Welcome back to Calder Navigation, where each episode serves as a compass guiding you through the vibrant tapestry of Calderdale.
Our guest this episode, Adrian Bell, is the Integration Programme Manager at St Augustine Centre in Halifax. St Augustine’s is at the forefront of combating loneliness and isolation for individuals seeking sanctuary in Calderdale, and Adrian shares how the centre fosters a sense of belonging and provides practical support for those rebuilding their lives, including how sport has featured as an important element of this.
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Adrian is an Integration Programme Manager at St Augustine’s Centre in Halifax.
St Augustine’s Centre combats loneliness and isolation with people seeking sanctuary in Calderdale. They help to create a sense of belonging for people who may have not had a home for many years and whose lives are in limbo. They give people the practical support they need to rebuild their lives with dignity, and offer a range of activities that help them feel happier and more connected.
Curious Motion has a long-term partnership with St Augustine’s through our work supporting people seeking sanctuary in the Elland area. Adrian helped facilitate this and has supported our team with developing our offer for the refugee community in the lower valley.
Adrian is particularly passionate about the impact that sport can have on reducing loneliness, particularly for people seeking sanctuary, and so this episode explores his thoughts around this.
Welcome back to Calder Navigation, where each episode serves as a compass guiding you through the vibrant tapestry of Calderdale. I’m Samantha McCormick, your host and Artistic Director of Curious Motion.
I’m delighted to present Season 2 as part of our Culturedale Commission, celebrating Calderdale’s rich cultural heritage during the year of culture. In this season, we continue to champion the voices of our remarkable neighbours, celebrating their resilience, diversity, and the shared experiences that find us together. From intimate conversations to profound revelations, each episode is an invitation to connect, reflect, and celebrate the human experience.
Season 2 of Calder Navigation is not just a podcast. It’s a celebration of community, culture, and the enduring spirit of Calderdale. Join us as we delve into the heart and soul of our community, exploring the myriad of stories that shape our shared experience.
In this episode, we delve into the transformative power of sport in combating loneliness, particularly for those seeking sanctuary. Our guest, Adrian Bell, integration programme manager at St Augustine Centre in Halifax, sheds light on this vital aspect of community support. St Augustine’s is at the forefront of combating loneliness and isolation for individuals seeking sanctuary in Calderdale, and Adrian shares how the centre fosters a sense of belonging and provides practical support for those rebuilding their lives.
Adrian discusses the profound impact of sports, like boxing, on reducing loneliness, and with over 3750 hours of recorded physical activity in 2023 alone, St Augustine’s is making a significant impact on the well-being of its members. We recorded this episode during a boxing session at Star Boxing Club in Halifax, a regular session making boxing and exercise accessible to the refugee community. And Adrian explores how partnerships like this are breaking barriers and creating connections across communities. Listen for more inspiring stories, including an upcoming special episode during Refugee Week, exploring themes of home and togetherness in the valley.
Welcome, Adrian.
Thank you very much.
Nice to have you. And really cool to be at a boxing club to record this. I’m really excited about this.
Yeah, thankfully, this is a podcast, so you can’t smell. Particularly down from this room. But you can hear and see the vibe of what we do here on a Monday evening.
Definitely.
And to be fair, I volunteered myself on this, so you had no choice but to have me.
Well, true. Yeah, you were like, I’ll do it, meet me at a boxing club.
There we go.
Cool, all right, then. That’s what I like about this podcast. I get to go out and about. It’s really cool. So could we just start with a little bit about you and your role at St Augustine’s.
Yeah, you can. So my name’s Adrian. My role at St Augustine’s, jeez. Well, it comes under what we call integration programme. So essentially, I’ve got such a beautiful job in that it is about welcoming new people seeking sanctuary, so asylum seekers and refugees who come into Calderdale. We have a bit of an assessment with them, a needs assessment, so we find out who they are as people, what makes them tick, what’s their passions, what’s their love. And what we try and do is to encourage them to continue those passions here or use their existing skills or learn new skills. And really, it’s about trying to make Halifax feel like home.
