Projects

How the Klevis Kola Foundation came into being...

The Klevis Kola Foundation developed from the work carried out amongst refugee and asylum seeking communities in southwest London by a group of students at St George's, University of London.  After accompanying health workers on visits to some of the most vulnerable refugee and asylum seeking families in the local area, the students were motivated to provide support for these families. They organised a Christmas party for the children and eventually established an after school club and then a mentoring scheme.  For several years activities were run by the Student Action for Refugees (StAR) group at St George's, but in 2008 the Klevis Kola Foundation became a charity in its own right.  The foundation continues to work closely with students at St George's. 

What we're doing now...

We currently run 9 different projects, which aim to support refugee and asylum seeking families in Wandsworth, Lambeth and Merton boroughs.  These include a number of projects specifically targeted at young people like our after school club, youth club and summer scheme, as well as projects that seek to support the entire family such as advocacy, which includes adult ESOL, and trips that aim to give the whole family an opportunity to have fun and enjoy each other's company away from the stresses of daily life.  You can read more about each of our projects by selecting from the menu on the left.

How we target those most in need...

The families who participate in our projects are referred by local teachers, social workers and health workers and members of the Refugee Health Team for Wandsworth. We work within a network of organisations and institutions which come into daily contact with refugee and asylum-seeking families and our outreach team visits all new referrals, so that we can ensure that services are targeted at those most in need of our support.   

After School Club

KKF/StAR-SGUL has been running an after school club for refugee and asylum-seeking children since June 2003. Currently between forty and fifty children attend the after-school club, which runs weekly on a Tuesday evening 6-7.30pm, to access educational support and positive activities.

It is often difficult for the children who come to club to access the services available to others, and it can be hard for them to make friends in the local community. The after school club offers them the chance to interact with other children from many different backgrounds, away from the pressures of school. At the club, children can try new activities in music, sport, drama, cooking and craft, to which they would not otherwise have access. Above all, the children are allowed to be themselves in a safe and supportive environment. The After School Club is a point of stability in a world which can be confusing and frightening.

"When I'm at club I feel like a millionaire". (boy, 8 years)

The children's time at the club is split between educational support and positive activities. For education, the children work in groups with a regular leader. They work in the same groups each week, allowing them to build up a sense of security and familiarity with each other and with their volunteer teacher. This structure also encourages them to suggest ideas for what they will study and what they need help with. Children who have difficulty with written and/or spoken English receive targeted support for this, and children in the relevant years work on preparatory material for SAT exams.

In the second half of the evening, the children have the opportunity to participate in a range of different activities. There are regular groups in craft and cooking, with the children creating spiders, kaleidoscopes, blue muffins and chocolate sundaes. The children are given the chance to play different sports at local recreation grounds, and regularly visit the local library and swimming pool. Occasionally we hold events with external groups and performers and are always keen to hear from people interested in running activities.

"Club is a place you can have fun and enjoy yourself...my favourite thing about club is sport and work". (boy, 9 years)

Mentoring

Our mentoring scheme offers one-to-one support for those young people who are most at risk.

Read a mentor's story

KKF/StAR-SGUL has run a volunteer mentoring service since September 2007. More mentors are currently being trained and we are seeking to expand the scheme.

Mentors are matched to a young person who they see at least three times a month for a minimum period of a year. Each visit lasts for over two hours, allowing mentor pairings time to get to get to know each other and build up a relationship of mutual respect and trust. We aim to provide a supportive, open, and non-judgmental relationship within which young refugees and asylum seekers can become more confident, discuss social and emotional difficulties, receive educational support, and develop and work towards positive achievable goals.

"I think my favourite day was when I took my mentee and her two older brothers to the Science Museum. They were a total handful, demanded McDonalds and icecream, complained that they couldn't fly the planes, then found the interactive bit and the shows and, when I said it was home time, begged me to let them stay."(former mentor)

The scheme will also allow young refugees and asylum seekers to engage in activities to which they might not normally have access. As with other validated mentoring schemes this will help young refugees and asylum seekers to achieve their full potential and integrate better into UK society.

