What you need to do

The impact of refugee participation is greater when refugees are fully supported to articulate their views and lived experience in ways that can contribute more effectively to service improvement. Tailored training should be provided to participants. The key aims of training should be to develop the skills and confidence that are required for effective participation. 

You should also provide detailed information about your service to participants, so they can make informed and judgements and contributions. This information can include things such as legal and policy background, statutory duties, business planning, staffing and other resources, and delivery models.  

Providing appropriate training to both staff and participants could be the main factor leading to success of participation activities and to meeting your objectives.​​​​​

Training Modules

The training that you should offer to refugee participants should typically include the following:

• The benefits of participation
• Confidence building
• Networking and teamwork
• Advocacy skills
• Research, information, and communication skills
• Equality and diversity
• Leadership skills

Depending on the needs and remits of your service or organisation, you may need to provide additional training on topics such as safeguarding, hate crime, and mental health.

Supporting Your Staff

You should also provide relevant staff with the training that is required to support participation processes effectively. This includes migration, refugee, asylum and integration issues, equality and diversity, engagement, and community cohesion. If you plan to hold ongoing participation activities, you should also train your staff on facilitation techniques.

It is also important for practitioners, on a personal as well as a professional level, to be both supported and challenged, and have access to learning that will increase their ability to self-moderate and address biases in the workplace and in participation processes.

Participation and Wellbeing

Working with refugees, including in participation roles often involves dealing with sensitive and traumatic issues on a regular basis. This can lead to employee burnout, whether staff have lived experience of forced migration or not. The same applies to participants. If there is such a risk, you may consider providing clinical supervision to both staff and participants. You should also consider other ways to address wellbeing issues, such as support groups.

Providing appropriate training to both staff and participants could be the main factor leading to success of participation activities and to meeting your objectives.