Meeting with International Organization for Migration Ireland (IOM)

On the 14th of June 2012 Barka IE staff had a meeting with International Organization for Migration (IOM).

IOM assists asylum seekers and vulnerable irregular migrants who decide to return to their country of origin. Provides transport assistance and also a reintegration grant to help individuals establish a sustainable life after returning. Citizens from the countries that are members of the European Economic Area (EEA), Norway, Iceland or Switzerland, are not able to benefit from the programme. Although IOM helps everyone who is victim of trafficking.

Barka IE representatives introduced Barka and European projects for migrants – in UK, Germany, Netherlands and Ireland. We also talked about the projects of Reconnection and Employment in Dublin.

Letter from Dublin

Dear Dagmara,

I would like to thank Barka for the opportunity to visit Poland and to gain an understanding of the work that Barka does. I would also like to thank you for facilitating the visit and for making it such an enjoyable and worthwhile event.

I found the models and concepts around social integration, social economy and social cooperatives very interesting. There is much we can learn and adapt here in Ireland from the models Barka has developed. In Ireland there is a huge culture of a sense of entitlement to social welfare payments which are seen as a right and not as a payment for which people should have to work for. There is a long road ahead to begin to change this culture.

The Simon Community in Dublin will be exploring the idea of social integration for its homeless hostels in the coming year. If the Barka project continues, I might at some stage ask for a representative from Barka to speak to our housing teams.

What was also interesting for me was the very different approaches Poland and Ireland have adopted to addressing the issue of homeless people with an addiction to alcohol, in Ireland they are provided with all kinds of supports/housing/payments etc and allowed to drink. In Poland it appears that if treatment is refused, there is no assistance provided. It occurs to me that both positions are extreme to some extent, it is possible that the Irish approach may indeed be facilitating people in their drinking while the Polish approach adopts a zero tolerance and no supports. There is possibly a in between approach which both countries should consider, where some supports are provided but with conditions attached.

The main issue which the visit highlighted for me from the detox perspective was that emigrants with an alcohol addiction really do need to be sober going home in order to be able to access appropriate supports immediately on return. Perhaps we can discuss this further on Monday next.

Regards,

Mary

Meeting with Lorraine Scanlon – Project Manager of Return Hotline

On the 24th of May 2012 Barka IE staff had a meeting with Lorraine Scanlon, who is a Project Manager of Return Hotline organized within the EHC European Homecare Ltd.

The Voluntary Return Hotline is a non-profit project funded by the Department of Justice and EU return fund to provide information to asylum seekers and vulnerable irregular migrants about supports available in Ireland for people who with to return home but may not have the financial means to do so. People can call the Hotline for free and they receive the contact details of the services relevant to them.

During the meeting Barka IE staff talked about the project of Reconnection and Employment run in Dublin, so that some of the information can be forworded to people who call the hotline looking for help. We also talked about the project of Barka in Poland. The possible fields of cooperation were discussed.

Study visit in Barka’s Network in Poland

 At the end of May Barka IE partners from Dublin will visit Barka’s Network in Poland. The partners will come for 3 days to visit the Communities, Centers for Social Integration and Centers of Social Economy. They will also see the work of social cooperatives and social enterprises. The aim of the study visitis to show the partners the ethos and the methodology of Barka’s work in Poland and to show them the centers where the migrants from Central and Eastern Europe are coming when they decide to return to Barka. 7 partners will take in the visit and they will be: representatives of Dublin City Council (2 people), the Mendicity Institution (3 people), the Simon Community Detox (1 person), De Paul (1 person). The program of the study visit is available here.

 

Manual Handling course

On Thursday the 17thof May,Mendicity and Barka IE organized a manual handling course for the residents of the North Frederic Hostel. 15 people from the hostel took part in it. The manual handling certificate is useful for jobs in catering, retail, warehousing.

Metting with MendicityInsitution’s Board

On Wednesday the 16th of May Barka staff participated in meetingofMendicity’s Board members. During this meeting Barka staff talked about the results of the reconnection and employment project, aboutthe current events, courses, meetings and about plans for future. The Board Members were impressed by the work that Barka is doing in Dublin. The Members expressed their interests in going on study visit to Barka in Poland.

Visit in Camden Hall hostel

On Tuesday the 15th of May Barka IE staff went to visit another hostel in Dublin – Camden Hall. It is a one-night hostel and there are around 80 people using it every night. There are around 10-12 people from Central and Eastern Europe (among them 4-5 Polish people). BarkaIE staff talked to few Lithuanian and Romanian men about their life situation here in Dublin and the living conditions in their countries of origin.Barka workers will visit Camden Hall in the evenings,twice a week.

New employment project worker

Barka IE had requited a new employment project worker. The new employee started work on the 15th of May. The responsibilities of the employment worker are: preparing CV, organizing job interviews, issuing PPS number, encouraging to attend English classes and other courses like safe pass course or manual handling course.

Steering group with Dublin City Council and partner organizations

On Monday the 14th of May the meeting of partners was held in Homeless Agency. In the meeting there were present representatives of: Dublin City Council, Mendicity Board, CrossCare, De Paul, Simon Community Detox, Polish Consulate and Barka IE. Partners discussed the two weeks report and the results of Barka IE work in reconnection and employment projects. The representative of Consulate – Magdalena Nowacka talked about good cooperation with Barka IE. Mary Fleming – representative of Simon Community Detox – mentioned the importance of the process of Barka IE staff gaining trust not only of the beneficiaries, but also of the Irish institutions. This trust is essential for Barka IE staff to present good results of their work. During the meeting partners talked about the challenge of work with other than Polish Central and Eastern European nationalities. Partners also talked about the issue of the date of the completion of the 6-months pilot project of Barka IE which is scheduled for the end of June. Next steering group meeting will take place after the study visits of partners in Poland – on Monday the 4th of June.

Barka IE received a grant of €23,507.00

Barka IE received a grant of €23,507.00 from Leonadro da Vici Mobility 2012 program. The grant is to be spent on organizing 2 weeks training program in Barka Network in Poland for 15 people from Ireland: social workers, counselors, employees of integration centers in Ireland, Dublin City Council employees, representatives of charity organizations, etc. The project must take place during next six weeks.