Brent organisations supporting Windrush scandal victims urged to apply for funds - Zoom meeting Thursday January 28th 10am

 

From Brent Council

About this Event

About the Windrush Community Fund

The Windrush Community Fund (WCF) is a £500,000 fund for charitable, voluntary and community sector and grassroots organisations across the UK that work with communities from the Windrush generation.

Interested organisations can bid for an award from £2,500 up to £25,000, with projects that are designed to ensure that all people affected by Windrush are aware of the support available and are not missing out on the compensation schemes or latest information.

For more information on the fund itself, please visit the Windrush Community Fund page or read our News piece on the Voice4Change England Website.

Key Event Details

Date: Thursday 28th January

Time: 10am-Midday

Place: Zoom (Online event)*

The purpose of the event is to give organisations who are interested in applying for an award from the Windrush Community Fund more information on the fund. We will also have plenty of time and space for questions. We will focus on providing:

• Information on the purpose of the Windrush Community Fund

• An overview of the eligibility criteria for the fund

• A summary of the application process for the fund

• Ideas / key components that are likely to make a strong application

• Information about the monitoring and evaluation requirements if awarded a grant from the fund.

• A chance to speak with Grants Officers from V4CE and ask any questions that you may have.

The event will also provide background information and context to the development of the fund, with representation from the Home Office and Windrush Cross-Governmental Working Group.

*The link will be sent out to all participants who have signed up at 11am on the morning of the event. 

The closing date for phase 1 applications is 12 February 2021. Phase 2 will open for applications on 1 April 2021 and will close on 30 June 2021. Applications are welcomed from organisations representing all communities and nationalities, as well as organisations who have links with communities overseas. More information can be found at http://bit.ly/2Wl6ih6.

Sign this petition for a Restorative Compensation Scheme for the Windrush Scandal victims

Patrick Vernon has contacted me to ask that I publicise his petition calling on on the Home Secretary to adopt a restorative compensation plan for the victims of the Tories' Hostile Environment regime.

The petition can be signed HERE

To: The Rt Hon Priti Patel MP The Secretary of State for the Home Department

Restorative Compensation Scheme for Windrush Scandal

To ensure the Windrush Compensation Scheme reflects the principles of restorative justice and fairness to the victims of the Windrush and repair the harm of the hostile environment and impacts on the African and Caribbean communities and others from the Commonwealth. We want the Home Secretary to adopt a 10 point plan to write the wrongs of the Windrush Scandal. MPs have the opportunity to make amendments to the Windrush Compensation Bill at the Second Reading of the bill in February

Why is this important?

As we approach the 2nd anniversary of the Windrush Scandal in April 2020 we must remember the public support where over 180,000 people signed my UK government petition and 100,000 38 Degree members who also signed petition demanding to establish an amnesty for anyone who was a minor that came to Britain between 1948 to 1973. The media stories of the victims sharing experiences of the hostile environment and the lobbying of Caribbean diplomats and race equality and migrant charities all contributed to a perfect storm to force the government not only to apologise but to publicly humiliated at an international level by causing one of the biggest human right abuses of British citizens since WW2.

In April 2019 the government launched the Windrush Compensation Scheme. There are many thousands of people that have still not come forward to resolve their status as there is still lack of trust with the Home Office and public bodies who implement the hostile environment policy and procedures. In addition, many of the survivors are frustrated with the implementation of the Compensation Scheme. In the Big Issue in 2019 I interviewed several survivors to share their experiences:

Michael Braithwaite who was born in Trinidad but lived in Barbados but came to Britain in 1961. After working for over 15 years as a teaching assistant in a local school in Islington he lost his job as a result of the scandal. After 12 months since the Windrush Scandal he is still traumatised, but he is now sharing his experience at through media interviews, community and trade union events to campaign for justice.

Michael states:

‘Over the last two years my life has been turned upside down . The mental stress and turmoil that caused me I’ll health still impact my daily life. The government compensation scheme has not been fairly documented , it was constructed behind closed doors, no public input and no one to represent the Windrush victims.’

Stephanie O ‘Connor and her siblings are still coming to terms as result of the death of their mother Sarah O’Connor who at the age of 57 died of hypertension in September 2018 as result of the stress involved in losing her job and facing bankruptcy. Sarah came to Britain in 1967 as a six-year-old and worked for most of her life till losing her job in 2017. 

Stephanie states:

‘The Windrush scandal impacted my mum, Sarah not only on her health but emotionally. Before the scandal was exposed, she felt on her own and like she had done something wrong despite contributing to the country for many years. For my mum the compensation scheme has come too late and I’m so disappointed that it is still taking this long for people to get what is owed to them. I just hope that people get compensated fairly for everything that they have been through. This scandal has ruined people’s lives and in today’s world it is terrible that we have allowed that to happen to this extent.’

We now need MPs to lobby Priti Patel MP when it comes to the 2nd Reading of the Windrush Compensation Bill in Parliament in February to make the following amendments for restorative justice and fairness below for proper compensation to the survivors of the Windrush Scandal.

