Author Archives: Wayne

Welsh Refugee Council Focus Group

wrc-uid-focus group-may-2015

Printable Poster -> UiD-WRC Focus group event

We are very happy to announce that the Welsh Refugee Council will be holding a focus group at the UiD community drop-in. As directed by Welsh Government, the WRC will consult with asylum seekers and refugees living in the Swansea area in order to; understand people’s experiences of living in Wales, discuss any barriers faced and to suggest what Welsh Government should prioritise in terms of areas of inequality.

Details:

Day/Date: Thursday 4th June 2015

Time: 6pm to 8pm

Address: UiD Community Drop-in, Caepistyll St, Waun Wen, Swansea. SA1 2BE

Mobile Device Friendly Directory – Now Available

Since devising an on-line directory of services for supporting asylum seekers and refugees in the Swansea area we’ve had a wonderful response from other organisations in Swansea. The directory is developing quickly – it’s always worth checking-in occasionally to see what new services are on offer. There have been 4 services added in the last week!

We found that the web version works well on larger machines like desktop computers, large screen tablets and laptops. Unfortunately it seemed very difficult to use on smaller devices like smartphones.

To address this we now have an on-line app specifically for smaller devices. The power to find, or refer people to needed help can easily live in your pocket.

We greatly welcome feedback or information to help us continually improve the directory.

The “UiD M-app” can be accessed through the web browser on your mobile device. All you need to do is bookmark the page 🙂

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Click here or on the photo to access the UiD M-app

How to add bookmarks on Iphones/Ipads

How to add bookmarks on Samsung Smartphones

https://youtu.be/uihAioP0ii4

Great Players – Great Fun!

Our training sessions are well established now with lots of people enjoying getting together on Sundays AND Wednesdays now. Following our match with Swansea university staff we are focussed on developing our game and having regular healthy fun as a team.

Stay tuned for news of playing other teams soon.

Unity in Diversity Football Training – Flyer-Map-Info

*all photos are shared with express permission of those pictured.

Happy First Aid Trainees

Many thanks to Liam from British Red Cross for making the wonderful first-aid training sessions available to us.

We are very happy to have our community members showing off their new certificates.

If you would like to do first-aid training yourself please come and see us at UiD.

Photo Gallery: Please note that all photos are shared with express permission from those pictured.

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Storytelling Slideshow and Feedback

Click Here for Full-Screen View

Click Here for Full-Screen View

Sharing Stories – Sharing Understanding. End of Project Celebration.

We are very proud of our participants at yesterday’s storytelling end of project celebration. Many thanks to Carl Gough from World of Connections, NIACE and Beyond The Border for providing these engaging and fun activities for us at UiD. We are very happy to have had so many people participating in the storytelling sessions and preparation lessons. Enormous respect for those that got up and told stories so well and importantly in a language other than their own. The outcomes have been fantastic with tangible evidence of improving English language skills and self-confidence. Something that has echoed throughout are the connections made between cultures and our collective love/need for stories. We have learnt so much about each other’s backgrounds, absolutely fantastic.

Many many thanks to all involved, especially the brave folks that got up and gave it their all at yesterday’s event. The feedback was excellent – we are very proud indeed.

Good weather makes for great games

We are very happy to say that the football training sessions are in full swing now. The improving weather means we are getting high numbers which makes for more fun!!

Please remember that EVERYONE is welcome to join us.

UiD FC football training
Wednesdays 5pm to 7pm.
Sundays 2pm to 4pm.
Hafod Park Swansea – SA5 9LE

Please see our gallery below for recent pictures.

Volunteering at Coeden Fach

Coeden Fach

A great day spent meeting the folks at Coeden Fach, planting Hazel trees and a walk to Brandy Cove.

In our tree nursery we specialise in growing native, nut-bearing and fruit trees, from seed collected locally.  We sell these trees mostly bare root in the winter for hedging, woodland planting, orchards and gardens.  These local provenance trees help improve biodiversity in the Swansea area by providing habitat for the local wildlife.  We grow a selection of apple and other fruit trees in pots that we graft ourselves and fruit bushes such as blackcurrants and jostaberries. We also grow herbs and other perennial plants that we sell from the site and at local events. We have a selection of most of the plants we grow available in pots that can be bought and planted at any time of year.  Bare root sales are from November to March.  We are organic and peat free.
We run training courses throughout the year, teaching a variety of horticultural and arboricultural skills such as seed sowing, soft and hard wood cuttings, grafting, orchard pruning, and woodland management. We also run courses on permaculture, tool sharpening, green woodworking and willow basket making. Our courses are always very popular and well attended.We have a small dedicated team of staff, but most of the work at site is done by volunteers. We have volunteers of all ages, both individuals who come to our Tuesday and Thursday sessions and groups, schools and colleges. We work with many partnership organisations who work in the same area. 

Our site has nursery beds, a timber turf roofed shelter, a forest garden with fire pit and seating area, an orchard, pond and bee hive. It is a tranquil corner of south Gower.
We now have several people interested in volunteering regularly and to spread the word about this wonderful place. A very welcoming atmosphere indeed.
Please see bus times below
Bus times to get to and from Coeden Fach.

Bus times to get to and from Coeden Fach.

Official Bus Timetable – Click Here

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Storytelling – feedback from participants

Please take a moment to listen to participants at UiD talking about our current storytelling project. 

Building Stories, Vocabulary and Confidence

A great storytelling workshop with Carl Gough and the folks at UiD this evening. An excellent vocabulary building exercise using our imaginations to populate a very interesting story of our own. The feedback from these activities has been very positive. Many see it as a way of bridging the gap of not only language, but culture also. We’ve learned many things about each other’s traditions and the similarities and shared respect for storytelling. Many people are now getting up and sharing their stories which is greatly enjoyed by the group. Please enjoy this visual summary 😉