Social Economy Centre in East London

Barka UK, in patnership with Providence Row, will open a model Social Economy Center for Eastern European nationals in East London. The Center will be patterned after integration&employment centres which Barka Network has been sucessfully developing in Poland for the last 20 years.
The Center will assist Eastern European nationals, who experience difficulties in the UK job market, to gain and maintain employment.

The Center will funded by the UK Central Government, Corporation of the City of London, London Borough of Tower Hamlets and the Oak Foundation.The Center will start working in April 2010.

                                                            Eastern European Migrants
                                                       Employment and Advice Centre

Mission: To provide advice, training and support to Eastern European Migrants with complex needs who are seeking work in the UK.

2009 sees the opening of the Social Economy Centre. This is a new employment and advice centre for Eastern European Migrants which we are establishing in Tower Hamlets in partnership with the charity Providence Row.

The Social Economy Centre offers a service to those who wish to remain in the UK and do not wish to be reconnected to Poland with Barka. The target group would be those who require complex support with preparing, undertaking and maintaining employment.

Through both individual appointments and group training sessions, the Social Economy Centre will provide employment advice, preparation and support including interpersonal and social skills training.

The Social Economy Centre will provide the following services:

• Preparation for employment
• • Assisting individuals to gain employment
  • Applications to the Workers Registration Scheme
  • Obtaining National Insurance Numbers
  • Registering self – employed workers
  • CV preparation
  • Arranging medical checks
  • Obtaining and transferring vocational qualifications

• Employment Support Service
• • A six month program of support from the first day of employment (including telephone contact, special visits of CSE staff to the job sites, help in dealing with dishonest employers, etc.)

• Personal Document Support
• • Obtaining new personal documents
  • Replacing lost or stolen personal documents
  • All applications for birth certificates and passports would be fast-tracked by the Polish Consulate in London .

• Legal and Financial Advice
• • Polish legal advice (including child maintenance, bank loans, criminal charges)
  • Dealing with dishonest landlords and tenancy agreements
  • Advice around social and national insurance for migrants to the UK
  • Representing workers in official institutions
  • Opening bank accounts
  • Negotiating loan payments

• Drug and Alcohol Addiction Support
• • Advice and support to those experiencing drug and alcohol addiction including referral to detox and rehabilitation in the UK.
  • We are currently exploring the possibility of a drug and alcohol rehabilitation project for Eastern European migrant workers in London.

• Group Sessions
• • CSE will run group sessions that will encompass language skills, personal assertiveness, employee legal rights, union rights, employee insurance, Health and safety training and tests and CSCS exams for employees in construction sector.

• Aims of the London branch of the Social Economy Centre:

• • To help unemployed, potentially socially excluded people to rejoin the workforce through specialized motivational schemes that should help to break the vicious cycle of addiction and unemployment.
  • Teaching English language skills to enable clients to find and maintain employment.
  • Teaching skills that help the unemployed to assimilate in a new, foreign environment.
  • Providing comprehensive knowledge about legal regulations in the UK and emphasizing the need to protect the rights of the workers, to prevent exploitation by the employers.
  • Helping to psychologically boost migrants by providing seminars, teaching about taking control of one’s life, reducing fear, raising the assertiveness and strengthening the notion of equality: that each worker deserves equal rights in UK labour market