(b) Training and Re-Training
(c)
(a)
Such opportunities are available through MSC. Some specific projects for the Vietnamese have already been used,
ie:
Dragon Project Pilot Scheme Quartermaine Education Project
Bognor Regis Training College Project Fenham College Project
Bournemouth and Poole MSC Course
Short-stay facility
Some Ockenden reception centres have already provided a short-stay facility to help resolve the situation where Vietnamese family tensions have built up to an explosive point. Our permanent centres continue to do this for the resettlement regions in which they are situated.
Provision of Interpreter/para/social workers
Training of such workers could be provided by a special intensive course. The possibility of such a training course for. specialist knowledge of psycho-social problems, has been the subject of discussion with Professors Joan Bicknell and Ron Baker. It is felt that this could best be done in a centre specifically designated for such cases to come into residence. (e) Cottage Industries
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The Dorset Friends of the Boat People established by Ockenden and the Emsworth Project were both set up in order to give the opportunity for Vietnamese women to produce at home their craft work, embroidery and needlework which the projects then marketed.
(f) Area Cultural Community Centres
The provision of area cultural community centres for the Vietnamese is something which has already been discussed at all levels by the Vietnamese themselves. Some have already flourished, as in Birmingham, and some foundered. This is something with which the Vietnamese community itself should be encouraged and assisted to follow through. The concerned voluntary agencies could help them to implement a national network of such communities.
(g) Group Holidays
These have traditionally been organised for elderly and handicapped Polish groups in the past; there have also been holiday camps organised for the children of national groups. Ockenden's facilities at Haslemere and Barmouth have been available for such projects.
(h) Support in Job-seeking
Ockenden has worked to set up a network of voluntary 'job-seekers' whose task, in co-operation with local Job Centres, is to help Vietnamese people identify possible areas of employment or to support them in exploring ways and means of taking initiatives in areas of self-employment.
A one-day Conference between the Vietnamese who have already been successful in establishing themselves and those seeking to do so, is planned for those living in the Home Counties. If this is successful similar Conferences will be organised in other regions.
SPECIAL FACILITIES
Consultants
Dr George Bram, Director and Superintendent from its foundation of the Mapledon Hospital at Dartford, has given Ockenden advice about psychiatrically disturbed refugees since the early sixties when a group of handicapped and mostly former concentration victims were selected by Ockenden from the European Displaced Persons Comps and admitted to the UK.
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