The people who come to St Augustine’s, they don’t decide to come here to Halifax. They live on a no-choice basis. So what we do try and do is, whilst they are here, let’s make it as positive experience as possible. It’s such a beautiful job. I’ve been doing it for about three years now, and the amount of people I’ve seen must be hundreds. And I never, never fail not to get passionate by new people that come here and get intrigued by who they are, what makes them tick.
It’s such a beautiful job, and I’m really thankful for doing it. And I know quite a lot of people say this, it doesn’t feel like a job, but this honestly doesn’t, because I get so much from the people we support. It’s an absolute pleasure. And honestly, not one morning have I walked to work not wanting to come here. And I don’t take that for granted. And that’s a big thank you to the guys that do come in to Halifax, and they make Halifax a better place.
Definitely. And it’s an incredibly amazing, diverse community of people, isn’t it? And there’s just a wealth of skills, knowledge, life experiences. Just incredible, I think, as well.
Yeah, and they inspire me as well. I think they probably inspire all staff who do that work to either strive for better to continue what they’re doing, because it’s not an easy job. We’re hearing a lot of really truly devastating stories which you can take home with you, but they inspire you by bringing their passions. And they’re allowed to be who they are, which they may not have been back home in their home country. They may not have been afforded that opportunity, but this is an opportunity where they can be themselves. They can express themselves. It’s such a beautiful thing to see people progress as well.
Yeah, definitely. And that thing about passions is what’s led us here to the boxing club, isn’t it?
It is.
Because a passion of yours, as far as I understand, is sport. And also a lot of the centre members at St Augustine’s and the wider community, sport means a lot to people here. And I just wondered, could you speak to us a little bit just from your perspective about sport and why you’re so passionate about it to start with?
Yeah, to be honest with you, before working here at St Augustine’s, I wasn’t particularly that passionate about sport. I’m a season ticket holder at Lincoln City, so I wanted to get that in there. And I am the worst Australian rules footballer in the entire country, but I love it. But it’s from our centre members, the people we support, who’s probably reignited my passion into it. And when you have a nosy up at the boxing gym, the majority of people haven’t been boxing before. Some have, some haven’t. But I encourage people to come as a way to help with physical health, mental health, to decrease isolation and loneliness. Come, see it, smell it. Come once, if you don’t like it, not a problem because you’ve experienced it. But when you see the beauty and people, how they relax, probably for the only hour in that day, they don’t have to worry about the stress of not only their asylum claim at the moment, which is an incredibly hostile environment to come into, feelings of loss from home, from family, friends, loved ones, jobs, skills which I had back home.
But when you come here, you see the stress evaporate off the shoulders, you can physically see it. It’s such a beautiful thing. It’s a shame you can’t get that through in a podcast. You’ve got to see it and smell it. But please take my word off it. You can see them. The shoulders just go down those few inches. In their eyes, they’re only focused on themselves. Whether it’s punching me or a punch bag, it’s such a beautiful thing to see, and it’s so powerful. And we see, not just from boxing, we see it in football, in yoga as well. Just for one hour, they can concentrate on themselves and their own well-being. They’re not an asylum seeker. They’ve not had to flee the home country. They’ve not had to flee the loved ones. They’re part of that session that’s going on. It’s such a beautiful and powerful thing. Yeah, you’ll see it when you go up, Sam, you’ll be probably better to explain it, but it’s a beautiful thing, and you just can’t articulate it into words. I guess that’s where the real beauty is, when you can’t articulate it, but we see it on a daily basis.
