Marking Refugee Week with a Celebration Event

We hosted an event on Wednesday, 19th June at the Circle, Sheffield, to mark Refugee Week, showcasing the positive impact our programme has had on refugees across Yorkshire since our launch in September of last year.

The event opened with service managers Kate Liddle and Naveed Ahmed talking about our service and the milestones we have achieved so far. It was then the turn of the United for Ukraine team (another Growth Company initiative), who discussed their role in supporting Ukrainian refugees and what more can be done to help them.

Next, attendees joined the EmbRace EDI Network webinar, hearing from employment advisor Mohammad Adeel, who shared his lived experience as a refugee. After lunch, employment advisors Goitom Negash and Ali Chaman-Ali (both of whom have lived experiences as refugees), told the room how they navigated their way through a new country and how they use this experience to support service users.

The final panel included ESOL tutors Homaira Ghaznawi and Aseel Al-Rawas, who gave an overview of how they equip service users not only with the language of the workplace, but with the knowledge of British culture to help service users integrate smoothly into society. Finally, to top the event off, there was a flag quiz with a prize on offer for the winning team.
We received some great feedback, with the stories having a massive impact on the Home Office representatives who were in attendance.

And that’s not all for REP last week! The team were also busy getting involved with Eid ul-Adha. Some REP colleagues attended the Eid in the Park Event in Rotherham on Monday, which saw around 2,000 people attend from the local community, with activities including Eid Prayer and children’s games.