How can you help?

Visits are a lifeline for many people in detention. Volunteering as a visitor is challenging but also rewarding. For this reason, qualities such as empathy and impartiality are more valuable to us than any previous experience. Volunteers must have clearly defined boundaries and a realistic understanding of their own limitations.

Introductory session - we hold regular sessions throughout the year, which enable you to meet with us and find out if visiting is for you. Please contact the office if you are interested in attending our next session.

Interview - we interview all potential volunteers.

References - we ask for two character references and check all new volunteers with the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Induction - Our staff will provide a full induction, which includes an accompanied first visit to Tinsley House or Brook House.

Training - we ask new visitors to complete a mandatory session for all new volunteers. This covers the legal aspects of detention, the psychological effects for people in detention, cultural awareness and listening skills. We provide regular ongoing training for all of our volunteers throughout the year.

Our volunteers come from the following catchment areas – Crawley and Horsham, Brighton, Reigate/Redhill and East Grinstead/Oxted. Local support groups are held every six weeks in each of these areas, to enable visitors to share their experiences with each other. Our staff are on hand during office hours to help with any worries visitors may have concerning the person they are visiting.

If you live in another part of the country and would like to become a visitor, please contact AVID, who can advise you further.

Our Advocacy and Support volunteers provide vital support to people in detention, assisting with new enquiries from people detained and helping with casework support. Typical responsibilities are:

• Responding to messages and answering faxes and telephone calls from people in detention

• Providing telephone support and ongoing emotional support

• Responding to initial needs and prioritising urgent cases

• Explaining the role of GDWG to new people in detention who contact us and gaining their trust

• Liaising with solicitors and other professionals – such as doctors and social workers

• Assisting detained people to make complaints about mistreatment

• Updating the database with relevant information

• Assisting staff in running drop-ins and with follow-up

We seek volunteers to help with the practical running of our summer walks including baking, driving, support crew and more. We welcome help with publicity and fundraising.

You can also become a Walk Ambassador by raising funds online email refugeetales@gdwg.org.uk  to find out more.

If you would like to help GDWG financially, you can either make a one-off donation, via Gift Aid: make a gift today or set up a monthly donation. GDWG is a small charity that relies mainly on grant-making trusts to fund its work, but also on private donations that are greatly appreciated. You can also send cheques, made payable to Gatwick Detainees Welfare Group, to our office.

In Refugee Tales, poets and novelists retell the stories of individuals who have directly experienced Britain’s policy of indefinite immigration detention. Presenting their experiences anonymously, as modern day counterparts to the pilgrim’s stories in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the books offers rare, intimate glimpses into otherwise untold suffering. What we hear in these stories are the realities of the hostile environment, the human costs of a system that disregards rights, that denies freedoms and suspends lives.

You can buy the Refugee Tales Volume V here or in your local bookshop. Please do share and spread awareness of the inhumanity of indefinite detention.

Help us respond to the needs of people in immigration detention and after release, through befriending, advocacy and practical support. If you would like to become a Friend of GDWG and Refugee Tales please visit this link to learn more about our Friends Scheme and the various thank you gifts we offer for your support.

Leaving a gift to charity in your will is a very special way of helping to secure the future for organisations such as GDWG, and has the added benefit of being free from inheritance tax. If you are considering including a legacy to GDWG in your will, we would very much appreciate being informed of your generous act, and we can also provide a Form of Codicil which can be attached to your current will. There is further information in this Legacy leaflet.