Introduction and Toolkit Structure

This toolkit aims at providing a practical resource for your team, service, or organisation. Participation refers to a diverse set of concepts and practices, and each chapter deals with specific participation issues.

The chapters of this toolkit are divided into two separate sections each: a description, explanation, and discussion of the issue at hand, followed by a set of proposed actions that you, together with your colleagues or partners (where relevant), can take to start putting participation into practice. Occasionally, the toolkit also refers the reader to other sources of useful information.

The contents in each chapter, including the proposed actions, are observations and suggestions based on knowledge and experience, and it may be the case that not all of them are relevant to you and the to the services that you provide. You should always consider them in light of your own circumstances, including the needs of service users and other stakeholders, and the resources that you are able to mobilise in order to develop and support refugee participation. Remember also that that you can always ask relevant stakeholders such as Migration Yorkshire for further advice where needed.

There are no hard rules in this toolkit, but the more you can do, the better equipped your service will be to meet their needs, leading to better outcomes for refugees. The toolkit does not offer a set template for participation because every situation is different and, in participation as much as in every other aspect of service delivery, there is no single glove that fits all cases. You can then use the various tips, suggestions, and proposed actions to develop your own template for refugee participation.

The toolkit doesn’t cover everything. It includes some basic steps that you can take to increase and improve participation. This toolkit aims to get you started, or, if you have already taken steps to develop refugee participation, to help you go further in this journey.

The toolkit refers you to a range of resources and organisations that are independent from us. Their inclusion in this toolkit does not mean endorsement, and the views and opinions expressed in those resources or by those organisations do not necessarily represent those of Migration Yorkshire, Leeds City Council, or our funders.