MISSION

Our mission is to offer people the emotional support, practical tools and sense of community they need to build a happy life in the UK.

We welcome people who have been displaced from their countries of origin and offer community and support. We are currently working with 224 people from more than 40 countries world wide. Those who join us each week are working hard to learn English, access justice, and pursue opportunity.

VISION

We envisage a world where refugees, asylum seekers and migrants are integrated fully into their new communities with equal access to opportunities to progress their lives and fulfil their potential.

VALUES

Our Core Values are:

  • Offering a warm welcome to all who come to us
  • Working together to put the client first
  • Care and compassion
  • Respect and dignity for all
  • Learning and improving our working model from our own learning
  • Showing grit and determination to be here for our clients 
  • Working together with our clients to develop in line with their need

These values underpin our work and have been identified through experience, practice and self reflection. These are the values that we have built our model on and the values that have ensured commitment from funders and the successes attained by the clients.

They are derived from direct experience from the clients and are openly and often presented to us by the clients in response to the practical work we do with them.

It is these values that motivate the commitment of the staff, volunteers and wider supporters of the charity.

HISTORY

The Centre was founded in 1997 in the crypt of a church in Islington to help local people seeking asylum in Islington.

Our Chief Executive, Andy Ruiz Palma, first joined as an English teacher of a small class in 2000. Since then the Centre has grown to deliver a broad range of activities and became a registered company in 2009 and a registered charity in 2010.

Over the years we have served several thousands refugees, people seeking asylum and migrants from across London, forging a strong reputation within the sector.

CHARITABLE OBJECTIVES

Our Charitable Objectives as described in our Memorandum and Articles of Association are: 

  1. To advance education and relieve financial hardship amongst those seeking asylum and those granted refugee status by the provision of advice, training and support. 
  2. To advance the education of the public in general about the issues relating to refugees and those seeking asylum. 
  3. To advance the Christian religion by living out our love for neighbour and bringing the stranger of any or no faith into our community.* 

All work of the charitable company has been dedicated to the furtherance of these objectives.

* We welcome people of all faiths and none and have no religious affiliation. There is no requirement for personnel or clients to be of any particular faith. Our work has no association with any religious practices. The Centre began in 1997 in a church and the reference to Christianity in our Charitable Objectives remains as a legacy of our early beginnings.  We are proud to have partnerships with several local churches and many other organisations, which represent people of all religions.