Latest News
CEO's 2010 Review and 2011 Outlook
2010-12-20 11:05:00For us, 2010 has been a year of doing more with less and preparing for more difficult times ahead. We have already experienced reduced funding streams and the end of project funding,
this has accelerated our efforts to reorganise and refocus operations. As funding cuts impacted us during the year we also started to develop social enterprises in housing to generate an additional income stream. In June we celebrated our 10th anniversary in style when new communities joined us in the Cathedral for a memorable and uplifting evening of live performances, exhibitions, displays, foods and refreshments. In response to the plight of thousands of people who come to this country for sanctuary and find themselves destitute on the street, the British Red Cross published a report "Not Gone, But Forgotten" to highlight this humanitarian crisis in Britain today. Like the CRC, they are at the forefront of providing destitute asylum seekers with the basics so that they can survive. A year ago we created The Hope Fund - Coventry to raise funds and distribute food, clothes and basics locally to those who have nothing.
Looking ahead to 2011, we expect local destitution to become worse and funding cuts from public sector sources to continue. We are launching a fundraising drive to generate regular income for The Hope Fund – Coventry which I urge you to help us with. Our charity is hoping to return to a site in Hillfields and work there with new communities to develop new social enterprises. I expect that the general public and policy environment towards our client groups will remain hostile, so we aim to collaborate locally to provide services in partnership with our client communities in the spirit of peace and reconciliation through human rights.
Thank you all for your help and support this year, I hope that we can count on your support in the year to come.
Bhopinder Basi, Chief Executive, Coventry Refugee Centre
permalink to this article