1. need of support, and to educate the wider public on asylum issues.
Asylum Link Merseyside - Offering practical support and friendship to refugees and asylum seekers -
Destitution
Asylum Link Merseyside set up in 2000/2001 to offer additional support to Asylum Seekers in the new dispersal system
To offer help beyond just survival
Started as a Friday afternoon chat with a cup of tea and has grown into quite a complicated and far reaching service.
Dealing with 3000 individuals each year, which equates to 100 – 160 people per day in the centre.
Liverpool is an Initial Accommodation Centre so there are two populations to deal with. Transient and Settled. At least 10,000 people move through the city every year bound for other places in the North West
Asylum Link is a small local charity set up in 2001 to help Asylum Seekers in
need of support, and to educate the wider public on asylum issues.

2. Well Being Problem Solving
Asylum Link Merseyside - Offering practical support and friendship to refugees and asylum seekers -
ALM Services
This is our current range of services. It divides roughly into two areas.
Casework and Problem Solving
Well Being – things to counterbalance the awful stuff
The organisation has grown by identifying problems and then bolting on services to deal with them, which makes us slightly ramshackle.
However one of the primary functions of ALM is to provide a place for people to go, to meet other Asylum Seekers and to fill their time while they wait.
Well Being Problem Solving

3. How did ALM’s Destitution Services Develop?
Asylum Link Merseyside - Offering practical support and friendship to refugees and asylum seekers -
How did ALM’s Destitution Services Develop?
Started in 2002/3 in response to people released from prison with no support, along with a small number of hosts and a food store.
As time progressed, more people became homeless after refusal and we expanded provision, by 2007 acquiring 8 houses, for single male or single female occupants
Since then we have had less finance and currently run 4 houses with capacity for 19 people. We no longer host. Around 40 people per week use the food store.
We are attempting to run a Night Shelter during the winter months however this is proving difficult to start.
Providing physical support to a group which constantly renews itself means that to be effective, you need to have other solutions and so casework and legal routes were developed.
We grew out of the prison visitors group and a realization that people left prison with nothing – just a discharge grant, often in a part of the country where they had no friends, contacts or knowledge.
SAS – Support for Asylum Seekers – paid for the housing and ALM managed them
Over the years, money has ebbed and flowed and at present ALM picks up some of the housing and food costs.
We pulled away from hosting after a few scares.
We also realized that you could not just put people in houses and leave then there. You have to do something else.

4. Casework and Special Projects
Asylum Link Merseyside - Offering practical support and friendship to refugees and asylum seekers -
Casework and Special Projects
The General Casework Team people per year of whom ⅓ are destitute. This is the gateway to destitution services.
With such a small capacity for housing or food, other solutions are called for. Housing, especially, is in short supply and no one goes into the house without a plan for leaving it.
In the past we have been reliant on people finding their own solicitors or ways forward. People were housed for years without progressing.
5 years ago we embarked on a new project with our own Social Worker to explore the support available from Statutory Services for those Destitute+
2 years ago, the GMIAU, MRSN and ALM started a joint venture to work specifically with people in the houses to resolve their cases and put in further submissions
Self evident

5. Complex Needs Social Worker
Asylum Link Merseyside - Offering practical support and friendship to refugees and asylum seekers -
What does this look like
General Casework Team
Assessment , s4 and other applications, HC1s, contact with Serco and Migrant Help. Referral to other agencies. Gateway to other ALM services
Complex Needs Social Worker
Interface between Asylum Seeker and Statutory Services.
NRPF, Mental Health, Fee waivers, work with Social Services, NHS
Destitution Team
Access to Housing, Food Store,
Postal Service
Monitoring Progress
This is a good offer for destitute Asylum Seekers but the difficulty is volume. If you are in the house it’s a Rolls Royce Service but this is only for a small number
So we have to find ways of scaling this up and reaching more people
Helping in the short term is a downturn in the number of homeless – there are now over 40,000 people in section 95 accom alone. This has grown from in 2012, so it seems fewer people are becoming homeless.
A major issue for us is what happens when you have exhausted all our services – are you on your own? Are you homeless again?
Some people are – others get more leeway – it’s very subjective.
GMIAU Solicitor
Oversee access to Further Submissions assisted by ALM Volunteers
Underpinning this is the Centre itself, providing Breakfast and Lunch 5 days per week, a place to go and meet others and a range of activities to try and make life a little bearable.
Regular visits from NHS and Merseycare personnel take place each week.