Mentors are CRB checked as a matter of course, and have to attend 3 training sessions to make them aware of the backgrounds of the children involved in the scheme, give them knowledge of mentoring techniques, and equip them to handle problems that may arise.

A core element of the mentoring scheme is mentors and young people undertaking shared activities. Whilst many of these activities can be free, some of them incur a necessary expense. We provide a monthly stipend whose use is agreed in conjunction between the mentor and mentee.

Each mentor has a supervisor who contacts the mentor regularly to assist with any problems that arise, and to help provide necessary documentation and evaluation of the scheme.

Trips

KKF/StAR-SGUL run a variety of trips throughout the year for all the children with whom we work.

Many of the children come from families unable to provide these opportunities due to poverty or parental illness,. We believe that having the chance to experience new places and activities is a vital part of building children's self-confidence and developing their personality. For many, trips provide a welcome respite from stressful home situations and give them something to tell their classmates, helping them to integrate and feel more at ease.

During each school holiday the different age groups take part in trips appropriate to their age. These have included museums, swimming, ten-pin-bowling, cinemas, theatres, the London Eye, the Aquarium, the Zoo, Brighton and many others. We are always open to ideas from children, families and volunteers about new and exciting things to try.

Group leaders and mentors get to know children well and work to develop their individual interests. One of the ways we do this is by running specialised trips for small groups of children.

All of the trips are activity packed and provide a great opportunity for children to strengthen friendships and build on good relationships with the volunteers with whom they work throughout the year.

"Camping was incredibly fun. I didn't realise it could be so rewarding to be woken up at the crack of dawn, have marshmallows smeared on my face and get soundly beaten at football". (camping volunteer)

Star Football Club

StAR FC is a football team for young men aged 15-19

STAR and other local services consistently find that young refugee and asylum seeking men were the most difficult group to reach and engage. They often put up with quite considerable hardship and problems without seeking help.

STAR FC was therefore set up in 2004 as a way for young refugee men to keep fit, make friends and access support in a very informal setting.

The team train weekly as well as playing competitive matches.

Summer Scheme

Each year KKF runs a two week long summer scheme in August.

We offer places on the summer scheme to all the children who attend the clubs, as well as the children who we support in the Roehampton area. For many it is the only activity that they take part in over the long holiday, and is crucial to counter boredom and isolation, also giving them something to tell their friends when they go back to school.

Children come on different days depending on which age group they belong to (nursery - year 2, years 3 – 6, years 7+). The mornings are spent at the base doing activities such as sport, craft, drama, music and cooking. Each afternoon there is a trip locally or in central London, for example swimming, ice-skating, aquarium, cinema etc. At the weekends there are day trips to Brighton and Brockett's farm.

The summer scheme is also great fun for the many volunteers who take part and there are many opportunities to get involved in the planning and running of activities and trips.

Integration Project

KKF/StAR-SGUL supports children and young people to access the leisure activities in their local area.

Needs assessments carried out in 2003, 2007/8 and 2011 revealed that most refugee and asylum seeking children with whom we are in contact are not accessing leisure activities. This is due to lack of awareness of what is available, lack of confidence and financial barriers.

The integration project aims to introduce children and their families to activities available to them in the community such as football clubs and dance lessons, and provide bursaries where necessary.

We have built good links with many local clubs and activities and we are always keen to work in partnership with more groups. We provide volunteers to accompany families the first few times that they try the activity to show them how to get there, help fill in consent forms and get any necessary equipment.

KKF also has a family integration project. Newly arrived children and families or children and families who face specific barriers to integration, are paired with a ‘buddy' family from the same ethnic community who are well settled and integrated. The families take part in activities together during which the ‘buddy' family provides a model for integration and supports the other child/family to access activities in the community.

The lead adult from the 'buddy' family may also support a child from the other family to participate in KKF/StAR- SGUL projects.

