Paul Woodman The Future of CLEAR By Tom Wood Now that CLEAR’S 20th anniversary month is over, it’s time to look towards the future. I spoke to Interim Project Manager Paul W to find out more about the organisation’s plans. ‘Any charity wants to not exist’, he begins. ‘The sustainability [of CLEAR] is [...]
City Life Church awarded over £489,000 by the National Lottery Community Fund to help those in need of refuge June 2021 City Life Church in Southampton is celebrating a grant from the National Lottery Community Fund for £489,372 to support its work with refugees and asylum seekers in Southampton. CLEAR (City Life Education and Action [...]
Life is Waiting: A Refugee Week Simple Act By Tom Wood Trigger warning: this post contains a reference to sexual violence. This year’s Refugee Week is asking people to perform ‘Simple Acts’: ‘everyday actions we can all do to stand with refugees and make new connections in our communities’. As such, I sat down to [...]
Refugees and Asylum Seekers in the UK: The Last 20 Years For CLEAR’s 20th anniversary this month, we take a look back at how policy and attitudes towards refugees and asylum seekers in the UK have changed since our beginnings in 2001… When considering developments in government legislation affecting refugees and asylum seekers, it [...]
The Founding of CLEAR: Twenty Years On (Part Two) We left off after CLEAR had made it into its first office in 2001, but there was much more still to happen before it could become the organisation it is today. Read on to find out about what took place over the next few years, from [...]
The Founding of CLEAR: Twenty Years On (Part One) For CLEAR’S 20th birthday this month, we asked three key players in the organisation’s founding to share some memories of the early days of CLEAR. Read on to find out how it all began, and look out for more posts about CLEAR’s beginnings coming soon. Paul [...]
The Lift the Ban Coalition: What’s It All About? In the UK, people seeking asylum are not allowed to work. Instead, they must live off an allowance of just £39.63 per week, which is expected to cover everything but government provided accommodation. The government claims that asylum applications are ‘usually’ responded to within six months, but according to their own figures on asylum and [...]
An organisation like CLEAR is invaluable in creating a welcoming environment for refugees and people seeking asylum in Southampton. In spite of the ongoing pandemic, and the current lockdown meaning that the office is closed, CLEAR continues to offer a large range of services to its clients online and via phone every weekday. English classes [...]