Asha North Staffordshire

09/07/2025

Many thanks to Goostrey Rose Festival for inviting Asha to their festival day. 30 Asha members enjoyed a day in the country watching traditional floats, marching bands, maypole dancing and the crowning of the Rose Queen. Many thanks to parents at Goostrey Primary school for generously donating money so each Asha child had money to spend on the stalls and the games. We had a stall with handicrafts made by Asha members and raised nearly £100 in donations. We felt very welcome, thanks to all who made it possible.

20/06/2025

20/06/2025

Part of Refugee Week 2025, in partnership with Friends of Hanley, Asha NS organised litter picking in Hanley Park and this was a very good social inclusion activities between asylum seekers and local community members and shows COMMUNITY AS SUPERPOWER.
Asha also join other asylum seekers teams in Refugee Football tournament in Derby and our 2 teams played semi final and Asha 1 won a trophy. Well done guys you made Stoke proud.
BIG THANKS to YMCA North Staffordshire for letting us using their minibus to travel to Derby, again community as superpower.

01/06/2025

The Asha community is really looking forward to taking part in The People’s Parade this Saturday 7th June, a major community event marking Stoke-on-Trent’s first 100 years of cityhood. Our drumming group will be there, making lots of noise! 🥁

The free-to-attend, people-powered parade will start outside Stoke College on Cauldon Road at 1pm and reach Hanley Park around 2.30pm.

The People’s Parade will feature 1,000 community participants – including around 50 Asha service users – alongside specially made large-scale puppets, costumes, live music, dancers and banners. Many more of us will be lining the route and cheering them on! 🎉
In preparation, our women and babies group have been making flags and a banner. Along with the Galaxy Group, they also took part in a workshop led by Ruby and Vaishnavi (pictured) on behalf of the parade organisers, where they made adornments and headdresses for the colourful costumes that will be worn in the parade.

The Parade is being delivered by Stoke-on-Trent Libraries in partnership with Stoke Creates and supported by Arts Council England.

We can't wait to celebrate what makes Stoke-on-Trent so special – our people, our history, our heroes, and most of all, our community spirit. Hope to see you there! 💚

28/05/2025

Asha’s Galaxy club and Women’s club making traditional costumes for People Parade to celebrate 100 years of Stoke on Trent. More to come

27/05/2025

Well done to everyone who attended our Learn My Way awards ceremony! 🥳

Learn My Way is a free online platform for digital learning created by Good Things Foundation. 💻

Asha launched its first Learn My Way competition on 17 March 2025, with the aim of encouraging Asha service users to learn and practice basic digital skills such as using a banking app, writing emails, registering for online services and being safe online.

Nearly 300 service users registered, with the first to complete five key modules invited to an award ceremony on 7 May. Prizes included a laptop, smartphone, smartwatch and tablet. 🏆

Many thanks to Keita, our Digital Inclusion & Unaccompanied Minors Service Coordinator, for organising this fantastic initiative and to our users for taking up the challenge so enthusiastically!

A huge thanks also to Ben from Wavemaker Stoke , who joined us at the awards ceremony to talk about AI and digital tools.

15/05/2025

Our fantastic supporters and donors often ask us if there are particular items that we need.

The answer is yes – there are some staples that we always need! 💚

If you’re able to add just one or two of these items to your weekly shop for us, it will help us to welcome new families and existing service users to Asha with a hot drink and small refreshments:

🫖 Teabags
☕ Instant coffee
🥄 Sugar
🍪 Biscuits
🥛 Long-life (UHT) milk

Donations can be dropped off at Unit 7, Hanley Business Park, Cooper Street, ST1 4DW any day from Monday to Saturday between 10am and 1pm.

