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Positive Action Blog June 2021

Last week I visited the Whitely Bay Islamic Cultural centre & Masjid and met up with Imam Syed Al Amin and elder Misbah Hannan. It was a great pleasure to look around their Covid testing set up and the vaccination event that was on, on the day. The centre has been a great asset for the community in sharing key messages and bringing vaccinations to the community. I also chatted to people and it was once more apparent that people are not aware of how to access our services in times of need. I was horrified to learn more than 80% of the people I spoke to were not aware of our services and how to access them. This highlights the importance of educating communities about our services and how to access them. Imam Syed and elder Hannan have agreed to set up an event, once the world opens up more, for us to do workshops to educate members of the community on how to access our services, lifesaving skills and recruitment and volunteering opportunities. We look forward to working closely with the mosque and all the members.

This week I was invited by Shauna and Laila from Northumbria Police and Tyne and Wear fire services community engagement, to visit a migrant and asylum seeker drop in centre in South Shields. It was great to meet Margert from STARCH and again chat to the service users on how to access our services. Most were pleased to learn about out language interpretation services and other communication resources we offer. There was a huge interest in our volunteering opportunities as most of the service users are keen to give back to the community. STARCH have a vaccination day scheduled for the 28^th of June 10-1500hrs, no appointments required.

If you work with ethnic minority and faith communities, there is still opportunities to be involved in the project. Get in touch!