June 4, 2021 by admin
Volunteers Week 2021 – Floe
Floe has done some incredible work as a Legal Support Volunteer – below she explains what a typical day of volunteering is like:
I moved to Tottenham from Ireland in February 2020 and was really keen to get involved in community activism, as this was a big part of my life back home.
I had also previously been involved in campaigns targeting human rights abuses levelled at asylum seekers in Ireland, so I was very interested in the work being done by HMSC.
So far, I’ve mainly been doing applications for Exceptional Case Funding to secure legal aid for some of our visitors. Typically, I have a list of visitors at various stages of the ECF process, so on Tuesdays, I call them and we talk through what we will need for their applications. I have also done referrals for our visitors, chased up different local councils and contacted foodbanks. The role can be varied and it’s important to be empathetic.
Volunteering with HMSC has been a fantastic way to become active in my community and to stand in solidarity with people facing the hostile environment.
The best part of volunteering so far was when a referral I made for one of our visitors was accepted by a practitioner working in the specific area of law our visitor needed help with. People come to the centre with hugely important issues affecting all aspects of their lives, so it’s always good to be able to help progress a case forward.
Volunteering with HMSC has been a fantastic way to become active in my community and to stand in solidarity with people facing the hostile environment. With the Home Office the way it is I think support is needed in this area now more than ever.
Volunteers’ Week (1st – 7th June 2021) is an opportunity to celebrate, recognise and say thank you for the fantastic contribution volunteers make around the UK. Each day this week, we’ll be bringing you stories from HMSC’s incredible volunteers. To find out more about our work, follow us on Twitter.
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