We appreciate that times are tough at the moment. If you’re not in a position to donate, a like or share of this post would mean the world. 🌍

13/05/2025

Asha’s asylum seekers joined Friends of Hanley Park in the plantation of flowers to make the park ready for summer’s festival and parties. Ready to celebrate 100 years in diversity

01/05/2025

A group of 16 Asha service users and three staff members was kindly invited on a day trip to Goostrey in Cheshire last weekend, hosted by St Luke's Church and their friends at Goostrey Methodist Church. 💚

We enjoyed a barbecue at Goostrey Methodist Hall before walking through fields to Bidlea Dairy, where Farmer Jill Brown gave us a tour, and everyone was gifted one of their delicious ice creams. To round off, there was a beautiful afternoon tea at Goostrey Sports Pavilion with fresh homemade cakes from the villagers, followed by a game of rounders.🐄 🍰

“The trip was a great way for children to end their Easter Holidays, as some children had spent much of it in a hotel room with no funds or means to go anywhere,” said Jackie Gregory, a Wellbeing Worker at Asha. “Not only are trips like this a great experience, but it boosts self-confidence that the children can talk about their adventure when they return to school.

“Parents could relax and enjoy the fresh air and enjoy being guests and meeting new people. For some, it brought back memories of childhoods spent in the countryside or growing up on farms. We thank all at Goostrey for making us feel so welcome and are happy that they too said they enjoyed meeting everyone and learning about life when seeking asylum.”

18/03/2025

Meet Darcy, everyone. 👋

Darcy is Asha’s Volunteer and Befriending Coordinator and has very kindly taken the time to discuss why they love working for our organisation…

“I started my role at Asha in June 2024 as I was keen to find a job giving back to the community, challenging myself, helping others and using the interpersonal skills I'd learned in my Counselling Masters at Keele University.

“Every day is something different at Asha. Typically, I start my day in the morning brief, discussing the plans for the day. I tend to split my time between processing and running inductions for new volunteers at Asha, checking in with those volunteering that day, and offering support where needed.

“There’s so much I find rewarding about working for Asha that it's hard to pick my favourite part. I love the sense of community and building connections with my volunteers, service users and the staff team. It is a welcoming and supportive place which truly values the support from our volunteers and offers opportunities to develop new skills, connections, confidence and community.

“It's so rewarding to be a part of this community, a part of this staff team and a part of something truly special here at Asha.”

Thank you for everything you do, Darcy. Your help and support have been invaluable to our organisation and its service users. 💚

If you would like to join Darcy’s amazing team of volunteers, please get in touch with [email protected]

18/03/2025

A positive story for your feed… ✨

A performing arts centre in Uganda is providing refugees with the opportunity to sing, play and dance, allowing them to creatively express themselves – a fundamental human right. The Bidi Bidi Performing Arts Centre, situated in Africa’s largest refugee settlement, can hold up to 1,000 people and provides an uplifting outlet for people who have been through some of the most unimaginable pain. Here, refugees can nurture their talents and take part in wonderful musical performances to spread messages of peace and love. 🎶

Uganda is home to more than 1.7 million refugees (more than any other African country), with more than 250,000 people currently living in Bidi Bidi. With its open-door refugee policy, the country mostly welcomes refugees from neighbouring nations, such as South Sudan and Somalia. 🌍

At Asha, we also recognise the importance of creative expression. This is why we regularly hold sessions where our service users can enjoy music, dancing, arts and crafts, playing sports and learning new skills and hobbies. It’s great to see the Bidi Bidi Performing Arts Centre spreading hope and happiness among those who need it most. We hope you all enjoyed this story as much as we did. 💚

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/feb/19/the-ugandan-arts-centre-bringing-harmony-to-africas-biggest-refugee-camp

The Bidi Bidi performing arts venue offers more than 250,000 refugees the chance to sing, play, dance – and dream of a peaceful future

10/03/2025

International Women’s Day celebrated with dignity and hope at Asha Centre. Over 20 different nationalities ASR women gathered with local women. Dance and music and children joined. ASR women also enjoyed Hena and beauty therapy done by their peers. Thanks Jackie, Lydia, Lucie , Miriam and volunteers for making this happen