Racist Riots: Resilience and Wellbeing Resources (Blog 6/6)
This blog presents key insights from a scoping exercise* exploring the racist riots of August 2024, carried out by an independent consultant in collaboration with Migration Exchange. This collective piece of work draws on the input and insights of many organisations and peers in the refugee and migration sector.
This blog focuses on available support around resilience and wellbeing, with links to key providers and helpful resources. It is the final blog in a series of six blog posts.
The racist riots had a profound impact on refugee and migration sector organisations and the communities they support, as outlined in blog 5. As part of this work, we have developed and consolidated some key resources to support the wellbeing and resilience of staff and volunteers working in the sector.
We have developed a Resilience and Wellbeing Handbook which includes:
- A list of providers offering mental health support including counselling and therapy, supervision, training and peer support sessions.
- A list of existing resources to support organisations to foster resilience amongst staff and volunteers, including insights on trauma informed approaches, burnout and vicarious trauma, racial trauma and mental health and wellbeing support apps.
Key providers of support:
Here we present some examples of providers offering support to organisations to build resilience and promote wellbeing amongst staff and volunteers. The aim of this is to increase awareness of the different organisations providing support and to build a repository of information which can be added to over time. A full list of providers is included in the Handbook.
Act Build Change was set up in 2018 to build skills in community organising and collective care. ABC has extensive experience supporting refugee and migration sector organisations. They have an online training — Introducing Collective Care — which runs on a membership model and has a number of self paced training videos.
Healing Justice London is centred on the principles of Abolition; Somatics and embodied competencies; Disability justice; Conditions-informed practice and is Community-led and centred. They run sessions for racialised communities including Breath circles, yoga and tai chi, as well as producing resources to support individual and collective care.
Trauma Foundation South West (TFSW ) offers long term therapy support to refugees and people seeking asylum. For teams and organisations, they also offer therapeutic supervision and training on a range of topics:
- An introduction to working with trauma
- Building and sustaining trauma-informed organisations
- Preventing vicarious trauma
Their open 2 hour training sessions are £65, and they can also provide tailored training and support to teams and organisations.
Trauma Treatment International
TTI partners with organisations supporting victims of collective violence (torture, trafficking, slavery, war and persecution), and they work with staff to mitigate the psychological impact of trauma on staff and volunteers, and the people they serve. They can be commissioned for tailored training around trauma informed approaches and ways of working.
Nafsiyat Intercultural Therapy Centre
Nafsiyat offers intercultural therapy in over 20 languages to people from diverse cultural communities. Support is prioritised for individuals residing in the London boroughs of Camden, Islington, Enfield, and Haringey, however they also extend services to individuals in other regions through specific contracted projects. Therapy sessions are short-term and completely free of charge, and people can self refer through the website. Nafsiyat also offers training for organisations around cultural competence and therapeutic support.
Synergi is a programme of the National Survivor User Network (NSUN) and focuses on the intersection between racial justice & mental health, distress or trauma. They connect activists and organisers into a network and shift power and resources to grassroots groups. Synergi runs free, monthly, peer support sessions online for Black People and People of Colour collectively working toward mental health justice, racial justice, and abolition — whether through activism, advocacy, peer support, or community care.
For more info and to access the full list of resources and providers, please read and download the Handbook.
*This scoping exercise was carried out by a freelance consultant commissioned by Migration Exchange. The aim of the work was to: provide an overview of the racist riots, to reflect on how organisations in the refugee and migration sector, and communities, were impacted with a view to sparking preventative action; and to present the key resources and providers of safety, security and resilience support. The scoping work was carried out from Oct 2024 — Jan 2025 and involved desk research and 1:1 conversations with providers, funders and key partners.
To contact us, please email on mex@global-dialogue.org
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Migration Exchange is hosted at Global Dialogue, a registered charity (1122052) partnering with philanthropy to advance rights, equity and diversity.
