News

St. Richard’s Hub For Ukranian Refugees and Hosts

The Parish of Upper Deal and Great Mongeham
Support Hub St Richard’s Centre


The hub is intended to be used by:

1. Ukrainian families staying with hosts in our locality.

2. Hosts of families

The aim of the hub is:

To provide a place of safety and welcome

To provide a place where families and hosts can meet together
for friendship and fellowship feeling loved and supported by God

To enable and signpost access to professional agencies

To be inclusive and accessible of all races and cultures.


We intend to do this by:

Providing a safe and welcoming environment, with hospitality, for users to
meet together talk to each other meet members of our local community.
Offering tea coffee biscuits and refreshments; with professional agencies
being present as much as possible to offer advice and support.

Agencies such as:

Kent County Council and Dover District Council;

Housing agencies;

Education specialists;

Financial bodies;


We seek to be able to give support by signposting families and hosts to
where they may turn for specialist help and advice.

Provide recreational activities for children and adults eg books arts crafts and
toys predominantly for 311yr olds plus wool knitting needles crochet hooks
and art and craft materials for adults


Who will be involved in this?

Anyone who would like to support this initiative is welcome.

A rota will be in place to ensure that there is a core group of people to support
each session and to ensure there are enough volunteers each week who have
DBS.

The rota is merely a guide and does not affect who can and cannot attend
each week. Everybody is welcome at each session so to be welcoming and
take the opportunity to show God’s love and care.


Safeguarding
It is vital that all we do remains within the boundaries of the good practices
of safeguarding, and Data protection

No one person should be alone in a room with a child/children or adult

No sharp tools eg adult scissors are within reach of children.

All hot drinks are to be consumed in a designated area

There is no requirement for names and address to be recorded. However if
those using the hub wish to give their contact details so that they are kept
informed of activities and events that might be of interest to them, they will
be able to do so and their details must be held confidentially and securely in
line with Data Protection requirements.


How is this resourced ?

To date materials for all arts crafts and refreshments have been donated by
the congregation and members of the local community.

There have also been financial donations which the treasurer has ring
fenced for this cause. Requests for money to purchase items for use at the
hub should first be made to our Priest in Charge, Rev Monica Cameron.


With whom are concerns raised?

If anyone has any concerns about matters connected to the hub or its users
please contact Rev Monica .


If Rev Monica is on leave or unavailable please contact one or all of the named
ministry Team or churchwarden overseeing this initiative. If the concern is of
a safeguarding nature please contact the safeguarding officer Amanda
Forrest.


The team currently responsible for overseeing the running of the support hub
are :

Revd Monica Cameron

Steve Goodsell (Churchwarden)

Revd Sharon Greenwood