Advice to Action for Refugees in Lewisham on the impact of their Rainbow Club

Action for Refugees in Lewisham (AFRIL) is a self-help organisation for refugees and asylum seekers in Lewisham, one of the most deprived boroughs in London. AFRIL works to relieve poverty and isolation amongst this vulnerable group, advance their education, and provide services to improve social integration. They currently provide several services including ESOL classes, The Rainbow Club (a Saturday school), Advice Services, Monthly Sunday Tea, and Support for Destitute Families.

Pro Bono Economics was approached to help gauge the impact of AFRIL’s Rainbow Club and determine where there is room for improvement. They wanted to find answers to questions such as 1) what data on children’s welfare is worth collecting to evaluate the effectiveness of The Rainbow Club and 2) how can one best assess changes in children’s behaviour, levels of confidence and engagement? These questions ultimately create a picture of how the programme has a wider economic and social impact on its members, the local community and funders.

PBE matched volunteers from Regeneris Consulting to AFRIL to give recommendations and advice. This advice will benefit the charity by providing assistance on how to improve data collection to create a basis for economic analysis in the future.

Volunteers from Regeneris Consulting have committed themselves to continued work with AFRIL to develop new methods of data collection. The project will continue under three phases: considering what data needs to be collected; how data should be collected; and when and how often data should be collected.

We would like to thank Florrie Dunn and Damian Walne for their hardwork and support to AFRIL.