Refugee Youth (RY)

Refugee Youth is the working name of the Barbara Melunsky Refugee Youth Agency Limited.

The group was created in 2002 and delivers support to over 450 young asylum seekers, refugees and migrants across London, offering advice, activities and friendship from a centre in South London. In recent years the organisation has increasingly focused on influencing policy and supporting young people to communicate their views to key decision makers. This has included working with the Greater London Authority (GLA) in 2007 to influence the refugee integration strategy for London, which fed into the ‘Becoming a Londoner’ publication.

The Trust is supporting RY to build networks and dialogue with young refugees and organisations working with young refugees in the West and East Midlands, many of whom have been funded by the Trust. They are also disseminating learning from ‘Becoming a Londoner’ to service providers and policy makers in these regions including social workers, teachers and youth work students.

RY has an imaginative and successful campaigning approach, which aims to highlight the indignities and unjust treatment young asylum seekers and refugees often face in the UK. The organisation’s focus on empowering young people from refugee and migrant backgrounds, partly though film and media work, is in line with the Trust’s ‘Changing Minds’ work on public attitudes. Their focus on participatory working ensures activities are user-led, an approach supported by the Trust.