When we heard that Jury Arevalo – who has worked closely with us to support hotel based individuals and families seeking asylum – was leaving to work in Bristol we wanted to ask her about her experience of working in Devon and with us in DCC. Below is our interview with Jury.
Please could you introduce yourself and tell us about your role with Refugee Support Devon.
My name is Jury Arevalo. I work as an outreach coordinator for Refugee Support Devon and specifically in asylum hotels in Exeter, so I was originally in the first asylum hotel, which is closed already, so that was Monday the 4th September. So, I’m now here at the other asylum hotel.
So, within my role I provide the support for the residents for needs assessment, helping with the school registrations and a lot of things that are not necessarily in my role. The needs assessment from both hotels provides us with information on each individual, to help us know what they need and try to fill all the gaps that Home Office can’t fill or don’t fill. The Home Office provides the roof above their heads and the food but no clothing, no toiletries. They don’t provide deodorant, they don’t provide underwear or shoes, and this is one of the other jobs we, Refugee Support Devon do aside from trying to help them to with any immigration issues.
When the individuals arrive, we get their ARC card sorted which is their ID and apply for their section 95 which gives them £9.58 per week for each individual in in the hotel. I have been helping since the beginning with the ESOL classes to try to put all of the voluntary sector together and try to help them to provide the support that they need such as; ESOL classes, English class and more advanced classes as well for some unique individuals who came with a really high level of English and they wanted to go through to the next level. So I was able to work together with Exeter College. They came here and we helped them to put all the papers together because the only way that they can now have English classes is if they have a section 95 letter, before it used to be when they arrived in the country after six months you are able to get English classes for free however, now that has changed with the Home Office and now you have to have the section 95 letter, that says the Home Office is providing support for them and the ARC card as well. We now have more than 148 individuals now starting college which is great.
All the churches as well, we’ve been working with the Mormons, and a lot of different churches, we were able to put out a request asking for support and the churches are coming along every week. They provide donations, they provide a service in the church every Sunday and they come here pick up a few of those who wish to attend and drop to the church so they can pray.
How would you describe your role in 3 – 5 words?
I couldn’t say three. That’s going to be hard, but I could maybe say 4 instead, the first one is ‘challenge’ not for the first hotel but for when the second one started, there was a lot of issues that I found a little bit challenging in the beginning, because you if you saw it you’d say ‘Oh my God, where are they going to start?’ So that’s why I think it was good in a way that I said, OK, I’m just gonna do it.
The second word is ‘empathy’, so my role … well my experience, I have lived experience which helped me to understand why they’re here. To work with that you know my heart … my hands on my heart and say, OK, this is this is happening. This is big. I have never seen so many people in one place. The next words are ‘advocacy and integration’, so one of the things is for me to be able to have trust from them. To get that trust and integrate myself in this community, because first that’s the way that you can build the trust and people can have the confidence to have a chat with you and you can get important information that you need to get for example,safeguarding concerns, domestic abuse, medical urgent situations as well as immigration cases, there’s some cases that are very unique and you have to start working with them from the beginning.
How has your work brought you in contact with the migration and resettlement team and DCC? And can you share an example of when you worked with the team?
When the first hotel opened I met Angela (Migration and Resettlement Lead) on one of the days when we were completing needs assessments, so she was there and I introduced myself and she knew who I was and she said ‘Ah you’re Jury’ and for me the collaboration from the beginning just in a professional way, I was surprised how Devon County Council just came across and said ‘we are here, we want to help’ and I have never seen that before. I have nine years’ experience with asylum seekers as a refugee, and I was like ‘oh wow’, this is someone who cares a lot and has a lot of knowledge of what is going on and actually said we are here to help. So, for me their desire and the teams desire for collaboration to provide the essential service to the refugees and asylum seekers was great. So that’s why I took the opportunity to integrate with them as well, to collaborate with them. What I found really amazing was the support from Angela. Anytime I needed it, I could just can e-mail her or she would e-mail me for anything and then they were there to help. For example, when we were doing the needs assessment when she came the first time to the first hotel, for the new arrivals to see her team who were ensuring that they had a safe environment, and supportive accommodation was a great thing. Also every time when we had a multi-agency meeting. It was amazing to have someone from DCC holding agencies accountable and asking why is this not happening, and as Refugee Support Devon we could also question this but having DCC there made all the difference. The DCC resettlement team there every time, you know, making sure that the guys and the hotels had the support that they needed.
Another example is back in December/ January Angela asked how we’re going to make sure everyone in the hotel has winter clothes, and that’s when I started to work together with Refugee Support Devon and all the charities and the churches where they came to a meeting and we said ‘Ok let’s pull together donations to provide clothes and the necessities for the residents’. That really made a difference to the residents. Then in February/March Angela provided us with a budget for bus passes. I used the bus passes for about 3 months, and they help a lot, the guys were able to go out it helped with isolation and gave them little bit more freedom.
I could keep going about the Migration and Resettlement team, I’ve been working with Philip and Amira from the ESOL team, and we make an amazing team, working together and helping each other. They helped me to do the needs assessment for the hotel and we did 148 needs assessments in one day which was amazing, and I was helping them when they were doing the English assessments. And they’re still around, helping with any concern and we help each other, they’re great I will miss the team and I will miss working here.
How does it feel to work with the Migration and Resettlement team and what values do they demonstrate?
It feels rewarding, I’m going with that and the values they show are: compassion, dedication and inclusivity. When you see the teams around families from other countries and they are working together to create support for them and see them so nicely talking to the families and they are wanting to create that integration and inclusivity. It’s great, that’s why I’m so proud to be part of this team. Devon County Council provide welcome place for everyone, and you can feel it, the residents can feel it. One of the residents, said to me, ‘I don’t want to move’, you know, a few of them left because of the situation but it’s not because they don’t like Devon, they love Exeter. They love how people have been working with them, all the support and now they love it more because they come back from Exeter College and say ‘Oh my God Exeter college is amazing’. It’s very positive and it’s an inspiring environment where you see people working together for the same thing, and if somebody is in need, we are here to help you. I never felt alone which is very important. I was working with other people and any anytime when I needed something I knew somebody, Angela and her team was going to be there.
In your opinion, do you think the team is impactful in their work?
Yes, it is substantial from my point of view, the leadership e.g. Angela provided from the beginning. I was very proud to have someone like her from the beginning and the common purpose for everyone was and is to make Devon a welcome place and you guys did it. Every time I spoke to the residents everyone said I want to be here, I want a house in Exeter, this place is amazing. They were very sad that they had to move they really wanted to stay here, not just for the cricket, but for everyone, the churches, the community and everywhere they went, they were welcome. They felt welcome.
The churches came back to me and said we have more than 30 people coming every Sunday from the hotels, and then the other week one of the churches put on an event and 50 residents went and they said they have never seen so many people attend their events and they were playing games, they were dancing and the church was really grateful and that’s the thing the residents want to have integration, they don’t want to be isolated, they don’t want to be inside their rooms and that’s because they feel safe, they are happy here and they want to go out into the community.