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Details about Train-the-Trainer |
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Including ;
- About the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns (NCADC)
- Increased demand on NCADC
- NCADC’s strategy to empower asylum seekers and increase capacity in the community to establish campaigns Workshop outcomes
- Successful workshops outcomes rely on the whole NCADC advice/service “package”
- Rationale for Train-the-Trainer
- Train-the-Trainer Aims
- Train-the-Trainer Objectives
- Specific activities
- On-going support for participants
- NCADC’s experience
Background
About the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns (NCADC)
What NCADC does
- Gives advice and support about anti-deportation campaigns
- Raises awareness in the public of the effects of inhumane & unjust immigration policy
- Lobbies for change
Established in 1995, NCADC employs two staff who give advice about setting up anti-deportation campaigns to over 6,000 people of 45 nationalities who are facing deportation, each year. In the last 12 months, NCADC has helped stop over 350 deportations, helped establish over 80 new campaigns, supported over 100 on-going campaigns, over 250 campaigning events, issued 300+ bulletins on it’s daily news-service, interacted with over 600 organisations, maintained a website that acts as a vital resource to campaigners and asylum advocacy groups, and provided a “back-bone” of support to all anti-deportation campaigns across the UK. NCADC works with an extremely vulnerable community whom may otherwise be “invisible” and aims to ensure their voice is heard. NCADC remains the only national organisation focused on stopping deportations and is seen throughout the asylum rights “movement” as an indispensable resource.
NCADC is the only national organisation with a “mandate” to stop deportations. We provide a unique focus amongst organisations supporting the rights of migrants and refugees in that we work directly with individuals, families and communities, operating with a perspective which stresses the value of communal and collective action and promoting mutual learning and information-sharing across a wide network of concerned individuals and organisations. During the last 10 years, NCADC has worked hard to demonstrate that social and racial justice requires commitment, activism and solidarity as well as the expertise and professionalism provided by other NGOs.
NCADC works at 3 levels ;
- Directly with asylum seekers and refugees
- At an operational level with other advocacy groups (e.g. BID, JCWI, Refugee Council, Oxfam, Amnesty)
- On a strategic level, influencing public policy through campaigns re the plight of asylum seekers and refugees
We work with asylum seekers from over 45 nationalities, but most notably with Zimbabweans, Nigerians, Ugandans, Kurds, Afghanis, Sudanese, Congolese, Iranians, Pakistanis and Jamaicans.
We estimate that 95% of asylum seekers who have a sizeable and sustained anti-deportation campaign are successful in terms of either winning their case or continuing to avoid deportation.
Two recent NCADC assisted campaigns that won ;
- Ziadah Nakatchwa , abducted, gang-raped and tortured – she campaigned tirelessly for two years and was granted discretionary leave to remain.
- Mosses K , gay man, detained and sexually abused in Uganda – wound up in a psychiatric hospital in Manchester, formed a campaign who helped him get back into the legal process and eventually won his case in court.
Increased demand on NCADC
NCADC is in a challenging position ; while funding gets tighter, the demand on NCADC has increased. The numbers facing deportation has grown significantly due to legal aid cuts, the erosion of appeal rights, and the government’s seemingly arbitrary targets on deportations. Increased demand, coupled with reducing staff from 4 to 2, has meant that it is no longer possible to help those facing deportation on a one-to-one basis.
Due to the changing patterns of migration and changing legislation, NCADC is increasingly dealing with a diverse set of people facing deportation and the rules they are subjected to. Asylum and immigration are becoming increasingly complex : larger numbers of organisations are involved in the asylum / refugee field and local groups find it hard to keep up with developments at a national level.
NCADC’s strategy to empower asylum seekers and increase capacity in the community to establish campaigns Campaigns are established using NCADC for support and advice. NCADC has developed “templates” for workshops and training, together with a set of self-help tools available on their website.
Workshop outcomes
NCADC has delivered workshops to over 1,500 asylum seekers, their supporters and activists around the UK, often in conjunction with refugee community organisations and asylum advocacy groups. The outcomes have been remarkable … many new campaigns have been established, many new groups have been set up, who have in turn set up local individual anti-deportation campaigns, held public awareness raising events, and build their own networks – “clusters” of “communities of resistance” have been fostered across the country.
Workshop outcomes have multiple benefits ;
- They work to empower refugee communities and asylum seekers directly
- Both the need and the workshop format has directly been identified by those facing deportation themselves
- Enable voices to be heard at various levels ; locally, regionally and nationally
- Increase the visibility and representation of those facing deportation as they feel empowered to engage more effectively and gain competence in navigating the complex asylum processes more effectively.
