2023 has been a big year for us - both at Routes, and in the news. At the end of this year, we wanted to share some thoughts that we take with us for the final weeks of December - and provide you with some suggestions for reflection, too.
2023 started with a special transition in the Routes team. Daisy, one of our co-founders, stepped down from their day-to-day role. Leyla moved on to being Routes’ Founding Director, whilst Daisy continues to support our work together with the other members from our Non-Executive Board. Meanwhile, we welcomed Hanna to our team as our new Head of Business Development and Partnerships, and Roula as our new Project Development Manager. It has been beautiful to see Routes grow over these last couple of years, from a small start-up dreamed up by its two co-founders into a full-blown social enterprise with a growing team and alumni community.
Routes team members (from left to right): Tamana Safi, Wieke Vink, Roula Kheder, Hanna Kubbutat-Byrne, Leyla McLennan and Board Member and Co-Founder Daisy Jacobs.
The seasons at Routes are marked by the different cohorts of our Mentoring Programme. We run two Mentoring Programmes a year: one starting in Spring, and one starting in autumn. This year, we marked a big milestone, as we completed our 10th Mentoring Programme over summer! We are currently in the midst of our 11th Mentoring Programme, under the leadership of Mentoring Programme Manager Tamana and our Head of Programmes Wieke. Our alumni community is almost 400 people strong and a real testament to what can happen when people come together for shared learning.
Pictures (from left to right): participants at the Routes Public Speaking workshop; Leyla speaking at an event of London Community Foundation; and a screenshot from our Mentoring Programme Training Day.
In June, for Refugee Week, we collaborated with Chief to organise an evening about welcome at work. At this event, Roula presented some of the first findings of our research project ‘Routes to Employment’, for which our first report is expected in early 2024. Meanwhile, we are working on some interesting partnerships for the new year, with a focus on alumni support and accessing education and employment opportunities.
Tamana (left) and Roula (right) working on the Routes to Employment project.
It hasn’t been an easy year in the UK refugee sector. A lot of campaigning and hard work by sector organisations has gone into countering the detrimental effects of the hostile environment. Even just in the last weeks, we’ve seen the government continuing to work on its Rwanda plans (which has been ruled unlawful by the UK Supreme Court) and mourn the deaths of people as a result of the system. At Routes, we’ve signed onto a letter to demand the immediate closure of the barge Bibby Stockholm. We also feel the impact of the housing crisis and the shorter notice for evictions amongst our community.
In the midst of all this, we hold onto the immense power of connections - of different people, across sectors, working towards compassionate leadership, a kinder asylum system and inclusive workplaces as places of change. Our Mentoring Programme is currently open for applications, so if you want to join us in 2024, please do get in touch.
Participants from the 11th Routes Mentoring Programme with facilitator Teri at the Public Speaking workshop.
A big thank you to all our mentors, mentees, community members, workshop facilitators, funders and partner organisations! It’s been such a source of strength and joy to work together in 2023, and we look forward to continuing to do so in the new year.