Yeah. And I think that’s it, isn’t it? It’s that every day, the stuff that’s happening in the community through sport, it’s similar to what we do at Curious Motion with dance. That’s the same aims, really. And I struggle to put that into words as well. And when I do put it into words, it feels like I haven’t really done it justice, and maybe I’m being a bit dramatic about it. But actually, it’s true what the depth of impact it can have for people and the massive, massive impact on their mental state, physical wellbeing. So I can really see where you’re coming from, particularly with sport and things that are using the body and getting physical. Using your body is a particular thing that us as humans need, isn’t it, to manage stress levels. When you’re-, you’ve got a very traumatic life experience and that’s something that you’re dealing with day in, day out, even more important to be getting moving and doing these different activities.
Weirdly, I never set foot inside a boxing gym before coming here. And I think for a lot of people, whether you’re new to the country or lived here, like myself for 30 odd years, it’s quite intimidating to actually step foot into a boxing gym because you never know what you’re going to find. But we’ve come here, so we’re at Star Boxing on Gibbet Street at the moment. I thought I’d put a plug in for them.
Yeah, no, please do.
They’ve really opened their doors up to our centre members. And it’s not a natural fit, I don’t think. I don’t necessarily think you think people seeking sanctuary to a boxing gym, and it works.
Yeah, it’s not the first thing you think of, is it?
No, but it does work. And I’ve got so much admiration for Andy, Josh, and Scott who are at the gym, and that they do not care where you’ve been, where you’ve come from, what issues you’ve had on that day. They don’t care, what they care about getting you in in that moment and getting something out of the session. As I said, whether it’s just punching me for half an hour, as long as they get something out of it, not a problem at all. So it’s not a natural fit, I guess, but it works. And I think that’s the real-, that tends to work widespread, doesn’t it? The things which you don’t necessarily think it’s a natural fit, by hook or by crook, it does become a natural fit. And really, this should be a great example for other boxing gyms and other organisations around the country. Just have a chat with people and find, Oh, what boxing gym? Or do you mind us coming to you? One hour a week? Yeah, nice one. Bam. And it goes.
Brilliant. Definitely. If you can hear in the background, I’m not sure whether people are able to hear that or not, but that’s a lot of footsteps above us.
I think that’s skipping. For the first-,
Skipping, that makes sense.
Yeah, 5, 10 minutes, skipping to get them warmed up, and then they start doing a bit of technical bag work.
Nice. Yeah, just to point it out in case this sounds very strange on an audio with it the background. The impact of sport really is massive, particularly in this context and in our communities. And like you said, places that will open themselves up to everybody, regardless of your background, experience level, history of finding the place, they’re just so important. Well, a reason for making this podcast is around reducing loneliness and our wider work is-, and I know there’s lots of work, loneliness, obviously, is a huge feature in the experience of people who are coming through St Augustine’s. So I just wondered if you could talk a little bit more about that in particular and how you see sport and what you’re seeing day to day with how that’s helping reduce loneliness.
Yeah. So as you can probably tell by accent, I’m really fortunate to have been born and bred in Halifax. And I think It can be quite tricky when we are working with people who are seeking asylum because, for example, I’ve not been in there, thank God, I haven’t had to leave my home, my loved ones, to come to find a place of sanctuary and safety. But I think loneliness is something which probably impacts 99.9% of us, no matter how rich or poor you are, what gender, whether you’re religious, where you’ve come from. So particularly, loneliness does come to the forefront of my mind in that I can get that. I can I feel that. And for myself, because I can connect with people on that sense of loneliness, I think, jeez, you guys have it tough. And I guess what it inspires myself and everyone at St. Augustine to do is, okay, let’s combat that.
