How SWAP came about

SWAP is an independent organisation which was constituted in September 2006. The organisation was formed in response to an identified need to continue the work started by Friendly Faces Mentoring Project, an asylum-seeker support project which launched as part of Wigan and Leigh CVS in April 2004.

During 2006 a formal evaluation of Friendly Faces’ achievements was carried out by an external consultant; we also held discussions with members of the Friendly Faces steering group and with other stakeholders including the Friendly Faces volunteers, external partners and clients. These measures demonstrated a strong feeling that Wigan still needed an organisation dedicated to this work, particularly given that other key initiatives focused on supporting newcomers were closing down at that time.

Thus the Friendly Faces steering group worked to put in place the plans and services most suited to meeting the identified needs. At the same time it was recognised that, whilst support for the project from CVS has been unstinting, there were strong incentives for this project to develop an independent life of its own, and the CVS Board of Trustees fully supported the move to independence. The name Support for Wigan Arrivals Project was chosen to reflect the commitment to expand our services from newly arrived asylum seekers (Friendly Faces’ original brief) to include those with refugee status and migrant workers from the new European states in particular, many of whom are also in need of practical support and risk social isolation when they arrive in the borough.