Advocacy Project

Volunteers across all our projects frequently act as advocates for the families with whom they are involved.

Activities vary enormously from accompanying people to hospital appointments to helping families move house, from supporting parents to attend parents evenings to organising legal representation, and from assisting people to fill in forms to helping them navigate automated answering systems.

The advocacy co-ordinators support volunteers in their roles as advocates by providing advice and resources. The project also takes on specific case work and refers cases to other more appropriate agencies.

An International Women's Coffee Afternoon runs once a month and is an opportunity for mothers of the children with whom we work to get together and share experiences, difficulties and successes. They also take part in activities such as sewing and cooking and are currently working to create a recipe book of their favourite dishes.

"I meet people from different countries. I improve my English. You find out what you are all doing in this country. You learn together cooking, food and sewing." (woman from the Congo)

Raising awareness about refugee issues is another important aspect of the advocacy project. The team organises films, speaker events and seminars to inform and engage health professionals and others about the issues affecting refugees and asylum seekers.

Youth Club

KKF/StAR-SGUL runs a weekly youth club for young people aged 11-19 where they can access educational support and try new activities in a safe and friendly environment.

The youth club was launched in May 2009 in response to demand from the older children for a club just for them. The club aims to work with the most socially isolated refugee and asylum seeking young people at this particularly vulnerable age. Through creating a safe and supportive environment with new opportunities and experiences, young people can develop their self confidence and feel part of their community.

"This is like our club. I feels like it belongs to us. The leaders know us and our families. I can bring my friends and say 'this is my club'." (girl, 14 years)

The club meets each Thursday from 6.30-8:30pm at Furzedown Youth Centre, near Streatham.

In the first half we provide the young people with educational support and informal education sessions. Young people can choose which topic most interests them and work in that group for a term. This helps to build self-confidence as young people become comfortable in their small groups. Sessions offered include science experiments, art techniques, current affairs, foods of the world, ESOL and Spanish. There is always a homework table so young people can access one-to-one homework help and revision sessions are held in exam periods. Young people can also train as peer mentors and be part of the team supporting new members of the club.

In the second hour young people choose from a variety of activities including sport, craft, cookery, Wii and games. There is an additional special project each term – these have included mosaics, film-making and guitar tuition.

Young people also have the opportunity to take part in our young volunteer scheme. After completing the in-house training they can volunteer under supervision with the younger children at the After School Club and on trips.

"I like coming to youth club, because I meet my friends, otherwise I wouldn't be able to see them. My mum knows I'll be safe here." (girl, 13 years)

Education Outreach Project

Our new Education Outreach project focuses particularly on supporting young people who are newly arrived, unaccompanied, or have limited experience of formal education and English.

Through education outreach work we are developing links with schools, colleges and other educational providers to find out what specific learning needs we can help to address, as well as providing additional support by visiting young people in their own homes. Our work is tailor-made to meet the specific needs of individuals, their carers and their teachers, including ESOL, homework support, life skills and ways to increase social interaction.

"You are really doing a lot. Thank you for talking to my carer. It's very kind and I know everything is ok". (boy, 16 years)

One of the central pillars of the project is a new peer mentoring scheme in which young people, who have previously been involved in other Klevis Kola projects, volunteer their time to act as a mentor for someone who is newly arrived. Training is given to all peer mentors before they are matched with a mentee according to age, gender, and shared language.

The project will encompass provision of mother-tongue activities, which are important to many individual's sense of identity and to feelings of belonging. Suggestions for mother-tongue provision have included drama, art, photography, performance poetry, literature and music sessions and we are currently working with local arts providers to develop ways of creating exciting multi-lingual workshops.

Each aspect of the Education Outreach project supports educational aspiration and achievement, giving young people extra layers of support, removing some of the barriers to learning that many new arrivals face, and helping them to integrate into their new community.

"Before I was not confident to talk...now I like talking and I'm doing better at making phone calls". (girl, 19 years)

For further information please contact Eleanor Brown, Education Outreach Coordinator, ellyjbrown@gmail.com