6. Asylum Link Merseyside - Offering practical support and friendship to refugees and asylum seekers -
What does it cost and how is it paid for?
With 7 staff and 130 volunteers, the centre costs £350,000 per year to run. The physical support of housing and food adds another £85,000
ALM Personnel
General Casework Team – Grant Funding inc ABC Trust, ARM Trust
1 Paid Caseworker - £27,000/year and 15 Volunteers and Student Placements
Complex Needs Social Worker – Lottery (Red Cross Partnership)
1 Paid Social Worker - £28,700/year and Placement Students
Destitution Manager – Grant Funding inc Sebba Trust and others
Manager - £27,000/year and 3 to 4 volunteers
Housing
£50,000 per year – split costs with SAS(part of Churches Together on Merseyside)
Food Store and Lunch
£35,000/year plus Donations from Costco, Tesco, Fareshare - split costs with SAS
Total Spent on destitution - £170,000
GMIAU Solicitor – £12,000 for 2 days also through the Sebba Trust
Oversee access to Further Submissions assisted by ALM Volunteers

7. Asylum Link Merseyside - Offering practical support and friendship to refugees and asylum seekers -
What are the outcomes?
Of 226 people seen by the Social Worker during the past 5 years, 95 had a form of positive outcome:
45 obtained Leave to Remain (15 via the Parental Route)
37 had section4, section95 or Social Services Support (6 people)
11 people – removal of NRPF label
During the same period we have housed 48 people across 20 bedspaces.
At least 500 different individuals have accessed the Food Store, taking 1 weeks worth of food at each visit. We have approximately 2000 visits per year.
GMIAU Solicitor – in 2 years, assessed 40 cases, obtained support for 10 and Leave to remain for 3
During the 5 year period, Asylum Link has had 145,000 pairs of feet through the door (including repeat visits) around 3000 individuals per year.
These are conservative figures because we have counted families as 1 person/case
You also have to look at this in the context of all the other services ALM provides.
Partnering is key to this – from the formal arrangements with Support for Asylum Seekers and the housing, to agreements with the churches
Partnerships with the Red Cross and Refugee Action. Merseyside Refugee Support Network and Faiths for Change – the Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit
Getting health services to come in and deliver on site. Working with MPS and the local council – letting people come in and see what happens – just yesterday the Home Office Safeguarding Team came to talk to caseworkers and staff – it all helps and adds to the varying layers of support available

8. Asylum Link Merseyside - Offering practical support and friendship to refugees and asylum seekers -
What have we learned
It is not one individual, one organisation or one method that brings a positive outcome. It is a range of different techniques and support, underpinned by a sense of partnership and common cause which brings results, and with dedicated and committed people driving things forward.
So work together, share ideas, think creatively and try different things.
It’s not one thing that makes it work, but a whole range of individuals and organisations working together to make this work – it’s not perfect, and it never will be, but it’s here and its effective.
This photo is of a woman trafficked into the UK – her’s was a horrific journey, but helped by the GMIAU, ALM but most of all her ESOL teacher at Asylum link, who housed her, encouraged and cajoled and made sure things were done.
Here she is in her street in her new house with her little boy in a local school.
We may think we’re in the business of helping people survive by putting a roof over their head and food in their stomachs, but it’s so much more than that. We’re here to help people towards safety and happiness