A guest post by Cathy Symes, Area Organiser for UNISON East Midlands

UNISON in the East Midlands has almost 100,0000 members in over 70 branches. It is our intention to encourage our members and Branches to take part in Refugee Week by providing them with the links available on the Refugee Week website and sending to all branches the Refugee Week Posters and Post Cards.

Equalities and inclusivity is at the heart of what UNISON stands for. We are keen to celebrate the contribution of refugees within our union and our workplaces. By sharing the Refugee Week resources UNISON East Midlands are encouraging Branches to promote understanding of why people seek sanctuary. The hope is that members and activists will use these resources as part of their workplace activities during Refugee week. That they will organise and attend Refugee Week activities in their workplaces and communities and e mail members with links to the refugee week website highlighting information about asylum in the UK and famous refugees.

In addition, On June 22nd we will at the Regional Office be using the theme of refugee week to inform our Learning Representatives training in the hope of them taking this out to their workplaces in future years. On the fun side we are organising a team from the UNISON regional office to take part in a local Refugee Week Pub Quiz!