Successful workshops outcomes rely on the whole NCADC advice/service “package”
The huge success of the workshops has further increased demands on NCADC’s advice and service “package”, delivered by phone, email, its website, and daily news bulletins, as well as NCADC’s support and participation in campaigning events, lobbying and media work. Workshops cannot be sustained or developed in isolation of the supporting NCADC “package” that users rely on.
Rationale for Train-the-Trainer
- Those facing deportation are possibly the most marginalized and vulnerable community in the UK.
- NCADC is successful in supporting anti-deportation campaigns, lobbying work and public awareness raising.
- NCADC is in a unique position to do this work, has 11 years of experience and is a highly valued organisation.
- The demand on NCADC is huge, and increasing – the gap will not significantly be bridged without further increasing anti-deportation campaigning capacity in the community
- Despite loosing two staff due to the ending of its main source of past funding, the remaining two workers have increased anti-deportation campaigning activity across the UK
- A significant part of growing anti-deportation campaigning capacity has been through NCADC workshops which have proven very successful in 2005/6
- The NCADC workshops empower those facing deportation to form campaigns and carry out much of their own case-work
- The Train-The-Trainer programme will multiply NCADC’s effect in the community
- The Programme will increase NCADC’s reach, its and network.
Aims
Contribute towards achieving some modicum of justice for asylum seekers ;
- Affecting individual asylum cases
- Lobbying to change asylum policy and practice
- Changing public perceptions about and treatment of asylum seekers
Objectives
Build capacity in the community through empowering asylum seekers and their supporters to ;
- Stop deportations
- Establish and run anti-deportation campaigns
- Raise public awareness of the injustices faced by asylum seekers
- Influence parliamentary debate
- Develop and manage their own networks
- Share experience and resources
- Empower others
Specific activities
6 regional Train-The-Trainer workshops around the UK
Purpose
• Workshops will cover activities towards achieving the 7 Objectives (mentioned above)
Participants
• Participants will be key community “trainers” to deliver their own workshops in their own communities
• Will include asylum seekers, their supporters and activists.
Content
• Seminars are aided by experienced asylum seekers who run their own anti-deportation campaigns or whose campaigns have won.
• Seminars will be 2 days in length and will include talks, role-plays, and accounts from asylum seekers who are or have campaigned, and a “social” activity in the evening.
Geography
• 6 Train-The-Trainer workshops to be held at 5 cities across the UK, chosen for best-fit with asylum seeker dispersal patters and detention centre locations.
• Two workshops to be held in London, inline with demand and concentration of detention centers.
Costs
• Participants for whom travel, accommodation and food costs present an issue, they are encouraged to fundraise to cover their costs through local groups, unions or churches.
• Where fundraising is not possible, potential participants can apply for a subsidised place on the seminar- priority may be given to those who have the most potential to hold workshops in their community
• Donations towards costs will be sought from participants with the right and ability to work, and from local groups / trades union branches where possible.
Limited number of places on the Train-the-Trainer seminars
In the event there are more people wanting to participate than there are places on a seminar, NCADC may select applications based on which participants can offer the best potential of giving their own workshops after they “graduate” from the Train-The-Trainer programme – this selection may be based on NCADC’s experience of who has attended NCADC workshops in the past, who is currently running their own anti-deportation campaign or supporting one, their practical reach to people facing deportation and their specialisms in terms of languages and awareness of particular cultures.
On-going support for participants
- NCADC will supporting Train-The-Trainer participants as they get active, start giving their own workshops, start campaigns and other activities
- Support includes the “standard” NCADC “services”, website, news-feed service, telephone advice.
- Train-The-Trainer participants, and any others, can attend any numbers of the normal workshops NCADC will continue to run in parallel
- Facilitate Train-The-Trainer “graduates” to form an informal network to support each other directly, including an on-going local support group “cluster”
NCADC’s experience
NCADC has worked with thousands of socially excluded and disadvantaged individuals and with 550+ organisations over 11 years. The majority of NCADC Management Committee members are asylum seekers and refugees, so they have direct experience of facing deportation themselves. We have worked tirelessly to ensure needs of those facing deportation are met appropriately and continuously received excellent feedback from asylum seekers, advocacy groups, MP, journalists and others. NCADC gives a voice to marginalised people who may otherwise be “invisible”.
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