Picture above: Aisha Malik, General Manager and Petra Robinson, Administrator accepting the Safe and Sound Certificate from Herjeet Randhawa, RVA Advice Service Manager outside RCLC offices, London Street.
We are delighted to announce that Reading Community Learning Centre (RCLC) have successfully been awarded a renewal of their Safe and Sound Good Governance Award. This is their second renewal, following their initial award in 2018 demonstrating that the charity continues to have good charity governance in place for all eight areas, from solid foundations through to protecting their beneficiaries. Read on to hear from Aisha on what this means for the RCLC team.
Tell us a little about the charity and what inspired you to get involved with RCLC
- Our history
Based in Central Reading, RCLC has been operating as an independent charity since 2007, and as part of national charity, Workers’ Education Association, since the mid-1990s. We have over 20 years of experience in delivering services to support traditionally ‘hard-to-reach’ refugee and migrant women. Our mission is to empower and support refugee and migrant women by creating a space for learning, and advocating for equal treatment, equal rights, and a life free from violence and discrimination.
- Our service users and impact
Many of the refugee and migrant women we support speak little or no English, and often have limited experience outside of the home; as a result, many are amongst the most isolated, deprived and vulnerable members of our community. We offer a programme of outreach activities, free training classes, workshops, 1:1 information, advice and guidance, a Crèche and social opportunities. Our services are designed to build confidence, increase skills and reduce social isolation. In 2022-23, our core learning and support programme supported 420 women from 36 different countries of origin. In addition, 874 women were supported with information, advice and guidance varying from benefit support, filling in forms, making telephone calls, translation support to accompanying them to access services at the Centre.
- Why I got involved
I have been working for RCLC since Dec 2010… it’s been a long time! I got involved with the charity as its ethos and mission was to remove barriers to learning, give migrant and refugee black and minority ethnic women an opportunity to learn in a safe women only setting and build their confidence. The charity has grown so much in the last 10 years and provides lots of additional wellbeing programmes, advice and guidance and holistic support with our trained outreach workers. As a woman of British Pakistani origin whose parents also migrated to this country, I not only had a personal connection to the work, but it was truly inspirational and rewarding to work for such an incredible charity which is inclusive, nurturing and empowers so many women. No matter what immense struggles and challenges the women we support have faced in their lives their determination and unique learning journeys inspire me every day and its an honour to be a small part of their lives. RCLC may be small but it is most definitely mighty in its aspirations and what it achieves!
What encouraged RCLC to apply for Safe and Sound?
Good governance is hugely important for a small charity such as RCLC. It not only highlights to other users, funders and charities that we have certain quality standards in how we run the charity, but it also shows how we comply with the rules of regulation in protecting our staff, volunteers and beneficiaries through our governance procedures. It is a really useful and practical tool for us to check and refer back to make sure that as a charity we are working to achieve the charity’s vision to a high standard.
What did the process involve for the team?
The process was quite simple and straight forward and we had lots of support from Herjeet at RVA, who made the whole process so easy to understand. We had an initial meeting and then I worked with two trustees on the board. Together with Herjeet, we went through our policies using a checklist from RVA to help identify the polices we should have in place, any gaps in current policies or new laws which needed to be referred to, and what these should cover in accordance with the current regulations. The checklist also highlighted new polices which we did not have. We were given lots of help from RVA on how to write these. Once all of the polices had been revised these were then reviewed by the RCLC Board of trustees for any other changes, and then prepared for the official sign off the trustees at a board meeting.
What benefit can you see for RCLC from going through Safe and Sound?
Although it is time consuming, it is a very useful tool for small charities and as it is reviewed every 3 years it really helps you to keep a check on how you carry out the activities of the charity. For RCLC it really helps us to make sure that we are putting the correct measures in place to protect all beneficiaries who use the centre, for those who volunteer and work for the centre. We always mention that we have the Safe and Sound Quality Award in our grant applications and Reading Borough Council also look for this when considering funding applications, so it has this added benefit too.
Find out more about RCLC and their work here:
Congrats again to the whole RCLC team!
Would your charity like to find out more about Safe and Sound?
- First Steps towards Safe and Sound
- Safe and Sound Quality Award
- Contact herjeet.randhawa@rva.org.uk for an initial informal discussion.