Welcome service.
Meeting people and making friends
Mentoring
This outreach service is delivered by our volunteers who meet clients in their homes, show them around the local area and put them in touch with other people from their country or who speak their language.
Evaluation
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.
Report
See the executive summary of the Friendly Faces evaluation.
CVS
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.