Refugee Sanctuary Scotland (RSS) exists to relieve destitution and promote wellbeing for refugees and people within the asylum system in Scotland. Our vision is a welcoming, inclusive, safe Scotland for refugees and asylum seekers, where all live free of destitution and have the means and opportunities to realise their full potential. Our mission is to provide refugees and people seeking asylum with practical support when it is most needed, build connections between people and use what we learn to campaign for change.

Role Purpose: We are looking for a dynamic individual to join our small committed and vibrant team of staff who deliver incredible impact for their size. Your role will be focused on our strategic objective to ensure the charity’s sustainability by maximising and diversifying income and maintaining/developing the charity’s profile among the public, policy makers and other migrant justice organisations. You will be delivering strategic fundraising and communications, building partnerships, raising unrestricted and restricted funds from diverse income sources to support the sustainability of the charity, and communicating to a wide range of audiences through various platforms including social media and our newsletter, informing asylum seekers and refugees about their rights, raising awareness of the work we do and ensuring we continue to support destitute asylum seekers and refugees.

To thrive in this role, you will need to be driven, organised, tenacious, creative, flexible, have good communication skills and be confident in inspiring existing and new funders and donors to donate raise money. You will build strong relationships and partnerships both internally and externally, managing a varied portfolio of work that touches all aspects of the charity, write compelling funding applications, create campaigns and come up with new and innovative ideas to capture the minds and hearts of potential philanthropists. Our ideal candidate will be an individual who fits with the values of Refugee Sanctuary Scotland

Refugee Sanctuary Scotland (RSS) exists to relieve destitution and promote wellbeing for refugees and people within the asylum system in Scotland. Our vision is a welcoming, inclusive, safe Scotland for refugees and asylum seekers, where all live free of destitution and have the means and opportunities to realise their full potential. Our mission is to provide refugees and people seeking asylum with practical support when it is most needed, build connections between people and use what we learn to campaign for change.

RSS Mental Health and Wellbeing Project:

RSS are looking to develop and build upon the mental health and wellbeing support we provide to refugees and asylum seekers. We currently provide asylum seekers and refugees with opportunities to reduce isolation, improve self-confidence, and support their overall mental health and wellbeing through hiking activities, gym memberships and swimming. We do this by creating a safe environment for individuals to engage with us. Further to this we also provide transport support through our Transport Options project which supports asylum seekers and refugees with bus passes, which allows people the freedom to travel and helps with integration into their local area as well as reducing isolation and promoting positive mental health.

Role Purpose:

This role will oversee the expansion of our current work and develop further activities, organise counselling support with external counsellors based on need, provide access to other services that might support wellbeing such as massage therapy, befriending and mindfulness, create new partnerships and build on our current ones by liaising with other projects that can support asylum seekers mental well-being and support needs and signpost to other projects as required, (e.g.: ESOL classes, Scottish Refugee Council).

As part of this project there will also be an Action Based Evaluation undertaken by and an independent researcher along with peer researchers to determine key learning and outcomes from the interventions, identify challenges that have been faced by staff and those accessing the project, outline any potential opportunities achieved from the project and provide an analysis on any areas for change or adaptation that would benefit the overall outcomes of the project to reduce isolation, enhance community integration and promote positive mental health and wellbeing. It would be the responsibility of the Mental Health Community Development Officer to coordinate and liaise with the Researcher as well as to disseminate learning to share good practice about how best to improve wellbeing among people in the asylum system and raise awareness about the negative impact on wellbeing of the current system.