We hope you are enjoying this wonderfully warm summer weather! We have had a lot of reasons to celebrate this past quarter, from achieving the Silver Quality Mark from London Youth to seeing our young people co-facilitate 10 Signs of Welcome workshops throughout our local community. Our women’s group continue to enjoy weekly yoga sessions […]
Spring is shaping up to be a busy time at CARAS. A lot has been going on already and we’re not even halfway through the month! We’ve been running volunteer training sessions and now have 10 new fully trained people ready to get started in our Visiting Project, providing targeted one-to-one support to refugees […]
Looking back at 2016… In 2016, we worked with over 300 individuals offering a wide range of support. In addition to all of our regular activities supporting refugees and asylum seekers we did all of this: In January we formalised our Fundraising Working Group, a highly dedicated group of volunteers who have helped give […]
We’ve had a busy year here at CARAS. We’ve seen plenty of new faces come through our doors, started new projects, and said goodbye to some old friends. Overall, it’s been an important year for us, and here’s a look back at a few of our highlights. Once again, this year saw CARAS run two […]
Charles Whitehead from TTT and Eleanor Brown from CARAS were excited to be invited to speak at the RHS annual conference for managers. Our topic was ‘Community Change through Gardening’ which gave us the perfect platform for sharing our partnership work over the last year. Those of you who come to the CARAS office […]
Here at CARAS, we live and thrive by the willingness of local communities to welcome those who have been forced to flee dreadful events, and lend a helping hand to rebuild their lives. We have over ten years’ experience of partnership with volunteers and refugees, creating a safe space for those who need it. […]
What is CARAS? CARAS is the diverse community of people who come to our groups, the people who volunteer week in week out, the people who work tirelessly to make sure things run and the people who support us from afar. This is not just rhetoric, but the practical reality that allows us to deliver […]
Many of you will have seen the board up on a wall in our activities room which marks our first ten years. On it are phrases like ‘defenders of the world’, ‘friendship’, ‘my family’- it’s a heart-warming testimony to all of the people who have been part of building a very special place of welcome. […]
This post is just one of many that we’re publishing this week to celebrate Refugee Week 2016. We’ll be looking at some of the amazing people that we get to work with here at CARAS, and the incredible contributions that they bring to our society. People come to community organisations looking for support, social networks, […]
What is it like for young people who arrive in the UK alone, without their family? This moving article was written by Erdi, one of the young boys who attend our projects. He speaks about the difficulties of being in the UK without his family, and the impact that people such as his social worker have had […]