‘Welcome to Swansea’ mentoring scheme



centercenter‘Welcome to Swansea’ mentoring scheme Participant handbookUseful information for you before you take part in the scheme. 9410077300‘Welcome to Swansea’ mentoring scheme Participant handbookUseful information for you before you take part in the scheme. Contents TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u Purpose of scheme and how it works PAGEREF _Toc427069542 \h 2About us PAGEREF _Toc427069543 \h 2What happens on the scheme? PAGEREF _Toc427069544 \h 2The first session PAGEREF _Toc427069545 \h 2Developing a plan PAGEREF _Toc427069546 \h 3The following sessions PAGEREF _Toc427069547 \h 3Ideas for activities PAGEREF _Toc427069548 \h 3How to claim expenses PAGEREF _Toc427069549 \h 4Travel PAGEREF _Toc427069550 \h 4Who are the mentors? PAGEREF _Toc427069551 \h 4Ongoing support PAGEREF _Toc427069552 \h 4Paperwork PAGEREF _Toc427069553 \h 5Gifts PAGEREF _Toc427069554 \h 5Reporting problems PAGEREF _Toc427069555 \h 5Keeping boundaries PAGEREF _Toc427069556 \h 5Things a mentor should not be doing PAGEREF _Toc427069557 \h 5Confidentiality PAGEREF _Toc427069558 \h 5Being involved and giving your opinion PAGEREF _Toc427069559 \h 6Concerns and compliments PAGEREF _Toc427069560 \h 6Raising a concern about us PAGEREF _Toc427069561 \h 6Volunteering with us PAGEREF _Toc427069562 \h 6Useful contacts PAGEREF _Toc427069563 \h 6Staff contact numbers: PAGEREF _Toc427069564 \h 6Thank you for your interest in the ‘Welcome to Swansea’ mentoring scheme. We look forward to working with you. To help you we have put together this information sheet. If you have any questions then please get in contact.Purpose of scheme and how it worksThe purpose of the scheme is to welcome you to Swansea and support you to do the things that you want to be doing.The purpose of the scheme is to increase your knowledge of the Swansea area and to support you to take part in daily activities that are important to you. We aim to do this by:Welcoming: ensuring that you are greeted and welcomed by a friendly face. Building confidence: supporting you to feel more confident in understanding how things work in Swansea.Sharing knowledge: Supporting you to build up a knowledge-base of where useful services and groups are located and what they offer. Empowering: the project aims to be a project that empowers you to do things for yourself, rather than doing things them for you.A volunteer mentor would meet with you for 2-8 visits and support you to develop your own personal plan regarding your goals and aspirations within your new community. The mentor’s role is to support you to begin to meet these goals and aspirations. A volunteer mentor should not be telling you what to do or doing things for you. Their role is to encourage you to develop knowledge, skills and confidence which will enable you to do things more independently in the future. Mentors also play an important role in measuring the achievements of the project by carrying out essential paperwork and taking part in evaluations. About usSwansea City of Sanctuary is a part of a national movement that works to welcome and support refugees and asylum seekers and to celebrate the contribution that people seeking sanctuary make in Swansea and across the UK. Swansea City of Sanctuary was established in 2010, it was the first city of sanctuary in Wales, and is a part of a network that includes almost 40 cities, boroughs and valleys in the UK. The?Wales Cities of Sanctuary Project?is managed by Displaced People in Action.The project employs three staff members in Swansea:Integration Officer– Hannah Chapman: coordinator and first point of contact for Welcome to Swansea mentoring scheme.Coordinator– Richenda LeonardDevelopment Worker?– Eleri Williams Please see the ‘contacts’ section for contact details. What happens on the scheme?The first sessionBefore the first session you will have been contacted by a member of staff or a mentor who will have made arrangements to meet you. This will usually be in a public place near to your home. You and your mentor will then travel together to the office. We will then sit down together and go through how the scheme works and fill out some paperwork. This will include an action plan for the sessions. Developing a planWe understand that you may have been asked to tell your story many times. The purpose of this scheme is to support you to look forward and to find solutions to your current situation. For this reason we will make a loose plan with you so that mentors have an idea of areas that are important for you. We also use the plan to measure how successful we have been in meeting your needs and wants. The plan will include:Identifying your best hopesIdentifying where you are at nowSome ideas on how you feel these hopes can be realised The creation of the plan should be led by you, with volunteers and staff offering ideas where appropriate. It is a plan about your personal hopes and aspirations and therefore you are the best person to decide what should go into it. We aim to keep the plan focused on your own solutions and aspirations. We also aim to keep it flexible. This is because sometimes when people set very specific goals, it can lead to feelings of disappointment or failure if these are not achieved. Rather than giving very specific tasks/ aims, the plan aims to focus your thoughts broadly on where you wish to be. In this way it is a guide to ensure the mentor is working in the right areas. It is not a strict work plan for the mentor. The following sessionsOver the following sessions, you and your mentor will work together on some of the areas you have identified are important to you. These will be things that you have identified are important for you, but your mentor may have useful ideas too. Ideas for activities The list below gives an example of some ‘typical’ activities. It is, however, in no way exhaustive and we encourage people to be creative in thinking of new ideas! OrientationAn initial visit to the project office to meet staffA walking tour of the city centrePracticing bus routesUnderstanding what signs and symbols in public places mean.Health and social careRegistering with statutory servicesShowing where free health services are i.e. Walk-in physiotherapy/ podiatry clinics and the Health Access Team.Showing where to get help in an emergency i.e. 999, or emotional support i.e. Samaritans, Child line.ShoppingFinding out where shops are in your local community and visiting themLearning how to use British money.Showing affordable places to shop i.e. charity shops, pound shopsShowing online sites such as FreecycleLeisureAccessing the libraryFinding out about cheap or free leisure activitiesAttending drop-ins and