendees. We are looking for someone who can help plan and coordinate shopping for meals, plan a range of meals - consulting with the young people to discuss meals that they would like to eat and create a varied offer from a range of different countries.
We want to build up a team of volunteers who can initially offer a cooked meal once a month, we might look to increase this in the future to a weekly basis if things go smoothly.
For all of the above roles, we are looking for volunteers with excellent communication skills, who can work with empathy and sensitivity to the needs of the young people we are supporting.
The main availability we are looking for is for our hub on a Thursday 2pm-5pm but some of our wellbeing activities include evenings and weekends.
Training and supervision will be provided by our staff who have expertise in this area.
Enhanced DBS checks and two references will be required.
Related to
About Birmingham Community Hosting (BIRCH) Network
BIRCH network’s main purpose is to offer support and friendship to people seeking sanctuary, who are on the periphery of society. We focus on three main groups: migrants with no recourse to public funds who are experiencing destitution, young separated refugees, and finally newly arrived asylum seekers living in temporary accommodation.
We are a volunteer led charity that harnesses the hospitality of the local community with a view to making Birmingham become a welcoming city of sanctuary to migrants. Our volunteer network aims to relieve destitution and increase the resilience and well being of our beneficiaries.