National Lottery cash will help Lancaster charity to continue its work helping refugees

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A Lancaster charity supporting asylum seekers and refugees has been awarded substantial National Lottery funding over three years by the National Lottery Community Fund.

The National Lottery grant will enable RAIS Lancaster (Refugee Advocacy, Information and Support) to hire a new part-time support worker.

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This will give the team the capacity to become registered and qualified to give legal advice on asylum and immigration – something desperately needed when Legal Aid solicitors can't meet the demand on their services.

RAIS will also be able to increase their outreach, collaborate further with partner organisations, and offer more volunteer supervision and training.

A recent celebration for the departing chair and founder of RAIS, Lizzy Hare, featuring some of the RAIS staff, volunteers and trustees.A recent celebration for the departing chair and founder of RAIS, Lizzy Hare, featuring some of the RAIS staff, volunteers and trustees.
A recent celebration for the departing chair and founder of RAIS, Lizzy Hare, featuring some of the RAIS staff, volunteers and trustees.

The charity started back in 2017 as a volunteer-led group to support asylum seekers and refugees in Lancaster.

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Since then, the charity has grown and now employs a small paid team to coordinate a team of volunteers from all over the world, and has adapted to offer necessary advocacy to those they support in district.

They offer five drop-ins a week alongside partner organisations, one-to-one appointments Monday to Friday, accompanying to hospital/GP/council/Home Office appointments, and translation in the drop-in sessions from their incredible volunteers.

RAIS is proud to be volunteer-led and to be made up an incredible team of people from all over the world.

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Operations manager Caitlin Luna said: “The successful lottery bid means that RAIS Lancaster can now enter its next chapter to meet the demand on its services and to continue being a welcoming, reliable place for refugees and asylum seekers in Lancaster and Morecambe as they support them on their journeys to becoming settled after so much upheaval and trauma. We’re absolutely delighted.”