Please note that JMS Solicitors will not be conducting the Free Immigration Clinic this week (Wednesday 12 April)  due to Easter Holiday considerations. The free  Immigration Clinic will continue as normal from Wednesday 19 April 2023. Please inform and share with others who benefit from this service

For your information:

On Sunday 23 April 2023, there will be a national test of the UK Emergency Alerts service.  A national “welcome/test” message is due to be sent to all mobile devices on Sunday 23^rd of April 2023.

Mobile device users will receive a test message on their phone or tablet.  Note your mobile phone or tablet may:

• make a loud siren-like sound, even if it’s set on silent
• vibrate
• read out the alert

The sound and vibration will last for about 10 seconds.  You do not need to do anything when you receive the message, as this is just a test.

The UK Emergency Alerts service is basically a system that can send a message to every mobile device in the UK which is 4G or above and will be used to communicate to the public at a national down to electoral ward level only in the event of the most serious emergencies.  It will not replace any of the already established emergency communication methods, for example weather or flood warnings.

A fuller summary of the system can be found here:  Emergencies and major incidents | nidirect.  Please note nidirect website has a translation option at the bottom of its webpages (what it looks like below) which will translate the web content into different languages.

Please see below updates related to ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) and English language support initiatives.

(further details – PDF format E-zine document attached)

ESOL NI – E-zine April 2023

1. ESOL NI – Learner Survey – Results – January 2023

Attached documents with further information (PDF stats & Excel documents)

1. Guidance on how to use the ESOL NI website to find information and effectively search the directory of ESOL providers in Northern Ireland –

See further details- PDF E-zine document attached to this email.

You can search the ESOL NI website for ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) classes in Northern Ireland offered by:

• Further Education (FE) Colleges
• Free community provision
• Private English language schools and providers

https://esolwebapp.azurewebsites.net/

News! Our ESOL NI Facebook new page is now live – Please like and follow

ESOL NI | Belfast | Facebook

1. Displaced Student Opportunities UK is a new portal featuring access to university opportunities for refugees and people seeking asylum.

For more information visit the site here: displacedstudent.org.uk

1. New useful resources about refugee integration (Migration Yorkshire)

Our Colleagues from Migration Yorkshire have released a useful new set of resources about refugee integration:

See further details and links – PDF E-zine document attached.

There’s a new set of FREE, practical and creative resources on the Migration Yorkshire website for people who work with and support refugees to settle and integrate with the local community.

1. The Learning & Work Institute has some useful resources for those who want to offer conversation classes online or in person.

https://learningandwork.org.uk/resources/research-and-reports/volunteers-english-language-learners-and-conversation-clubs/

Resources for volunteers who may want to start conversation classes / groups online or F2F. Scroll to the bottom and you will find many units of resources based around functional English like Shopping for example. There are 15 units in total.

1. Updated list of ESOL classes delivered within community in Belfast and surrounding areas by postcode (Word document attached – kindly prepared and updated by volunteers Johanne Martin and Angela Russell)