And the sports side of it plays an integral role in combating that, but also linking in with our other offer. For example, we do our English classes. We have volunteering opportunities, both internal and external. We have our advice team, we have gardening, creative art, so much. But it all plays its own part in trying to make someone feel part of a community. And they’ve probably not had that for years, Sam. It’s been years since they’ve probably left our own home country. And when they come to the UK, where they’re safe, they can be moved. Some people are moved within two hours notice. So if you just think how hard that must be. You’ve left your own home country, you’ve come to the UK, right, let’s start again. And then you could be moved within a couple of hours. And it’s like, jeez, got to start again. How hard that must be. And you lose that sense of community and that sense of belonging. So what we try our best to do is, okay, whilst we are in Halifax, let’s grab them. Let’s give them as many opportunities as possible. It doesn’t work with everyone, Sam. A lot of people suffer from real, real quite traumatic mental health issues, which they can’t engage, but they know that offer’s there. And for some who are ready to engage, then great, they’ve got so many different vehicles to do that.
But sport plays one part of that. It’s-, okay, you’ve come to boxing, right? Let’s get you into English classes. Let’s get a bit of your self-esteem. Let’s get a bit of your self-confidence. You know, you’re valued here. You’ve got somewhere to come. Let’s get you volunteering now. We do our welcome cafe, where we give food, like a hot lunch on a Monday and a Thursday to anyone in the community. Okay, let’s get you skilled. Let’s start getting you chopping carrots, for example. But it all plays-, the different roles of St Augustine all plays a part in combating isolation and loneliness. We are fortunate that we do have people with experience throughout the organisation, from trustee level to staff level to volunteers. So they always drive us to, okay, let’s make sure we are reflecting the people that we support. So it can be quite easy to do your own thing, but actually, let’s ask the people who we are supporting, what do you want to do? What’s going to help? So having that lived experience through the organisation really does help to bring us back down to a level sometimes. Okay, it’s not about us. It’s about, What do you guys need? What do you want from us?
Yeah. And I wondered with boxing in particular how that’s worked out, because obviously we’ve got-, this is a wonderful boxing centre, and the people who’ve set it up and are running it have gone and opened their doors. And I suppose, are they building relationships there, I suppose, with the members?
100%.
And I wonder whether those relationships also are outside of St Augustine’s then for them as well, and a bit of empowerment of St Augustine’s isn’t the only place that will care and will help you feel welcome and will include you and will-, if you think about how difficult that must feel and how on the outside you must feel and the language barriers and different cultures and huge, huge, huge things have to deal with all at once. And like you said, change at any second. So I just wondered about those relationship building and if that’s part of reducing that feeling of loneliness. And I see St Augustine as this web that goes out, and then these new relationships are building in the community that can sustain themselves through their organisations as well.
Yeah. I mean, talking about Calderdale in general, we are incredibly fortunate that we’ve had a rich history of immigration coming in to the borough. So it’s not uncommon, but we’re really blessed to say that on a daily basis that Calderdale is really welcoming to people like yourself, do your own bits and bobs with our centre members. And I guess it’s about-, they come to St Augustine’s because we’re like the focal point, I guess, the first part of call. It’s about trying to build up trust between us and them as people, which then allows us to go, okay, let’s get you outside of the bubble, if you like, of St Augustine’s. There’s a lot more to Calderdale than St Augustine’s, but it’s about by being able to build up trust, relationships, rapport with people, we’re able to build up with confidence to say, come to the boxing gym. And for Josh and Scott, who are upstairs at the moment, that could be the only conversation they have with a local person on that day, other than myself or someone else at St Augustine’s. And to see the welcome they get from those guys up there, which again, it’s just about building up a bit of self-confidence, self-esteem, that you can trust people here. We all are here to help and offer a bit of support.
And it builds up resilience as well. You have to be resilient to have been-, what they’ve gone through and to come into a real hostile environment, which it is, which you may not think it by mainstream media, from what government politicians say, but it is an incredibly hostile environment. So this also helps to build a bit of resilience as well and a bit of trust in the community. A great example, Sam, we do with the Baháʼí faith group at Outback Garden, just in Park Ward, opposite St Augustine’s, we do a regular cleanup of the streets of Park Ward. And our centre members, they build up a real link. We spoke a bit before the lack of having a community, but when it’s given, they embrace it, they want to feel part of it, and they want to give something back. We can have around 20 to 40 people from St Augustine’s coming to clean up the local streets. I think that really shows the power of the different strands of work that we do builds up that sense of community feeling,` that they feel proud to be from Halifax, and they want to make a real difference.
