Refugee Action Project Teesside

Our aim

To raise awareness amongst young people of the causes and consequences of individuals becoming refugees in terms of development, so that young people can take informed action as responsible global citizens.

Key objectives

1. To work with 6 secondary schools in the Tees Valley LEAs to enable young people to learn about the links between people seeking asylum in the UK and the major challenges and prospects for development (including global poverty)
2. To provide a stimulating and relevant context and opportunity for young people to identify and understand the role that they as individuals can play in addressing development issues and to give them opportunity to act as global citizens
3. To work with staff and advisors in these schools to improve their knowledge and understanding about the global dimension, its importance and relevance for their pupils as active global citizens, and how it relates to the school curriculum
4. To develop a model of good practice that uses development education approaches and methods to prepare pupils to think more critically about the issues

Key activities

1. Creation of a group of 12 project volunteers
2. RAPT will work in depth with one year group per school for one term
3. Creation of a training package for use with volunteers, school staff and LEA advisors. Its purpose will be to clarify legal terms, introduce the relevance of human rights issues, and the links with individual action to address international development issues with regard to the school curriculum
4. Assessments of the knowledge, skills and understanding of the pupils on  development issues at the start and end of their involvement
5. In each project school, during the first half of the term, at least 3 teachers will deliver a curriculum which includes input from the RAPT project and uses global dimension resources
6. ‘Escape to Safety’ (click for info), a multi–media,  multi- sensory interactive exhibition addressing the experience of people seeking asylum created by Global link will be based at each project school for 2 weeks
7. Participating students will consider actions they can take as global citizens in response to what they have experienced. The students decide this action for themselves, with guidance from the project.
8. These actions will be disseminated in an end of project event
9. Creation of a CD Rom to enable the sharing of good practice amongst global citizenship education providers

Volunteering

1. RAPT will work with 12 volunteers, 2 per school.  Each will be involved for a period of 1 term
2. The project worker, with assistance from volunteers, will work with key teachers to create a locally relevant workshop with work pack to accompany the exhibition
3. RAPT will help the volunteers to develop the skills and knowledge to facilitate their involvement with schools
4. RAPT expects every volunteer to take part in a general meeting  every month
5. RAPT will pay expenses to volunteers to go into schools, up to a total of £10 a day for 27 days per volunteer.
6. One volunteer representative will be on the project steering committee

Volunteering Benefits

·        Learn more about the British education system

·        Have work experience in the UK

·        Facilitate their own integration into the British society

·        Contribute to community cohesion

·        Raise awareness about development issues

·        Dispel some of the negative perception about asylum seeking

·        Think and act global

For further information please contact Hilaire Agnama at Teesside One World Centre on 07930107717 or 01642 322216

Email: rapt@towc2.fsnet.co.uk

A PROJECT Funded by Department for International Development, (DFID), Development Awareness Fund (DAF), the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and Tees Valley Community Foundation

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