SUPPORTING ETHNIC MINORITY PEOPLE ACROSS WALES
Welcome Croeso
SLT Message
2022 was a momentous year for EYST, marked by opportunities, challenges, and significant growth. It was a year of change and recognition, highlighting the resilience and dedication of our organisation.
In March 2022, our long-serving, passionate, and dedicated CEO, Rocio Cifuentes, left EYST to become the Children's Commissioner for Wales. During her many years of service, Rocio was the driving force behind EYST’s growth and development. We will be forever grateful for the unquantifiable impact she has had on our organisation, clients, and the wider community across Wales. We are excited to see the impact she will have in her prestigious new role.
With Rocio's departure, a new senior leadership team was introduced to guide EYST forward. This team comprises EYST founder and Life President Momena Ali, Co-Director and Head of People & Services Helal Uddin, and Co-Director and Head of People & Governance Lloyd Williams. Together, they bring over 45 years of combined service to EYST. The Trustee Board is confident that this new leadership team will continue to advance EYST’s mission with the same excellence and commitment.
2022 also brought public recognition to EYST, with the organization receiving the Trusted Charity Quality Mark and the Bronze Level in the Youth Work Award. These accolades are the culmination of years of hard work and dedication, reflecting our commitment to growth and best practices.
The year was not without its challenges.
The slow exit from COVID-19, the Black Lives Matter movement, Brexit, the
war in Ukraine, and the cost of living crisis highlighted existing inequalities more starkly than ever. These events underscored the critical importance of EYST's work in supporting our communities during these turbulent times.
We look back on 2022 with gratitude for the progress we’ve made and the resilience we’ve shown. The work of EYST has never been more necessary, and we remain steadfast in our commitment to serve and support our communities across Wales.
Thank you for your continued support.
EYST Senior Leadership Team
Momena Ali – Founder and Life President
Helal Uddin – Co-Director and Head of People & Services
Lloyd Williams – Co-Director and Head of People & Governance
Key Achieve ments 2022
We were delighted to be awarded the
Trusted Charity Quality Mark
The Trusted Charity Mark is awarded to organisations who meet the required standards, this comes after a lengthy Selfassessment process followed by an external assessment. The quality mark covers 11 Key areas in the life of a charity and required a great deal of reflection, development and change and what we needed was a full team effort including staff, volunteers and Trustees to achieve it! in March 2022 by NCVO.
Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Volunteering Award 2022
EYST Wales are honoured to be a recipient of the award has been personally approved by His Majesty The King following a judging process.
As one of the 20 national charities awarded, we are humbled to have been recognised for our work - in particular, the support we provide to 16-25 year olds across Wales.
This is a one-off award created to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee and 20 years of The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service (QAVS). We understand that the
We are therefore aware of the prestige this comes with and are committed to continuing the service we provide to young people and communities, values EYST Wales was built upon.
Youth Work Quality Mark Bronze Award
In 2022 we celebrated our achievement of being awarded the Youth Work Bronze award highlighting our continued excellent work in Youth Work, this award required self-assessment and external evaluation and we were delighted to achieve this award.
Youth work was the original foundation in EYST and expand our provision it is great to do so with professional seal of approval!
Ethnic Minority Young People
Youth Work
During this year, we have also witnessed increased engagements with the YPs through Newport Youth Futures..."
The pandemic caused a lot of our youth projects to adapt to the ongoing challenges however, now that Covid restrictions are beginning to ease again this year; it's been great to see our Swansea and Newport youth provision restart successfully, and new youth provision start up in Cardiff and in Wrexham.
At the beginning of the year, we launched our Cardiff drop-in at Butetown Youth Pavilion on Dumballs Road, which takes place every Wednesday 5-7pm.
This year we also saw the changing of our facilities in Wrexham with a more appealing and welcoming space where our young people and families can access our services on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays with a wide range of activities and services our
an exciting trip to Oakwood Park; both our staff and clients really enjoyed our trips, and it has re-emphasized the importance of the great outdoors for our well-being.
During this year, we have also witnessed increased engagements with the YPs through Newport Youth Futures which have been popular and buzzing in the youth drop-ins. The team has been having great engagement opportunities and have really connected with the young people attending to the provisions! Thanks to Maindee Primary school, we were able to reach out to more YPs from the Maindee area. The Drop-in has consistently seen increasing numbers, which demonstrated the need for youth provisions in Newport.
team delivers. Wrexham drop-ins continued to grow thanks to huge support from Wrexham Local Authority and youth support grants and the Winter of Wellbeing. Also, our team in Wrexham welcomed two new colleagues, these new additions have led to more provision and activities happening for our clients, children and young people in Wrexham. Our Weekly Youth Drop-in has restarted at Hightown Community Resource Centre along with a new Girls only Youth Drop-in and a family support drop-in. A lot of trips were also planned.
