Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames

In a brand new role at RBK (first of its kind), supporting refugees on the VPRS, ARAP, ACRS (and Ukraine) schemes. Working in the Public Health and Adult & Social Care Directorate in local government, at a Greater London Local Authority.

Some of my duties have included the following: 
- Lead for: employment and volunteering, income (benefits etc.) & connectedness & safety.
- Providing tailored advice to commissioned partners on benefit entitlements and Council procedures and policies.
- Liaising with the following stakeholders to resolve cases effectively: Council officers, DWP/the jobcentre, commissioned partners (including CEOs), schools etc.
- Leading on various Home Office indicators such as employment, income & connectedness and safety, employment  within the resettlement team
- Leading and facilitating employment subgroup meetings with different partners.
- Working collaboratively with different stakeholders on projects to achieve outcomes
- Cross checking funding and completing requisition forms for the accounts team to pay partners such as schools and landlords.
- Creating integration plans for high risk families and sharing strategy plan ideas for the resettlement scheme.
- Assisting with mental health, DV, cost of living crisis cases.

Resettlement and Integration Officer

DeeProScribe

A document drafting, proofreading and employment support service; created and managed solely by me.
The Motto: Express. Articulate. Scribe.

Director

Cook with Dee

I've had a passion for cooking for over a decade now - since my teenage years and it's something that has never died and never will; the fire in me keeps burning and this can be seen in my plating, flavour pairing and how I cook food with love. I have a cooking food blog page on Instagram which can be followed here: https://www.instagram.com/_cookwithdee/ (or: @_cookwithdee). 

To summarise, I'm a human rights professional  day and a food content creator by night. I cook and plate food in a fine dining way and add my own twist on recipes and also create cooking tutorials on YouTube. In the past, I've had the opportunity to run 2 cooking classes. I also do the cooking, video and photo editing et al. I anticipate that the future will be interesting so please watch this space!

Please also like my page on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/cook-with-dee101

Chef & Content Creator

Oasis Cardiff 

A community based role, with a main focus on immigration matters, entitlements, housing, employment and integration queries.

*Liaising with various stakeholders, such as Health providers, Cardiff Council, the Home Office, Citizens Advice, Comic Relief, British Red Cross, utility providers et al.
*Employment: provided tailored employment assistance to clients: having 1-1 sessions on CVs, evaluating, drafting and writing CVs, assisting with job applications, liaising with recruiters, organised 1-1 interview practice appointments. 
*Also the interim Placements Liaison Lead: drafted a placement policy document, liaised with external stakeholders (such as universities) and prospective students who were interested in placement opportunities.

Refugee Integration Officer

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency

Working on FLIS (family links information sharing) forms, MP letter responses, CCR document drafting for the Home Office's consideration (cessation, cancellation & revocation of refugee statuses) and managed my own inbox. Other duties included: a comparative table analysis, comparing the asylum seeking provisions in different European countries, creating interview transcripts (verbatim), case law summaries, training evaluation report draft, facilitating training workshops (scheduling and providing technical support during sessions) and other ad hoc administrative tasks as required.

Worked with various stakeholders such as the Home Office, British Red Cross, other UNHCR offices abroad, MP Offices, local authorities et al.

8 month internship - fixed term contract.

Legal Protection Intern

Booking.com

A customer service role working in a call centre, amending bookings, advising partners and customers on procedures and policy. Working on an AI (artificial intelligence project - web chat). Resolving queries, complaints, achieving KPI targets.

Guest Specialist

University of Leicester Students'​ Union

- Founded a cultural student group society, drafting and submitted a society constitution and liaised closely with multiple stakeholders such as the Students' Union, other groups across the country etc.
- Project managed events, created risk assessments and created volunteer opportunities exclusive to members: promotions and marketing teams et al.
- Managed and led a team of 4 committee members and over 30 paid society members.
- Managed a budget effectively, authorised payments, allocated funding accordingly
- Applied for a bid grant funding to the SU and raised funds from private investors, raising over £1,000. 
- (*) Shortlisted for the SU awards for the 'National and Cultural Society' of the year 2015-16.

Nigerian Student Society President & Founder

University of Leicester

Worked across various student hall sites, handling complaints, queries, reporting activity, providing welfare support in a customer service role.

Residential Advisor

Human Rights l DeeProScribe l Cook with Dee

An assertive double law graduate and human rights professional, with over 4 years' experience of working with migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. Experiences include working for the UN, in community based roles and in local government; also open to other opportunities within the human rights and community sector. 

*For speaking engagements related to my field, please contact me via email at: dyan_95@hotmail.co.uk.
*For document proofreading, CV writing/employment support services, contact me at: deeproscribe@gmail.com.
*For food blog related partnership enquiries, contact me at: cookwithdee16@gmail.com

Shy of 2 weeks ago I visited Oslo, Norway. A nice trip, an expensive trip but a decent experience all the same.

Now I didn't think I'd take work away with me but it seems like I did for 10 minutes! I was approached by a sales rep who works for the Norwegian Refugee Council. After some introductions, his sales pitch is what caught me (and made me laugh) and it went a bit like this "You live in Norway and you're going to donate 30 Euros per month towards NRC?". A very bold move but he struck me as a young man on a mission who had good conversational and interpersonal skills! I of course did not live in Norway but I was still eager to find out more as we both worked in the same field.

Typically, I always walk away from sales reps so choosing to stop to speak to someone whilst abroad was a brave move. 

In general, I usually know when someone is about to pitch something to me and/or needs something. They come with the fake interest in things I do, never engage or follow any of my pages, hardly ever connect with me on here and before long the little small talk begins. Sometimes there are insincere promises or people try to take what they need or sell me something. Now, I can't knock someone down for trying but as time goes on I realise that many people can only be nice to people when they have things to gain. 

But I appreciated that interaction in Norway - he was probably just doing his job and though I could not assist and time they say is money, he was not rude or abrupt and was happy to still engage. So I will leave you with this - even when there is not much to gain, you really do not know when the skill, the time used for something will pay its way forward.

Read more about NRC here: https://www.nrc.no/

#sales #marketing #business #norwegianrefugeecouncil #humanrights #salespitch #networkingabroad #networking

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