What is RefugeeYouth?

We are a community of young people from around the world, and a network of youth groups working together across London.

Together we make up a family full of Food, Fun & Friendship!

As a collective of young adults we learn from each other's experiences as migrants and take action to better our lives and the lives of others like us.

Our Mission Statement

Food, Fun & Friendship!  Refugee Youth is dedicated to breaking down isolation and combating alienation and despair amongst young refugees in London by supporting opportunities for their development.  We do so by creating a community where we can support each other and learn together.

Learn & take action!    We aim to create an environment of friendship and belonging where young refugees can get strength and power, collectively and as individuals, through creative learning.  We take action to bring about change then reflect on our experiences to learn and develop what we do, as we believe that only in such a way can sustainable processes of change and empowerment be made, in a fluid way that changes and grows with all of us.

Our Aims & Objectives

We are action catalysts! By assisting and encouraging young people around us to take initiatives that will improve the quality of all our lives and the lives of others like us.

We Tell it like it is! We honestly reflect and speak out about ways we can influence policy and practice for the benefit of young refugees; by researching our issues, identifying good practice, and disseminating information and knowledge.

We create opportunities and networks for young refugees,, their communities, refugee community organizations, mainstream youth service providers, policy makers and funders to meet, exchange knowledge, share resources and develop ways of working together!

Our Values

We are just keeping it real basing our work together in the knowledge gained from the reality of our lives as migrants in Britain, we act for change fed by the practical knowledge of our and other young people's situations.

We tackle alienation and despair by creating spaces for fun, belonging, hope and a positive engagement in community with others, the office is Big Mama's House  for us, people from all over the world  pass by & eat, use the computers, chat, dream, learn, etc.!

We as young refugees can only come out of victimization by truly participating and learning together, enjoying each others' differences through intra-cultural experiences and the common objective to abolish the barriers we face, as migrants, in our daily lives.

History

Barbara Melunsky was a feisty activist who had worked hard to support and promote refugee communities in London especially in her role as Principal Grants Officer London Borough Grants Unit. When she died in 1995, her colleagues and friends in the refugee community set up the Barbara Melunsky Fund to keep her work going.

Refugee Community leaders suggested that the Fund be used to support the development of youth work in refugee communities, as this was an area that they were struggling with. Barbara had always felt strongly about young refugees, having worked with children in Indochinese refugee camps in Thailand before settling in London in the 1980s.

So young people became one of the Fund's main priorities. The Fund worked in partnership with the Evelyn Oldfield Unit and the Westminster Diocese Refugee Services to develop youth work training for a while, but trainees found it difficult to get work placements. The partners decided to commission some research to find out what might help to get youth initiatives off the ground in refugee communities.

The research was published in 2000 (Out of Exile: developing youth work with young refugees. Norton & Cohen, Youth Work Press).

The Barbara Melunsky Fund launched the book by organising a series of Development Days, inviting refugee community organisations, mainstream youth services and youth policy-makers to engage in dialogue together. At the first of these days, participants were asked to explore what was needed to support refugee youth work. They said "resource acquisition; policy development; development of initiatives to bring young refugees together; training to develop workers' experience and expertise; information research and dissemination; and networks to promote the work, create support, generate inter-agency co-operation, and influence policy development."

At the last of these days young refugees said "go away and make something happen, then invite us back." So we did! And here we are, The Barbara Melunsky Refugee Youth Agency - in short, RefugeeYouth.

Funding

RefugeeYouth is funded by a number of different funders. At present our core funding comes from City Parochial Foundation, City Bridge Trust (including their Leadership & Reconciliation Innitiative), the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation and Henry Smith Charity. We have also recieved various project funding from Barrow Cadbury Trust, Jack Petchey Foundation, Harrow PAYP Fund, John Lyons Charity and North Southwark Environment Trust.

We also raise income by taking on commissioned work, which we have done in the past with Poplar HARCA and the Greater London Authority.

We also welcome donations from individuals and fundraising events, which is an important source of unrestirced income for us. Donations can be made by clicking 'donate online' on the home page of this website.