Young refugees have complex lives; many have fled trauma and are completely alone in a foreign country where they don’t speak the language and have to navigate a complicated immigration system. Refugee Education UK exists to enable 14-25 year old refugees in the UK, most of whom arrived as unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, to build more hopeful futures. It does this by supporting young people to access, remain and progress in education with over 500 young people each year benefitting from the core programmes: educational mentoring, access to higher education, and specialist education and wellbeing support.

The project in Birmingham is a local hub, a community, in which young refugees can find support and a sense of belonging. The young people’s dedication to learning is inspirational and the work of the mentors provides vital support both with school subjects and pastorally; enabling these young people to move forward and envision a better future. This project is enabling REUK to further embed the hub in this way and use the learning to inform their work in other cities. REUK wants to enable young people in Birmingham to progress to university and facilitate progression routes into the Youth Advisory Board feeding into the company’s overall direction.