1.The Compensation Scheme needs to be managed by another government department or independent body along the principles of restorative justice and fairness as the Home office is still implementing the Hostile which is a conflict of interest which is clearly inherently racist in nature and breaches the Public Sector Equality Duty.
2. The Home office needs to create immediately easy read and make accessible Windrush Compensation forms application forms for survivors of the Windrush Scandal and community organisations in line with best practice under the Equality Act. The current forms act as deterrent to the vulnerable and family members who are traumatised. In addition, the scheme should not discriminate with anyone who has a criminal record.
3. Home Office to fund community groups, faith and small civil society organisations to support ongoing or planned outreach and advice work intended to help people affected by the Windrush crisis.
4 Anyone that has been directly affected by the Windrush Scandal should have an automatic payment of £10,000 without proving any documentary evidence of hurt or financial loss
5.Remove all tariff and caps on all compensation claims and that all claims to receive interest payment as results of costs incurred for immigration and legal fees on the same basis as PPI awarded by banks for mis-selling financial products.
6. All offer letters for compensation should contain have a full apology recognising the failure of the Home Office treatment as a result of the scandal.
7. It has been estimated that over 500,000 individuals were given wrong official advice regarding naturalisation and gaining British citizenship since the creation of the 1971 Immigration Act. The government needs to issue a formal apology and to repay back with an interest the costs incurred to legal and immigration fees.
8. The government should fund a Windrush Endowment Fund of at least £1 billion to support the preservation and legacy of the Windrush Generation and the history migration. The Fund Provide could provide core funding to organisations like Black Cultural Archives.
9.The current Windrush Day Grants and Memorial Committee which is sponsored by the government department DCLG needs to be an independent organisation like the Holocaust Memorial Education Trust. A £5million to support Windrush Day activities, develop learning resources for schools and to influence the national curriculum.
10. We require a nationally funded health and wellbeing programme programme on post traumatic impact of the hostile environment on the Windrush Generation and their descendant for culturally relevant and specific organisations who can provide range of therapeutic, art therapy and counselling services.

See also this discussion with Amelia Gentleman taling to Patrick Vernon - Windrush: The Scandal Isn't Over.  LINK

Do you have a story to share about Windrush? We would like to hear from you.

From Learning Through the Arts

We are collecting stories of Windrush Migrants and their descendants with a connection to Brent. If you have a story you would like to share, please contact us by August: events@learningthroughthearts.co.uk  //  07510 917517.  In collaboration with Brent Museum & Archives and the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Deanna Christou

Arts and Heritage Officer

Confronting the Hostile Environment - Saturday November 3rd Granville Centre

A Labour Party event but open to all on an important topic.

From Hampstead and Kilburn CLP

A Black History Month Event

CONFRONTING THE HOSTILE ENVIRONMENT – FROM WINDRUSH TO HOUSING TO UNIVERSAL CREDIT

Saturday 3 November 4-6pm

Granville Centre, Carlton Vale, London, NW6 5HE

Tube:  Kilburn Park (Bakerloo line) Buses:  6, 316

Fully wheel chair accessible. ALL WELCOME!

Hampstead & Kilburn Labour Party is holding a Black History Month event to mark the 70^th anniversary of the Empire Windrush arriving at Tilbury Docks (1948). The ship carried over a thousand passengers, mostly from the Caribbean (but also Burma, Mexico and Poland) who had been recruited to leave their homes to rebuild Britain after the war.

While Home Secretary, Theresa May imposed a ‘hostile environment’. She said that British subjects who had uprooted themselves and their families at the invitation of the British government, their children and grandchildren, now had to prove their right to be in the country they helped rebuild and worked hard in, often for the lowest pay. People have been sacked from their jobs, robbed of their homes, benefits, pensions, and denied healthcare. Some were put in detention centres and sent back. Many still live in fear of deportation. Others died from the suffering inflicted by these racist policies. Many are still waiting for recognition of their citizenship and for compensation for the years of injustice and insecurity they suffered.
This event will give a platform to Windrush families and many others affected by racist immigration laws as well as by austerity cuts, which have targeted women and people with disabilities.

Labour’s grassroots membership, spearheaded by BAME women, won a landmark motion at Labour conference to support the Windrush generations. A growing movement is calling for an end to detention, deportation and destitution of any of us.  
Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbott have pledged that a Labour government would abolish racist immigration laws and end the requirement for landlords, employers, teachers and health professionals (and even MPs) to act as border guards on behalf of the government.  We’re inviting all our communities – African, Asian, Caribbean, Latin American, immigrant and native born, with or without papers, to take part. We want people to know what’s been won and what obstacles we still face. 

Speakers include:
·  Windrush families, asylum seekers, EU nationals
·  Families affected / threatened by Universal Credit & other benefit cuts
·  Council tenants and local residents resisting evictions and “regeneration” 
Refreshments, and time for discussion and informal networking.

Windrush, War & Welfare October 25th Brent Civic Centre

TICKETS HERE

Greens warn that Brexit negotiators are closely watching Windrush developments

The UK’s Government’s appalling treatment of the ‘Windrush generation’ will not be overlooked by the EU’s Brexit negotiators and Members of the European Parliament, a UK MEP has warned.

Jean Lambert, London’s Green Party Member of the European Parliament, has called on the Government to ditch its damaging ‘hostile environment’ policies, stating:

That some of the Windrush generation have been ‘deported in error’ is appalling, but it’s hardly surprising. Over the past 12 months, the Home Office has admitted to a string of mistakes that have caused immense anxiety, stress and upheaval to the many affected.

This is not mere incompetence from the Home Office; it’s the successful implementation of Theresa May’s pet‘ hostile environment’ project. This callous and inhumane policy deliberately seeks to make life difficult for non-British citizens who have built lives in the UK, depriving them of jobs, healthcare, and homes.

After Brexit, the 3.2 million EU nationals living on UK soil will also become exposed to this policy. It’s no wonder that so many feel anxious about their futures. The Government should take note – the EU’s Brexit negotiators are watching this ordeal closely, as are MEPs who have a vote on the final Brexit deal. This isn’t a good look.

The Prime Minister’s agreement to meet with representatives of 12 Caribbean countries is too little, too late.  And conciliatory gestures from the Government are meaningless so long as people continue to be hauled off to immigration detention at dawn. It’s time for the Government to stop stoking the flames of fear and anxiety, and scrap the ‘hostile environment’ for good.