Sutcliffe and Co Insurance Brokers are working with charities Midlands Migrant Support Centre and The Bransford Trust to provide a central hub to offer support to Ukrainian refugees and their host families.
After discovering a need for a central ‘hub’ to provide support and signposting for Ukrainians and their host families, as well as organisations and individuals who want to provide help but do not know where to go, Sutcliffe and Co have organised for a Worcester-central location to be made available for those who need it. The office, located at 9 Edgar Street, WR1 2LR, is to be manned by an established charity: Midlands Migrant Support Centre. The Bransford Trust is financially supporting the maintenance of this office and are also providing space within the Royal Porcelain Works for language lessons. There are also other organisations with a presence in the Hub who can provide specialist support such as https://yellowscarf.org/en-gb/ who provide mental health support to Eastern Europeans.
In order to keep this much-needed hub running, support from businesses and individuals is being sought.
If you can help with any of the following please get in touch with MMSC via their website or email Tomasz Jarecki on tom@mmsc.org.uk
- Furniture for the new office
- Professional services support – counselling, legal, medical, education, welfare, etc
- Employment
- Language training
- Accommodation
- Grants
- Employment training
- Classrooms for language lessons
- Cultural & leisure activities
If you can help with funding the Worcestershire Community Foundation https://www.worcscf.org.uk/ are collaborating with various donors to centralise ongoing financial support to ensure it goes where it is needed within the county. The Bransford Trust’s financial support is only there to help the initial few months, after that WCF will be very important. If you want to talk about funding please visit the WCF website or email Lucy Wells on lucy.wcf@comfirst.org.uk
With the way the destruction in Ukraine is progressing many will not be able to return for many years so this is likely to be a long term issue. Some important consideration are:
- Most of the Ukrainians are women with children
- Most of the visitors want to work
- Employment is often difficult without language skills
- Employment is difficult without transport
- Employment is difficult without childcare
- The government supported accommodation & funding is short term
- Mental health is likely to become an issue
Please get in touch if you are able to support with any of the above requests.