Everything You Need To Know ……………… Entertainment
The theme for this session centred on the concept of “Welcome!” We wanted to talk about how people socialised, entertained and were entertained, all of which are strongly connected to whether or not our participants felt welcomed to Manchester. Welcome was also strongly tied up with feelings of gratitude and value, and since City of Sanctuary does such exemplary work in welcoming refugees and asylum seekers, we began talking about participants’ first experience of coming to Conversation Club and how that made them feel.
The conversation was led by a series of questions posted on the flip chart to get participants thinking, talking, writing.
First time at Conversation Club
Where was it? What was the journey like? What was the building/room like?
Why did you go? How did you hear about it?
Did you go with someone or alone?
What did you see/hear/smell/taste when you walked in?
How did you feel?
What did you do?
Where did you go after?
If you could compare this experience to something, what would it be?
What are the good things about Conversation Club?
We then got participants to start working on responding to these questions together in pairs. Some were quite happy to work in pairs, others worked individually.
[personal and pair work responses]
The first time at Conversation Club by Lucien and Marc
The place we had Conversation Club was at Command Prayer Centre, and St. Peter’s Chaplaincy. Barly brought Lucien to CC the first time. They met in Piccadilly and took the same bus. Lucien thinks it was a bar. Marc thought St. Peter’s was an actual church. We both didn’t know why we were going to CC. Mother and friend told us about CC. We came with friends and a relative. We saw a building that looked like a warehouse with no ceiling. Lucien feels maybe it looks like a basement with flags and small windows. St. Peter’s looked like a Catholic church. Command Prayer Centre could have been a post office or a government building. It smells like people, paint, food. St. Peter’s smells like markers, crayons, food and a café.
We had fruit, tea and coffee, biscuits. Lucien didn’t like the food. There was plenty of healthy food.
There were people talking in different languages. There were children playing, running around, crying. They should keep their children in a separate room with adults watching them. Lucien was excited because he didn’t know what to expect. Marc was slightly nervous because he also didn’t know what to expect. Marc made a banner for CC. Lucien was talking to people, playing.
We went home after CC. We went to town after. It would be meeting people for the first time, that is what I would compare this experience to.
The good things about CC is helping people to know about where to go for help, where to eat, free food, meeting people, where to sleep, housing, etc.
Once this exercise was completed, we began talking about other places where people were made to feel welcome for free. One of the biggest issues was money. This led to our Collective brain dump – Everything you need to know about support groups
City of Sanctuary Conversation Club
Mustard Tree
WAST
Growing Together
Red Cross – Openshawe (Family Tracing)
Portuguese Language Church, Longsight
Arabic Language Church, Hume, 7 pm Sunday
French Church Mission, Ardwick
World Harvest Christian Centre, Sunday 3 – 5 pm M11 4PR
Amharic/Tigrinya Services, Salford
Eritrean Community Association
Sri Lankan Buddhist Temple, Oldham
Rainbow Haven, English, IT classes
Cornerstone