Our Youth Workers continued to support YP and Families in Swansea this year through various activities including trips, one to one support, drop-in activities, and sporting activities. We had a busy summer of fun with
Mental Health was the biggest theme in our Drop-ins this year with lots of conversation, videos, and workshops where young people openly talked about such an important topic that affects more and more young people. Saying how important it is for them to be part of our projects and how it has helped them to make new friends and get connected has contributed to positive mental health and made them feel happier overall. Families also reported positive changes in their household and felt welcomed and embraced by EYST, making their lives a little lighter and better.
Belonging project
Funded by BBC Children in Need, the project works closely with local schools including primary schools to support Y6 pupils as they transition to secondary school.
We also partner regularly with a range of organizations including YMCA Swansea, National Waterfront Museum, Circus Eruption, South Wales Police, Locws International and much more – to give young people aged 10-18 access to a wide range of fun and interesting opportunities.
Prior to Covid-19, the project offered three times a week after-school youth club sessions in the EYST Youth Centre in Swansea, supported by qualified and experienced youth workers, Mondays from 3-6pm are for boys only; Wednesdays from 3-6pm are mixed; Fridays from 3-6pm are girls only nights. We also offered one-to-one support, and regular trips and activities, particularly during school holidays. Thanks to funding from Children in Need, these activities are usually free.
During covid, the project continued to engage with Young People online with regular quiz sessions, motivational speakers, and catchups. Trips have been also planned for the time when social distancing restrictions were lifted.
Family Support
BME CYP project
The work of the project continues to enhance and develop our work in Newport and Wrexham..."
Our BME Project has gone from strength to strength in 2022. Funded by the Welsh Government our project workers led by Fateha Ahmed supported young people and families across Wales.
The BME CYP Project works across Cardiff, Newport and Wrexham providing one-to-one and group support across a range of topics including well-being, housing, benefits advice, employment and education. The work of the project continues to enhance and develop our work in Newport and Wrexham, which are two of our newer areas, and both have shown the great need there is across Wales for quality holistic and culturally sensitive support.
The team continues to use the family approach, covering families and young people between the ages of 11 to 19..."
Family Link project
The Family Link Project provides culturally and emotionally sensitive support through a designated Team.
The team continues to use the family approach, covering families and young people between the ages of 11 to 19; including all Black Asian and Minority Ethnic communities across Swansea.
Some of the support we provided in the last year ranged from domestic/sexual violence, family/ relationship breakdown, employment, training, housing, volunteering, education, parenting, welfare rights and working with schools to tackle bullying and racism.
We received referrals from Social Services, schools, job centres, Individual Domestic Violence Advisers (IDVA), within Ethnic Minorities Youth Support Team and other organizations such as YMCA, Swansea MIND, African Community Centre, Citizens Advice and SCVS as well as self-referrals. Specifically, we have also worked with families, who have all received support with parenting skills, and 10 domestic violence cases. Thank you to our funders for enabling us to provide much needed support to the community of Swansea.
Sanctuary Support
Refugee & Asylum
Our team was able to support 600 different clients in over 3000 advice sessions in a year."
Advice project
Our refugee and asylum support, funded by the Henry Smith Foundation, which is one of our longest running projects, was able to make a smooth transition to working remotely.
Sanctuary Hub
The Crisis project was born out of the pandemic, resulting from the ongoing challenges faced by individuals and families from asylum and refugee backgrounds.
EYST Crisis project Refugee Resettlement Schemes
Originally funded by the Children's society then later by the WCVA, the project was able to provide support to the most vulnerable in our communities, including help with access to electronic devices including laptops, tablets and mobile data. This project came at a crucial time for our clients as the pandemic highlighted issues of access to IT equipment and data. This was particularly felt by Sanctuary-seeking families with school-age children.
Share Tawe project
This year we took the Share Tawe project.
Swansea
Pembrokeshire
Our support for refugee families has reached Pembrokeshire this year and our support worker Tammy Foley is doing a fantastic job of supporting families from Syria.
Much of this was due to the resilience, dedication and skill of our support workers. The demand for this support reached incredibly high levels particularly in the face of the uncertainty around the asylum process and the Home Office systems during the pandemic. Our team was able to support 600 different clients in over 3000 advice sessions in a year. Staff supported our clients in a range of issues including employment, asylum related issues, housing, health and financial issues. During this time the staff embodied the saying "Where there is a will, there is a way"
Our Sanctuary Hub funded by the National Lottery Community Fund has been able to provide a safe space for sanctuary seekers to access a wide range of support and activities including Volunteering.
The key for the Hub was given to us just before the COVID-19 Pandemic and as a result of the lockdown we have been in and out completing the work and it has been wonderful to welcome back our volunteers and clients to the space and seeing the support being delivered in person.
The Project aims to support destitute Asylum seekers by trying to find them accommodation through volunteer hosts. We were honoured to take on this long running project which has helped so many clients over the years and we hope to do the legacy justice
This year was another very busy year for the team. The unfolding conflict in Ukraine and subsequent decision by UK and Welsh Government to host Ukrainian Families saw the team dramatically grow to support the new families but the team has adapted to new type of support in changed circumstances.
