About us
KLARS stands for King’s Lynn Area Resettlement Support, which is a registered charity supporting newcomers to the area, who are having difficulties arising from lack of language or unfamiliarity with the culture.
Our activities include drop-in sessions providing advice and information in other languages, an afterschool club for young children, a multilingual website, and active support for multicultural events. The staff of KLARS always ready and happy to help people.
Afterschool Club
Started in January 2004, the afterschool club meets weekly and is for primary school children whose first language is not English. By invitation only, it provides an opportunity for children to increase their social skills, develop their English, and review their school work.
Usually, club starts with games, followed by a session of literacy or maths. After a snack of juice and biscuits, there are more games before it’s time to go home. Often, children help each other, and make friends with others from different classes or of different ages. Click here for photos
Clients
Clients come from more than 60 different countries, though the majority are from the A8 countries of Eastern Europe. Within those countries, most of the people we see are from Lithuania or Latvia, though numbers of Poles are also increasing. For some time, Portuguese speakers have been well established locally, opening businesses such as cafes and shops and turning to KLARS for information and advice. The further expansion of the European Union (January 2007) is bringing Bulgarians and Rumanians, attracted to the area by the prospect of casual work in agriculture, pack houses and factories.
Until 2004, the majority of our clients were asylum seekers. Since then, they have been migrant workers, many of whom want to stay in the UK for several years, or longer. Most of these people are young (in the 19 – 30 age range) but not all are single; they have partners, children, dependents. They are keen to find a permanent job (not agencies), decent housing, school places for their children, and English classes for themselves; above all, they want reliable, up-to-date information. Welcome packs help to satisfy this need, but people also want to discuss their situation, to be sure they have understood correctly, and for this they need someone who can speak their mother tongue.
Drop-ins
We run six weekly drop-in sessions where advice and information is normally available in English, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese and Russian. In King’s Lynn the sessions are on Tuesdays (10am – 1pm), Wednesdays (5pm – 7pm) and Thursdays (5pm– 7pm) . At Wisbech, the sessions are on Mondays from 4.30pm – 6.30pm. Tuesdays from 2.30pm- 4.30pm (only for Portuguese speakers) and in Swaffham on Tuesdays (5pm - 7pm)
At the drop-ins, we offer the following FREE services:
- “signposting” – explaining where to go for more specialist help and advice
- local information about King’s Lynn and West Norfolk
- information about free or cheap ESOL classes
- help with forms (filling in, checking)
- understanding letters, bills and making appointments
- general information on applying for WRS, NIN, residency
- information on benefits system, tax credits, pregnancy
- referrals for workers’ rights, employment issues
- second hand baby clothes (King’s Lynn only)
The drop-in is held at:
KING’S LYNN WISBECH SWAFFHAM
Friend’s Meeting House CAB, Wisbech Swaffham Town Hall
38 Bridge Street 12 Church Mews Cley Street
King’s Lynn Wisbech Swaffham
PE30 5AB PE13 1HL PE377DQ
(Entrance opposite
OASIS Centre)
How to contact us:
By e-mail: postmaster@klarskl.org.uk
By phone: 07916201729
By post: 14 Tuesday Market Place, King’s Lynn, Norfolk, PE30 1JN
History
KLARS was set up in 2000 by a group of local people in Churches Together, who wanted to help the asylum seekers and refugees beginning to arrive in the area. In those days, the organisation’s full name was King’s Lynn Asylum and Refugee Support, and it was staffed entirely by volunteers, who ran one drop-in session per week. After 2002, when KLARS became a registered charity, applications for funding were made to various bodies. In 2003, Community Fund (now Big Lottery) gave a three year grant to enable KLARS to set up an office and employ staff to run the drop-in service.
A full time Project Manager started work in September 2003, followed by a Project Worker (January 2004) who spoke the relevant languages. The numbers of people turning to KLARS for support quickly increased, and weekly drop-in sessions became so busy that an additional drop-in was started that summer.
With the expansion of the European Union (May 2004) the legal status of the majority of people coming to KLARS changed; instead of asylum seekers, they were migrant workers. Accordingly, the second drop-in was held in the early evening, to make it accessible for people in full-time employment.
At the same time, it was necessary to raise the level of professionalism within the organization itself, and a lot of hard work was put into gaining Quality Mark from Community Legal Services. Also in autumn 2004, KLARS website was finished and went online in English, Russian, Portuguese and Chinese.
The numbers of people coming to the drop-ins continued to increase, so in May 2005, a third session was introduced, also in the early evening. However, numbers continued to rise and, as around 20% of clients were coming from Wisbech, it was decided to pilot a drop-in there. Since March 2006, KLARS has run a weekly early evening session in Wisbech, in partnership with CAB. During this period, there was no money to employ additional staff for more than a couple of hours a week, but KLARS has been very fortunate to have many dedicated bilingual volunteers, willing and able to attend drop-ins and assist new arrivals.
During 2005 and 2006, the Project Manager was researching funding to enable KLARS to continue its work. Funding proposals were successful and in September 2006 two additional part time project workers were recruited. When the grant from Community Fund ended (November 2006), KLARS was able to move on to the next phase, supported by range of organizations.
KLARS is very grateful to the Allen Lane Foundation, the Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk, Big Lottery, the Garfield Weston Foundation, the Henry Smith Charity, the Hilden Charitable Foundation, and Lloyds TSB Foundation, whose generosity has made it possible for the work to continue.
Membership
KLARS is fortunate to have some very dedicated, active members. Many people support the drop-in; some come as interpreters, others help with advice, welcoming people, taking down details, making refreshments, sorting goods. The afterschool club needs volunteers with teacher training and/or relevant experience.
New volunteers are always welcome, so if you are interested in getting involved, you can come along to the drop-in and have a chat with a project worker, or contact us.
KLARS is a registered charity, with an elected Executive Committee which meets six times a year. Membership (which is free) is subject to approval from the Executive. At the AGM (Annual General Meeting) each spring there are reports from office holders, and the new Executive Committee is elected.
Objectives and Values
KLARS’ objectives can be summarized as follows:
- the relief of refugees, asylum seekers and migrant workers who are in a condition of hardship or distress
- the protection and preservation of their health
- the advancement of their education
- the increase in mutual understanding and respect between communities
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