Where can your RCO get the support

it needs?

The Basis Project is ending…

The Basis Project (a project delivered by Refugee Action and Refugee Council) was funded by the Big Lottery for fi ve years to provide specialist and tailored support to refugee community organisations (RCOs) across England. During this time many lessons were learned about:

How to survive as a refugee community organisationHow to fi nd other options for fundingHow to fi nd other sources of supportHow to work well with organisations offering support

The Basis Project has produced a Post Basis briefi ng for refugee community organisations which summarises these lessons in detail. You can download this document from the Refugee Council at:www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/basislegacyor from Refugee Action at:www.refugee-action.org.uk/ourwork/communitydevelopment.aspx

To give you an idea of the kind of information that is included in this detailed briefi ng, please read on to see how useful the tips and advice could be for your organisation

Left:Leila Smile and Negat Hussein from Refugee Women of Bristol

Cover:Dan Cissokho, Manager of Peterborough African Community Association, interviews Shpetim Alimeta [left], Organisational Development Offi cer for the East of England for their community radio station.

The Basis Project (a project delivered by Refugee Action and Refugee Council) was funded by the Big Lottery for fi ve years to provide specialist and tailored support to refugee community organisations (RCOs) across England. During this time many lessons

Introduction

3

How to survive as a refugee community

organisation

The Post Basis briefing for refugee community organisations is not an instruction manual but a list of tips from Basis Project Organisational Development Officers (ODOs) who have extensive knowledge of RCOs having worked with them for many years. Each RCO is distinct, and the community who created it is also unique, therefore not all of these tips will work for you!

Decide what your organisation offers that is unique or particularly valuable

If your services are similar to those of another organisation, talk to them about:

• Offering services together or

• Specialising in particular parts of theservice or

• What happens if you stop offering your service and refer to them instead?

Find allies and build alliances: partnerships with clear goals that avoid duplication are a much more attractive option to funders

Use Basis methods* to strengthen and renew your organisation, for example: Be clear about your goals, especially if the external environment changes

• Set aside time with your management committee to explore if your goals are still what your community needs, possible and realistic and relevant to the external environment in which you work

• Make a list of the skills that you need in order to achieve these goals

• Ask your members what skills they can offer so that you can identify the gaps

Keep up to date with policy changes. How will these affect your area and community? For example ask the local university, development trust or Council for Voluntary Services (CVS) to provide your management committee with a short monthly update.

4

Left:Beatriz Fernandez [centre], Basis Organisational Development Officer for the South East, with the Dover Detainee Visitor Group. Beatriz supported them with fundraising and business planning.

*The Basis methods are tips and advice on how to strengthen and renew your RCO from ODOs who have worked with RCOs on the Project. Read the detailed briefing to find out more at: www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/basislegacy

5

How to fi nd other options for funding

£

Funding options are extremely limited at present. RCOs have tended to rely on grants and commissions from local authorities and other statutory bodies and grants from charitable funders. All of these options are now being reduced. As a result RCOs need to diversify their funding streams.

You might consider some of the following options (please download the detailed briefi ng for more tips):

Membership is the biggest resource an RCO has. It is increasingly important to demonstrate to funders what support an RCO has from its members. An effective way of doing this is to charge a small membership fee.

Social enterprise continues to be a possibility for RCOs. The Basis Project worked on this and there is useful information about refugee social enterprises on the Basis website: www.thebasisproject.org.uk/resources/resource-papers

Getting contracts or commissions to provide services is a diffi cult area for new organisations, and needs a careful approach. RCOs can fi nd useful guidance in More responsive public services: commissioning migrant and refugee organisations published by Joseph Rowntree Foundation at:

www.jrf.org.uk/publications/more-responsive-public-services-guide-commissioning-migrant-and-refugee-community-organ

Some statutory authorities may be offering commissions for new work. Keep up to date with local developments and make sure you are on all the right mailing lists. Sometimes, the access you have to communities that other people fi nd ‘hard to reach’ is what opens doors to funding.

