Additional Projects

Arabic Saturday School and Evening Classes

This project is to provide high-quality spoken and written Arabic language tuition for young Muslims as there is a very limited access to this and what there is is both high cost and generally of poor quality. This service could be delivered for £60,000 – £100,000 per year depending on the number of classes. A larger project is possible subject to further support and funding.

Family Therapy

Over 23 years Freshwinds has learned how to use a profound integrated model to help those who are terminally ill and dying both to live the optimum, pain-free life that they have left and to die in peace and calm when the time calls them to go. We have often helped many patients to extend their life by helping them see how they can control the manifestation of their illness and assist them to self-manage their recurring symptoms. We have also become experts in helping people to rehabilitate after serious and life-threatening episodes of illness.

This is a service that we are already providing and has a high number of Muslim families, however we are not able at present to deal with as wide a range of illnesses as we would want to due to funding constraints. £150,000 – £250,000 per annum would allow us to extend the range of illnesses that this service can cater for. This is also because there are a large number of health problems among many of our Muslim communities somewhat disproportionately to other communities. This includes infant mortality rates which are higher in Muslim communities than in others.

International Learning Internship

Over our 23 years Freshwinds has had a commitment to promoting learning and skills improvement in the field of health and social care. We are seeking opportunities to extend this to provide high quality learning environments to health and social care professionals, including Doctors, Nurses, Physiotherapists and others, for a minimum of 6 months during an internship with our organisation. The interns would need to be funded by the sponsoring government or organisation for their travel, living costs and subsistence and our organisation would require £50,000 to facilitate the internships.

Young Muslim People’s “Steps to Achievement”

This is a 6-month assisted internship training programme (run twice per year) for young Muslims to help train them and provide them with the skills and experiences to prepare them better to participate in the local economy and to gain employment or start businesses. There is a disproportionate number of young unemployed Muslims than other young people and this project will be important to addressing these issues as well as allowing young people to gain the ability to work more flexibly within the integrated economy of the UK. We have often seen that even some graduates are unprepared for the realities and expectations of work in the UK. To run this programme for 60 young people we will need £150,000 per year. This will include grants for the young people for their travel, books and some suitable clothing where applicable as well as subsidy for food. It will also include the costs for training and nationally recognised certification. We will also assist the young people to get a job or to create a business for themselves or to take on further education where appropriate. With larger amounts of money we could train more people exponentially.

Training Facilities and Equipment Enhancement

We already have a dedicated IT training suite and we train both clients and volunteers in IT skills and also use these facilities for supported job searching. Unfortunately much of our equipment is beginning to become obsolete, especially with the ending of technical support for some Microsoft systems. We are looking for £30,000 to modernise these facilities to be up-to-date with the systems that are relevant to the external job market and to keep pace with changes in digital needs.

Food Bank, Clothing Bank, Advice and Crisis Support

These adapted warehouses would provide food parcels (and where appropriate a hot meal), clothes, shoes, and perhaps household items including white goods for those in destitution. Food parcels would include culturally appropriate items (such as Halal). Examples might be helping to provide clothes and shoes for children as well as for their parents in order to assist them not to spend their more frugal funds. It may also apply to those with disabilities/vulnerabilities as well as homeless individuals.

We would also link these warehouses into a wider strategic plan working with existing food banks and other crisis intervention services through the Community Support Network. This may include assisting local community organisations in the creation of new services where they do not already exist (localism). The project could be delivered for £200,000 per year.