The vision of Devon and Cornwall Refugee Support (DCRS) is to have a fair, humane and safe asylum experience for all. DCRS provides a warm and welcoming space to asylum seekers that are new to the city and provide activities from art groups to sailing sessions.

They have a dedicated team of Trustees, over 40 volunteers, co-ordinators and caseworkers who ensure that asylum seekers can seek sanctuary in Plymouth whilst the UK government decides on their claim. We work closely with city-wide organisations such as Students and Refugees Together (START), Odils Learning Foundation, Red Cross Plymouth, Livewell Southwest, Plymouth and Devon Racial Equality Council and Plymouth City Bus to name a few.

Our case workers and volunteers provide specialist, impartial advice to asylum seekers in Devon and Cornwall. We work closely with health services, solicitors, local charities and partner organisations to provide a comprehensive package of support for our service users.

• We try to ensure that service users get decent legal representation during their asylum claim
• We explain their rights and responsibilities, particularly regarding housing, support and healthcare, advocating where necessary
• We help asylum seekers who are without housing or any financial support
• Once refugee status is gained, we signpost to other organisations for further support

Christmas time and how you can help DCRS
Christmas is often a difficult time for multiple reasons, and the winter weather in the UK proves a substantial challenge for lots of our service users. As such, one of our winter projects has been to obtain some male winter clothing as a majority of asylum seekers in Plymouth are men under the age of 30, and arrive to this country without the most basic of winter clothing and without the means to purchase anything for themselves.

We are incredibly grateful for the support we receive from charitable donations, but much of the items donated through charities tend to be women’s and children’s so we are appealing for more items in men’s size small and medium that we can distribute among our service users across the winter months.

If you, or someone you know, could spare some warm men’s clothing, we would love to hear from you. We are holding another drive for donations at our office – 7 Whimple Street, PL1 2DH – from 2 January to 5 January 9:30am to 4pm and will. Alternatively, if you can’t make those dates and times but would still like to donate, please contact caseworker@dcrs-plymouth.org.

Something to make you smile at Christmas…
To spread the festive cheer across our organisation, we held a Christmas party for our service users. Over 200 were in attendance, joined by people from partner organisations around the city. We were indebted to Beyond Borders, a network that enables local people to lend support to local asylum seekers and refugees based in Totnes, who donated presents to be handed out.