support groups togetherSharing outdoor spaces i.e. the beach, outdoor gymsFinding out about upcoming community events. Learning and volunteering opportunities Finding out about opportunities to learn English and making appointmentsFinding out about free courses and training opportunities and making appointments. Finding out about volunteering opportunities and making appointments.Sharing culturesSharing British/ Welsh cultural ‘norms’ How to claim expensesTravelAll of the travel costs incurred during project activity can be reimbursed. This includes travel to and from the office and travel when you are with your mentor. Public transport travel expenses will be reimbursed upon the receipt of original (not photocopied) tickets along with the accompanying completed claim form up to the value of ?10. DPIA discourages the use of taxis or private vehicle. If you are unable to use either the bus or the train, then you should get in touch with the designated member of staff before incurring any potential travel costs.You can bring your travel tickets to the office or we can give you an envelope to post them in. We need a record of all tickets so that we can show our funders. Who are the mentors?Mentors are volunteers. They are not paid for the time they spend with you. Although anyone can apply to be a mentor, all mentors undertake training with us and we carry out reference checks on them and carry out an informal interview.Some mentors are originally from other countries and some mentors are originally from the UK. If you feel it would help you to have a mentor that speaks your language or is a certain gender then we will try as hard as possible to arrange this. Ongoing support During your time on the scheme we will offer you the opportunity to talk to us about how things are going. At the end of the project, we will also meet with you and your mentor to evaluate how things have gone and to see if you have any further needs or wants that we can support you with. PaperworkThroughout the project we ask that you and your mentor complete some paperwork for us. This is to help us to make sure we are meeting the aims of the project. Without this information we are unable to access our funding so it is really important that it is completed. Your mentor will be able to talk you through the paperwork. We cannot reimburse travel expenses without the paperwork- otherwise we have no record that it has been project activity. GiftsWe encourage volunteers not to give gifts to you whilst volunteering. This is because gifts can be interpreted as a contractual agreement by some people. If you do receive gifts, we ask that you make the organisation aware of the gift. We also ask that you do not give gifts to the mentors. It is acceptable for a gift to be given at the end of a placement as a thank you or for a special occasion, but gifts should not be given regularly. Reporting problems If you encounter a problem whilst on project then you can speak to a Cities of Sanctuary project staff member or a Displaced People in Action member of staff or trustee. If possible then make a written note of the problem when it happens. If you have any concerns at all about the behaviour or actions of your mentor then you should let us know. Keeping boundariesWe ask that volunteers treat the relationship as a professional one rather than a friendship and do not get involved with your life beyond the context of the scheme. This is because we don’t want to create attachments or dependencies on any individual. The aim of the scheme is to encourage independence rather than dependence. Things a mentor should not be doingThere are also certain roles/ activities that are not included in a mentor’s role and should not be carried out. These include:Personal care i.e. washing or dressing youGiving legal adviceGetting involved in your financial affairsBeing alone with children or a child (anyone under age of 18)Becoming friends/ attachedGetting involved in case workCounselling/ therapyGiving formal adviceAdvocacy ConfidentialityWe respect your personal information and will not share this with anyone without your consent. You will also be asked to carry out paperwork in partnership with the volunteer. We will give you or the volunteers a file to store paperwork in so that it can be kept private. We ask that this paperwork is not shared with anyone outside of the scheme or left visible in public places. At the end of the project the paperwork will need to be returned to us we can see the information for monitoring and put it in safe storage. The forms will also be online so the completed forms can be emailed to us if easier.Being involved and giving your opinion The Welcome to Swansea mentoring project is designed with the people we aim to support in mind. For this reason we welcome your ideas and input for how we can develop the project. We will invite you to give feedback on your experiences and this is very important to us. We also welcome input in other ways- for instance you may wish to be involved with helping us develop the training programme or interviewing potential mentors. If you are interested in any of these roles then please do get in contact. We would welcome your ideas and thoughts. Concerns and compliments Raising a concern about usIf you encounter a problem with the scheme then please let us know. You can do this by contacting a project staff member. If you feel you cannot talk to a project staff member or they are unavailable then please contact a DPIA staff member.Finally if you feel that the issue needs to be taken higher then please contact the charity commission () for general purposes or the police if you believe illegal activity is taking place.Equally, we welcome compliments so we can continue to build on the things we do well. If you would like to make a compliment then please contact a member of project staff. Volunteering with usIf you have enjoyed your experience of the project and feel you would like to support someone then we welcome you to apply to be a mentor yourself. We also have a number of other roles available. A member of staff will be happy to chat to you about any of these. Useful contactsStaff contact numbers:City of Sanctuary:Hannah Chapman (integration officer)07496 172896hannah@.uk Richenda Leonard(Swansea coordinator)07496 172895richenda@.uk Eleri Williams(Swansea development worker)07496 172898eleri@.uk Elinor Harris (Wales coordinator) elinor@.uk DPIA:Should only be contacted if project staff are unavailable or you feel that you need to talk about an issue that you cannot talk to project staff about.Richard Yeo (Finance and operations manager)029 2048 2478richard@.uk ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download