Volunteering Opportunities
With
Community Resource Information Service (CRIS)
&
Piers New Communities Association (PNCA)
- Who Are We?
CRIS & PNCA are two registered charities working together to provide support, capacity building training to individuals, families and community groups within Birmingham and the West Midland region. For more information about our activities, please visit our websites:
https://www.communityresource.wordpress.com
https://piersroadnewcommunities.com
Voluntary Positions Needed:
- Trustees:
(4 Positions – two for CRIS and two for Piers New Communities Centre)
Trustees are required to help us govern our organisations and ensure that both work within the law and deliver the services that these charities have been established to deliver, according to their constitutions and policies. Trustees are not paid for their time but can be paid for out-of-pocket expenses such as on items they offered to identify and purchase on behalf of the organisation.
- Volunteers
(Two volunteers for each organisation)
To help in carrying out practical tasks, particularly in updating our websites and existing social media platforms as well as constructing new platforms to inform the public, funders and our partners about the work we do and the outcomes we achieve. We also need volunteers to help in organising and facilitating the delivery of projects, work programmes and community events. Volunteers are not paid for their work but can receive payments for out-of-pockets expenses such as reasonable transport costs, lunch while undertaking activities for the organisation, small purchases that they have been asked to help with purchasing for official use of the organisation, such as items of stationary, disposable utensils or food for events or meetings.
More information upon request.
Interested? Please contact:
Dr Fathi Elsadig Jamil
E-mail: jamil@communityresource.org.uk
Mobile:07727172997
The Piers Road Centre New Communities Association was established to directly support individual refugees and members of host communities in North West Birmingham and other disadvantaged areas of Birmingham. The main objective of establishing the Centre was to meet the needs of individuals, families and community groups for advice, support, referral services and supplementary education including lessons on English, adult numeracy, adult literacy, parenting and health issues. The Centre e continued to offer advice and assistance on a wide range of personal support needs and helping people from newly arriving communities to integrate into the wider British society.
In July 2021 the Chair of the Centre’s Board of Trustees submitted his resignation and a new Chair was elected and had to, temporarily also take over the position of Centre Manager due to the deterioration of the health of the then Centre Manager who was suffering Dementia. A number of new trustees were appointed and some volunteers were recruited to help in undertaking repairs, maintenance and refurbishment of the Centre building. We have also started to link the Centre with community groups of the wider society rather than limit our work to migrant and refugee communities.
In addition to access to resources, the Centre now provides a wide range of services to individuals and groups. We are currently in the process of planning a series of programmes and projects to support women, children and young people as well as job-seekers and others. The Centre is now back on track and receiving more Centre users every day.
We have been running advice and referral services, tuition classes for children and young people, help in accessing and applying for social housing, opportunities for work experience and volunteering, as well as helping in applying for asylum, nationality and citizenship.
We have introduced a new system of management where each of the trustees is entrusted with the responsibility of specific activity, for example preparing and updating of policies such as health and safety policy, management of the building, research, fundraising, etc.
Even within the short period of time since the Piers Road Centre was re-opened for its users, we are witnessing noticeable increase in the activities within the Centre.
We have also introduced a new system of accessing the centre and using its facilities in order to keep records of use and ensure health and safety of users as well as protect the building and its contents. We have installed security cameras and changed the locks of the entrance and some of the rooms to ensure that only authorised people are able to enter and use the resources of the Centre. We are currently planning a series of projects to be delivered for the benefit of the communities we serve, for example, we are in the process of planning a series of training and capacity building programmes to cater for the needs of children, women and men, young people and elderly people.
The Centre was also founded to alleviate inequalities experienced principally by asylum seekers, refugees and minority communities. The existence of the Centre over 15 years, its work and collaboration with numerous support contacts and organizations, has been acclaimed by the University of Birmingham, ‘City of Sanctuary’, and observers in other large cities as a leading ‘hub’ and centre for social cohesion. However, the activities of the Piers Road Centre were negatively affected by the COVID19 Pandemic that let to almost a total closer of the Centre. Several of the community groups that used to be based at the Centre were not able to survive due to the impacts of the COVID19 Pandemic. May of the leaders of grass-roots organisations fell victims of the illness and few, unfortunately, lost their lives.
15
Years in charity
Established 2007
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