Tuesday 16th June 2009; 7pm – 9pm
Praxis Hall, Pott Street, Bethnal Green, London E2

Hackney Refugee & Migrant Support Group (HRMSG) is hosting a public meeting to share information and build solidarity in support of migrants in East London. This will be of interest to everyone concerned about the impact of tough immigration policies and the rise of the Far Right on our diverse communities.

Confirmed speakers include:
· Jamima Fagta (Kalungan) –‘Care workers and undocumented migrants - the work of Kalungan’
· Don Flynn (Migrants’ Rights Network) –‘Migrants' struggles in east London’
· Lavinia Olmazu (Roma activist) – ‘East European Roma in East London’
· Fizza Qureshi (Project London) – ‘Migrants, myths and health tourists?’
· Sharif Rahman (Community Links) – ‘Locked in poverty by cash-in hand working - waiters and the informal economy in London's Brick Lane’
· Cilius Victor (Newham Monitoring Project) – ‘Migrant struggles, the shape of things to come’
The meeting will be chaired by Rayah Feldman and Myk Zeitlin from HRMSG.

All are welcome. If you’d like to make a contribution from the floor about issues or work in your area, you are welcome to tell us in advance and we will make sure you have a chance to speak. Light refreshments will be available.
If you plan to come, please let us know: E-mail: hrmsgroup@googlemail.com ; tel: 07791 991416

Tuesday 2nd June 2009, from 11am to 1pm.
Grimond Room, Portcullis House, Westminster Palace, London

Chair: Jon Cruddas MP
Dr Kavita Datta – Senior Lecturer, Queen Mary University
Jamima Faghta – Project Officer, Kanlungan Filipino Consortium
Don Flynn – Director, Migrants’ Rights Network
Nicola Smith – Senior Policy Officer, Economic & Social Affairs, TUC
Sue Lukes – Senior Researcher, MigrationWork CIC

A recent report by the London School of Economics estimates that there are around 725,000 irregular migrants living in the UK. MRN’s new publication: ‘Irregular migrants: the urgent need for a new approach’ draws together research findings to present concise, evidenced information about pathways to irregularity, the impacts of UK enforcement policy and the available evidence on regularisation programmes. This event will be an opportunity to debate the economic and social implications of a new policy approach – in particular within the context of the recession when it is likely that larger numbers of people in the UK will fall into irregular status. As well as contributions from the platform speakers there will be opportunities for members of the audience to contribute their views and experiences around this issue.

All are welcome. To register for the event, please e-mail info@migrantsrights.org.uk

Monday 22 June 2009, 9:00am to 3:30pm; Fleet Street, London EC4

AFRUCA is the premier charity promoting the rights and welfare of African children in the UK. This seminar is being held as a follow up to our various training activities for African parents and practitioners across London in the area of child protection. Many of our event participants have highlighted the need for a constructive dialogue between parents and practitioners to enable both parties interact in a neutral, non clinical environment, while learning more about the issues affecting children and the challenges each party experience in addressing them. The need to share ideas and knowledge about how to work together to better ensure the safety and wellbeing of African children, has also been identified as a key priority. This event is being held as part of a week long series of activities marking AFRUCA’s 8th anniversary from 21st to 27th June 2009.

Target group: African Parents(AFRUCA service users), Social Work Practitioners, Education Practitioners, Health Workers, Crime Prevention Officers, Mental Health Workers, Youth workers, Targetted Connexions workers, Sure Start Programme staff, policymakers, academics, charity workers, and other practitioners working closely with African children, young people and families

Objectives: To examine the issue of child abuse, neglect and poverty and the link with anti social behaviour among young people; To enable discussion and information exchange on the exclusion of Black/African children from schools and the long term implications for children, parents and the community; To deliberate on the twin issues of knife/gun crime and gang culture and the link with child abuse among African youths; To examine the growing problem of teenage pregnancy among African girls in London and strategies to address it; To examine the impact of domestic violence on African children and families; To identify strategies to enhance greater understanding and joint working between African parents and practitioners to better safeguard African children in London.

Invited Speakers & Topics:

• Children at risk of child abuse and neglect - Leethen Bartholomew - Community Partnership Adviser, Hackney Children’s Services
• Black/African children and exclusions from schools Steve Morrison – Head teacher, Kingsdale Foundation School, Southwark
• Relationship between child abuse, poverty and gang culture within the Black/African Community Mike Jervis – Executive Director, Damilola Taylor Foundation
• Personal experience on gang culture and knife crime Pauline Ogazi–
• Key Outcomes and challenges in working with Practitioners and African Families – Case-Study of Southwark Debbie Ariyo- Executive Director, AFRUCA
• African children at risk of early pregnancies Esy Oluwafemi – Executive Director, Wisegem
• Impact of domestic violence on African children Gennifer Onyutta – Executive Director, South London African Women’s Organisation