Carmarthenshire
The team were privileged to be the first team to receive the first Ukrainian refugee family in Wales and continue doing their brilliant support work with families from Syria and Afghanistan as well as Ukraine.
Powys
Our dedicated team comprising Caroline Massey, Eiman Nabag, Hamed Hassoun, Julie Hassoun, Shabnam Brookbank and Chris Brookbank keep up their amazing work supporting refugee families from Syria, Afghanistan and Ukraine. The families are distributed in Ystradgynlais, Newtown, Welshpool and Llandrindod Wells.
Volunteering and Wider Community Support
Volunteering BME Sport Cymru
It is great to see sporting activity is back into the full swing of things after a challenging pandemic time."
Our BME Sports Swansea continued to work hard in 2022 to provide opportunities to both individuals and groups.
Our project officer supported by Swansea Council and Sport Wales, worked hard to continue to provide opportunities in challenging conditions. It is great to see sporting activity is back into the full swing of things after a challenging pandemic time. The return to some form of normality highlighted once again the importance of sport and activity for mental health and well-being.
We have been able to reintroduce Volunteering back across our Work which has been wonderful to see, particularly in new areas including Wrexham and Newport.
Volunteering has always been at the heart of our work and the power of volunteering to inspire, support and develop change cannot be underestimated!
BME Youth Invest & BME Invest project
The BME Invest project funded by WCVA via European funding continued our employability projects into 2022 after closing two successful projects in Swansea and one in Cardiff.
The team focused on finding 16-hour, 16-week placements for both young people aged 1824 or over 25s in long term unemployment. Three projects targeted young people: Cardiff and Newport, Swansea, Neath Port Talbot and Carmarthenshire and Wrexham. We also worked with the over 25s in Swansea and Carmarthenshire. Between them they found placements for 40 participants. The placements were with a wide range of wonderful Third Sector, public and private sector firms providing unique opportunities for our participants, many of whom would not have had the opportunity outside of this project. The team worked tirelessly to provide the participants with the best support and guidance for them to succeed in their placement and find sustainable employment upon completion.
“The placements were with a wide range of wonderful Third Sector, public and private sector firms providing unique opportunities for our participants, many of whom would not have had the opportunity outside of this project."
Influencing
The work of the project continues to enhance and develop our work in Newport and Wrexham..."
All Wales Black Asian Minority Ethnic Engagement Programme
The Programme proceeded to host a series of online focused forums to enable minority ethnic communities and individuals to have their voices heard in a safe environment. The topics for forums are chosen in response to what matters and what is requested by minority ethnic people. We also worked alongside Welsh Government, partner organisations and public bodies, in relation to anti-racism and the Welsh Government Anti-racist Wales Action Plan. Awareness sessions were delivered to organisations to ensure cultural sensitivity and inclusiveness
Race Alliance Wales
RAW (Race Alliance Wales) is an initiative which aims to act as a collaborative and self-directed platform for individuals and organisations interested in achieving race equality in Wales.
RAW is driven and guided by the RAW Steering group but EYST hosts the RAW staff members. 2022 was a very busy time for the Race Alliance Wales, including the launch of the employability report. RAW continued to increase its membership to reach a wider audience and enhance the impact of its research.
Telling Our Own Stories
EYST teamed up with The People Newsroom and On Our Radar to deliver training to individual Community Journalists –empowering our communities to Tell Their Own Stories. We created a bespoke training programme which looked at many aspects of journalism, with the aim to build and support a community newsroom which is focused on those who have been traditionally marginalised by the media. The Community Journalists have been supported to learn about, design and research many different aspects of journalism. Through this project the Community Journalists learnt and understood how they could use journalism to create meaningful work which would have a positive impact on their communities and help find solutions and raise awareness of local issues.
is considered within the workplace by organisations and public bodies. We advised, contributed to and voiced issues relevant to the race sector at key Welsh Government stakeholder groups. Public bodies and external organisations received support and advice on race equality matters, including organisation race equality and anti-racism action plans and race related policies.
“Equal Power Equal Voice: Public Life Mentoring Programme’ is a cross equalities partnership mentoring programme that aims to increase diversity of representation in public and political life in Wales.”
We are very happy to be part of this ground breaking project as we understand the importance of representation and breaking down barriers. We are pleased to be partnered with WEN Wales, Disability Wales and Stonewall Cymru on this adventure!
Multilingual Helpline
After a successful pilot, the Multi-lingual Helpline Wales (formerly BAME Helpline) extends it's offering for a further two years after securing funding from the National Lottery Community Fund.
In the new phase, a LiveChat facility was added, allowing clients an alternative to phoning in or reaching out via text/email. Citizen's Advice Cymru, Women Connect First and Promo Cymru remain partners on the project as we work collaboratively to combat the digital and language barriers first identified in the pilot phase. Offering one-to-one support and client referrals on a range of topics including employment, housing, welfare entitlements and mental health. With access to a pool of interpreters and a team that speaks 7 languages, language is never an issue.
Financial Summary
1st Floor, St Paul’s Church, South Loudoun Place, Cardiff, CF10 5JA