Another round of funding has been awarded to a refugee charity to help displaced people from Syria integrate with the Dundee community.
Dundee City Council, on behalf of the local health and social care partnership, has awarded a £270,000 contract to the Scottish Refugee Council for the “provision of a human integration service” in the city.
The funds will be used to help those from the Middle East forced from their homes due to conflict and the horrors of the ongoing Syrian civil war adapt to life in the City of Discovery and surrounding areas as they attempt to patch together their lives in a new country.
The local authority set up its vulnerable persons scheme in January 2014 and has actively helped through its Syrian Vulnerable Person Resettlement (VPRS) and Resettlement of Vulnerable Children Scheme (RVCS) since Christmas 2015, when the first of the displaced people arrived in Scotland.
Volunteers and humanitarian support workers, who speak a mixture of English and Arabic, will attend to the refugees when they arrive in the city, advocating the support they are entitled to – including medical check-ups from NHS Tayside and housing services.
In its procurement statement for the public contract, a spokesperson for Dundee City Council said: “In Dundee the scheme is delivered as a partnership between Dundee City Council, NHS Tayside, Dundee Health and Social Care Partnership, Dundee Third Sector Interface (TSI), Police Scotland, Department Work and Pensions and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.
“Since the beginning of the scheme in Dundee we have learnt that by working collaboratively we have achieved a project that has successfully supported Refugees arriving in Scotland.
“The aim of the service is that children and adults seeking refuge in Dundee are able to build a new life and integrate into Dundee and in doing so, achieve their personal outcomes.”
The Courier previously reported on four Syrian men who had settled in Dundee and welcomed with “open arms” from the city’s residents.