Beware of being a small part of somebody else’s tender. Some RCOs have had diffi cult experiences of being ‘used’ by larger organisations to ‘prove’ that they cover minority or ‘hard to reach’ groups, only then to be offered contracts that do not cover costs. It is essential to be clear at the start about:

• The terms and conditions of the offer

• The decision-making mechanisms

• How to resolve any problems

How to fi nd other sources

of support

Basis Project support was tailored to individual RCOs, although it also offered training, seminars, web resources, peer learning and other events. Part of the Basis service involved fi nding other local organisations that could offer support. Now RCOs will have to go and fi nd the support they need – it won’t come to you.

Decide what kind of support you need

• Make a list of all the areas in which yourRCO works (community development? Health? Education? Asylum support? Immigration? Advice? Women’s development? Enterprise? Employment? Training?) and then make a list of the national and local organisations that might offer support in these areas

• Your ODO or refugee organisation should be able to help with this, and the Basis website has details of many of the national organisations www.thebasisproject.org.uk/directory

Get in touch with all the relevant organisations, ask to be put on their mailing lists and ask what support they offer to organisations like yours.

For example:

• LawWorks www.lawworks.org.uk offers free legal help for community organisations

• Community accountancy projects mayoffer free help to set up your accounts or cheap training to help you run your fi nances www.communityaccounting.org www.cash-online.org.uk

• Continyou www.continyou.org.uk supports all supplementary schools

• AdviceUK www.adviceuk.org.uk is a membership organisation representing independent advice centres in the UK

Right:David Hirst, Basis Project Organisational Development Offi cer for the West Midlands [centre] with Justin Nsiko Bankwa [right] and Kika Aime Bubala from the Discovery of the Talents. David worked with them to develop their allotment project in Birmingham.

Opposite:Elizabeth Ajith [left] with Roda Malang from Sudan Women’s Association, London

6

Working with

organisations offering support

Once you have identifi ed the organisations that might support you, it is important to approach your work with them as a project. They may have less time, less specialist knowledge, less intercultural awareness and less patience than Basis Organisational Development Offi cers (ODOs)!

Charities Evaluation Services (CES) published a guide to local infrastructure organisations (such as a CVS, but could be any support organisation) working with RCOs obtainable at www.ces-vol.org.uk/index.cfm?format=279. If you need support from an organisation, tell them about this guide and suggest that they read it.

Decide what support you need and write it down clearly

Put together a pack of information about your organisation so that you can offer it to any support organisations that you want to approach

Approach the organisation fi rst to ask to be included on any mailing lists. Then ask how you can access any more specifi c support. If the organisation you have approached cannot help, ask them to help you fi nd one who can

Be professional. Once you have made an appointment, turn up and at the required time. You may not get a second chance!

If you are offered advice that you feel you cannot follow, you need to identify why this is.

Some examples might be:

• Is the advice culturally or socially inappropriate for you or your community? Offer to explain the signifi cance to them if they do not understand

• Does your organisation lack the resources to do what is suggested?

• Do you think that the advice is wrong because the adviser does not understand what you are doing? Ask them to discuss how you will implement their suggestion

7

Resources and contact information

The Basis Project ends in summer 2012 You can continue to access the resources on the Basis website until March 2013 at:www.basisproject.org.uk

After March 2013 please visit:www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/basislegacy orwww.refugee-action.org.uk/ourwork/communitydevelopment.aspxto access useful resources for RCOs including the Post Basis briefing for refugee community organisations

For any other information please contact:development@refugeecouncil.org.uk or info@refugee-action.org.uk

Contact person/organisation for your region:

‘We wish you lots of luck with the future development

of your organisations’From everyone at the Basis Project

Refugee Council is a registered charityCharity number 1014576 – Company number 2727514Refugee Action is a registered charityCharity number 283660 – Company number 1593454