NEWS & BLOG

New additions to our team

We’re thrilled to have welcomed two fantastic new staff members to our busy advice team this year:

Margaret Magnusson has joined us as Senior Caseworker, advising and performing casework for our community members to support them through the challenges they face, from housing and benefits to asylum, health, education, finances and other matters. Before joining us in-house, Margaret worked in partnership with us as an Advisor at Citizens Advice in Hammersmith and Fulham, and prior to her advice career was a producer of TV news and documentaries, including for BBC Newsnight.

Hannah Joy has joined us as a Caseworker, advising and performing generalist casework for our community. She is accredited to give immigration advice by the Immigration Advice Authority (IAA) at Level 2 Asylum. Prior to joining us, she was the Refugee and Migrant Services Manager at the King’s Arms Project in Bedford, supporting refugees and migrants in crisis, and was a refugee aid worker in Turkey.

We’re also delighted that Helen Pickering has joined us as a Trustee. Helen lives locally and worked as a British diplomat for over 30 years, focussing in particular on the UK’s bilateral relationships with European countries. ​​She served in Poland and with the UN, and was Deputy Ambassador in Estonia and in Austria.

Donations volunteer needed

Do you have a big car or a van? We’re looking for a volunteer to help our community members with lifts to our local storage unit in Fulham, where we keep donated furniture and deliver it to their homes. This could also include collecting donations. We’re looking for a driver and the ability to lift items. Petrol and other expenses incurred will be reimbursed. If you can help or know a friend who could, email Jo at joanne@westlondonwelcome.com

Advice and advocacy 

Our advice team have been working nonstop this winter with the help of our fabulous multilingual advice volunteers Tom de Csilléry and Stephanie Owen. We started the year celebrating a big success for those doing frontline work in the refugee sector: after years of us and other refugee charities calling for change, the eviction period for people newly receiving refugee status to leave their asylum accommodation was increased from 28 to 56 days. Refugees in our community and our caseworkers now have far more time to try and find alternative accommodation, organise their finances, and seek employment before being evicted – a lifeline for so many.

We talk a lot about the life-changing experience of receiving refugee status and the incredibly challenging work involved for our caseworkers to find housing. But the work doesn’t stop after refugees are housed – many of the 100+ people in our community who received refugee status over the past year require intensive ongoing casework from our team, since nearly all remain in temporary accommodation in unstable living circumstances. We’ve also seen an increasing number of people refused asylum this winter, a number of whom can’t find lawyers to represent them or who have had very poor legal representation – in these cases, our caseworkers support them to lodge appeals and explore their options with them.

Christmas partying and a visit from Santa

Our elves were out in force this Christmas delighting asylum-seeking kids in the neighbourhood with surprise deliveries of presents to our local asylum hotel. Gifts were donated by local schools St Peter’s, Bute, St Paul’s and Godolphin & Latymer. Naturally we ourselves partied hard with our community at our centre.

In the news

Along with over 100 other charities and faith leaders, we’ve signed this joint letter to the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper in an urgent call against the Government’s decision to effectively ban tens of thousands of refugees from ever becoming British citizens. A law firm we work with in the refugee sector has already launched a legal challenge against the decision; for the sake of refugees in our community and for the basic rights and dignity of so many across the country, we hope to see the decision reversed.

Writing or update your will
A reminder that we’re working with FreeWill, who provide a free will writing service which includes a facility for updating your will. I you have already written your will do not worry – we’ve created a template codicil – a legal document that allows you to very quickly and easily make changes to an existing will without having to rewrite the entire document. If you would like to consider remembering us in your will, more information and our codicil template can be found on our website here.

Follow us on Bluesky, Instagram and Linkedin

Like many other refugee charities, we’ve decided to no longer post on X/Twitter because of the unchecked racism, misinformation and conspiracy theories on the platform that have spiralled since Elon Musk bought it – we feel it’s not a safe place for charities like ours anymore. For news and updates about our community, follow us instead on Bluesky, Instagram and Linkedin.

Enjoy the sun, and long may it last…!