Cost: £100 per delegate from statutory agencies and charities with more than 10 employees. £75 for small voluntary organisations with under 10 employees. African parents (AFRUCA service users) will not have to pay to attend the event

For a booking form, further details and queries please contact: Justin Bahunga - Policy and Training Officer - AFRUCA - Africans Unite Against Child Abuse; Telephone: 0844 660 8607 Email: info@afruca.org www.afruca.org

9th June 2009; 9.30 – 5.00 pm; Stratford E15

The course aims to provide participants with an understanding of what is required to manage volunteers. What will be covered on the course: What is volunteering; Developing policies and procedures; Good Practice in managing volunteers.
Target group: Anyone new to managing volunteers, seeking to develop or enhance skill set when working with volunteers.

For further information or an application form contact:
Training & Development, London East Connexions Partnership,
4th Floor Solar House, 1-9 Romford Road; Stratford, London E15 4LJ
training@londoneastconnexions.co.uk ; Tel: 020-8536-3630, Fax: 020-8534-2830

Thursday 4th June; 1:30pm (with lunch) to 3:30pm
Employability Forum, 2 Downstream, 1 London Bridge, SE1 9BG

Jobcentre Plus is undergoing considerable changes over the next 12 months, including the introduction of the Flexible New Deal. This is likely to have a significant impact on refugee clients and the agencies which help them. Employability Forum is therefore hosting a seminar with the help of Sujit Ray and Liz Hooper from JCP's London office. This will be your chance to learn more about the upcoming changes, understand how these will affect refugee clients and put your queries to JCP.

Spaces will be limited, so please email r.john@employabilityforum.co.uk to register your attendance.

Brookcares, in partnership with Barking and Dagenham Adult Education College, can offer free training in Information, Advice and Guidance NVQ level 2.

For more information please contact John by email brookcares@yahoo.co.uk

IPPR Report by Laura Chappell, Loic Sanchez and Jaideep Shah

It is clear that many countries across the globe are increasingly seeking to attract highly skilled migrants, with trends looking set to continue despite the global downturn. This competition for highly skilled workers is provoking concerns about ‘brain drain’. There is evidence that at high levels ‘brain drain’ becomes ‘brain strain’ – it starts to damage a country’s development. Therefore it is important to understand the factors that cause brain drain in order to see whether and how policymakers might intervene in order to pre-empt the phenomenon.

ippr and GDN, as part of their ‘Development on the Move’ project, have attempted to synthesise theresults of a number of surveys of migrants and people intending to migrate, in order to develop a typology of factors driving brain drain. Analysis of the surveys shows that there are five categories of common factors, across different groups of skilled migrants and different contexts, driving the desire to migrate: wages; employment; professional development; networks and socio-economic and political conditions in the home country. Of course, they are not of equal importance to all migrants and potential migrants.

To download the report for free click here.

Greenwich Council is seeking to commission a locally-based community legal advice service. The service, to be delivered by one organisation (or consortium) under a single service level agreement, must serve the whole of the borough and provide an accessible, independent, quality assured and integrated general and specialist legal advice and representation service for people in Greenwich.

This single provider service will replace all existing arrangements currently funded by the Council and the funding for this new service will run for 39 months from 1st January 2010.

The Council is seeking applications from the not-for-profit advice sector to provide public access to high quality legal advice and information services across the borough.

Full details of the proposed service, the selection criteria and funding available can be accessed from the Council’s website at www.greenwich.gov.uk/grants. The closing date for applications is 12 noon, Friday 26th June 2009.

The Government has created a £1 billion Future Jobs Fund to which local authorities and other organisations can bid to create around 150,000 new jobs. The fund aims to create 150,000 jobs for long term unemployed young people and others who face significant disadvantage in the labour market.

For more and to find out how your organisation can apply visit www.dwp.gov.uk/futurejobsfund.

Young people are being given the chance to claim a share of £1 million to help tackle the dangers of drugs, crime and play a positive role in their community. The Royal Bank of Scotland Community Cash Awards will see £1 million of grants being distributed by youth charity "The Prince's Trust" to young people who want to run community projects in some of Britain's poorest areas. The Awards, worth £250 to £5,000, are available to disadvantaged 14 to 25-year-olds who want to transform their area and learn practical skills. Projects could range from improving local youth facilities to tackling teenage pregnancy or drug misuse.

Projects must: Be run and managed by people between the ages of 14 and 25; Clearly benefit the local community; Benefit the people running the project; Be a new or developing project.
Previous projects supported include; an amateur boxing project to give young people greater confidence; and a media project to promote community cohesion and greater understanding between the local community and asylum seekers. Applications can be made at any time.

For further information click here.