Focus Groups with Syrian new Scots in Aberdeen

Today, I met for the first time with some of the Syrian families at the drop-in coffee session at one of Aberdeen's beautiful churches. The weather was very cold but the welcome was very warm!  It was great to also meet with Scottish Refugee Council Coordinators and volunteers.  

 Ready to enter the building for our focus group session. A cold day in Aberdeen!

It was a busy and very lively morning with interesting conversations around the experiences of Syrian new Scots. I was lucky to speak to six people who had different experiences as they arrived to Aberdeen at different stages. The importance of learning English in more intensive classes was, again, highlighted, as well as the need to communicate more effectively during hospital and GP appointments. There were also housing issues and a number of cultural differences, some of which were related to day-to-day activities.

Below is one of today's focus group participants' drawing, emphasising the significance of English language.

 

The focus groups participants had varied working experiences and were positive about taking on volunteering opportunities on the basis of their existing skills and knowledge. There is definitely a need for the development of more community based projects. I wonder if we could start working on creating a central hub with potential local opportunities.

I am also planning to get in touch with the Central Library in Aberdeen with a view to exploring activities and events around the early years programme for the Syrian new Scots families. There is also a need to include more material in Arabic language or dual language sources and organise library membership for the families with the help of volunteers. There are a number of areas in which the public library can be established as a 'trusted' place for the Syrian new Scots in their intergration to their new environments via the development of health literacy, language and cultural integration initiatives. 

I'd like to thank everyone who took part in the focus groups interviews and the Scottish Refugee Council local Coordinators for all the support today. I look forward to meeting everyone again soon!

Meeting with Pamela Tulloch, CEO of SLIC

On Monday we met with Pamela Tulloch, CEO of the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC), in Dundee to discuss ideas and possibilities for collaboration.  SLIC is the independent advisory body to the Scottish Government in relation to library and information work.

We were delighted to find out that SLIC is supportive of the project and that there is certainly a role for public libraries in helping refugee families during their integration and adaptation to local communities and beyond.  One of the strategic aims of SLIC is centred on libraries promoting social wellbeing. Ambition & Opportunity: A Strategy for Public Libraries in Scotland 2015-20 highlights public library support for social wellbeing in a number of ways:

• Responding to the social needs of individuals and groups in their communities and developing activities and programmes to respond to particular needs.
• Making library space and support available for community interest groups and members of the community looking to support one another.
• Contributing to the ability of individuals to become involved in their local communities and take part in local and national life.
•  Strengthening the identity and sense of community.
• Creating a public service hub for the delivery of a range of public services (SLIC,  2015, p.25).

The full report can be accessed here.

Our meeting revealed that there are a number of ways in which Syrian new Scots families can be supported by public libraries via:

• the provision of additional English language classes;
• setting up a community hub with volunteering opportunities for Syrian new Scots;
• providing health information in accessible pictorial formats;
• helping the families to develop their digital literacy;
• offering source material in Arabic (including newspapers and material for children);
• setting up family sessions and getting the families to engage with the early years programme;
• creating a friendly, welcoming and trusted 'third place' for families to learn, socialise and feel part of the community.

Additional ideas that were discussed included public libraries establishing a single library card for Syrian new Scots and automatically signing families as members, having an Arabic speaker based in different local public libraries for a set amount of time every week and introducing an induction session and a short film on what public libraries could offer to Syrian new Scots.

We also discussed our idea of designing a Syrian new Scots cookbook to promote the Syrian cultural heritage.

We are extremely grateful for Pamela's innovative ideas and we would like to thank SLIC for all the great suggestions and support.

Here is a video prepared by SLIC that shows the value of public libraries in Scotland. 

First report to the Information Literacy Group

One month has already passed since the beginning of our research project on the information literacy wayfinding experiences of Syrian new Scots. At the beginning of last week we submitted the first report to the Information Literacy Group reporting on the initial findings.

The research in Phase 1 was conducted via interviews with two Scottish Refugee Council Coordinators and two focus groups with Syrian new Scots (with nine women and nine men). Syrian participants were also involved in a drawing exercise that helped to map visually their information worlds.

The main information needs expressed by participants revolved around the learning of the English language,  travelling freely and gaining confidence to navigate around the city/town and reuniting with family members. There was a series of interesting findings related to the Syrian families' use of technology and a few new ideas around information provision.

We also submitted a paper to be presented at LILAC, the Librarians Information Literacy Annual Conference  that will take place at Swansea University in Wales on  10-12 April.

“Scotland welcomes refugees - Impact and next steps”

The research team attended “Scotland welcomes refugees - Impact and next steps” conference organised by NHS Health Scotland in Glasgow on 2^nd November.The conference brought together key stakeholders invested in integration in Scotland to recognise achievements, highlight on-going challenges and identify priorities for the next phase of the ‘New Scots’ strategy. The New Scots: Integrating refugees in Sctoland's Communities 2014-17 report can be found here.

 The event offered an opportunity to hear about integration from a national and local perspective with interesting practice models.  The conference included a number of interactive workshops to gather views on progress and learn and share available opportunities for refugees and asylum seekers. The ideas we discussed are presented below. 

There was emphasis on educating the community and we proposed the idea of a community involvement language project that helps language development beyond the classroom. This active learning approach could involve Syrian new Scots learning English through volunteering activities within the community.  They could be paired with local volunteers who could help them develop understanding of English language terminology related to the task and therefore to potential future careers.

The importance of understanding what skills and knowledge they already have was therefore highlighted.  A database of potential community project could be shared with the wider community and this would also be used to showcase examples of good practice.

We would like to thank the  Scottish Refugee Council for bringing the conference to our attention.