And again, like boxing, seeing the beauty of them when they come here, it’s amazing to see them working it. I can be chucking it down, which is Halifax life. Five degrees, but they’re there doing the streets, cleaning them up because they want to be proud of it. They want to be proud of the local area. They want to be useful. So again, the asylum system, it makes people feel useless, which is such a travesty. The amount of skills that we see coming through the doors is incredible. From doctors, journalists, solicitors, a huge, huge, vast array of skills, and they can’t be of use in the UK. The laws that go behind it, not being able to work, for example. They want to be useful, and this just gives them an opportunity to be useful. And also, for it to start conversations with-, people come out on the doors when we clean the streets, who are you? What are you doing?
All right.
We’re from St. Augustine’s just coming to clear up local streets. It starts conversations, and hopefully that makes them feel a bit proud of Halifax. And okay, well, I’m going to do a little bit to make my street a little bit better.
Yeah, definitely. It’s a bit of a ripple effect, isn’t it?
It is, yeah. And again, it’s about conversations. And again, I’ve mentioned before about the rubbish that we hear on the mainstream media, especially at the moment, about people arriving from boats. It is a load of rubbish. It’s not a choice. To help your own, whatever that means to helping people who fled the home countries. That’s not a choice. You can do both. You don’t have to pick and choose who you support. It’s just about giving people opportunity. And again, I guess that’s probably what we do at St. Augustine. It’s about giving people opportunities, not just internally, but externally as well. We try our best for people to grasp those opportunities. But as I keep saying, it’s tricky. It’s not an easy thing. It’s constant encouragement, it’s constant building up rapport, constant building trust, because they’ve lost that in their journey. They’ve lost that. That feeling of being open to take opportunities, which is quite sad when you think about it. But yet the flip side, when they do grasp it, it’s such a beautiful thing, and they play such an important role in our community.
Definitely. It’s just, the idea of trust is so important, isn’t it? And one of those things that can be broken very easily, but very, very difficult to build. And so it’s a real investment of everybody’s energy and time and compassion and all of these things to properly welcome people and to really support them. Then, like you were saying, you see that then other people want to do that, too. The more we could do that, you would hope that might start to break down some of the immense issues that we have around all of these things as well.
Yeah, and that’s always at the forefront of our mind, especially with new arrivals. So they come, they meet myself or a colleague, get an introduction into St Augustine’s life. Then we offer information sessions where we look into a bit of the culture and life of Halifax in particular. Talk about the Gibbet, Stoodley Pike, Wainhouse Tower, what Halifax actually means. And then that’s followed on by, we take people on a tour around Halifax. A lot of them are really scared to leave their own streets. So it’s like, Oh, come with us. We’ll take you to People’s Park. We’ll take you to the College. We’ll take you to the Peace Hall. And we always finish at Temperance Movement coffee shop in town.
I love it in there.
Yeah, with Joey, who opens up his doors and says, look, come and have a free drink on us. So it all plays a real important role. And it just shows that you can be who you are. You can trust us. Take a bit of a gamble.
Definitely. And all of these places around this area are all getting involved and teaming up and going, yeah, this is how we can help.
Exactly. Yeah. And it’s a beautiful thing to see. And as I said, I was born and bred here. One of the big positives about myself being from Halifax is I know people, I know the area, but it’s home for me. I’ve been travelling myself, but I’ve always come back, and it’s that sense of home and that sense of belonging. And whilst I have it, I want to give it to other people. I want other people to have that sense of belonging. And then if they move on to Manchester, London, Edinburgh, I want them to think, you know what, Halifax, it wasn’t half bad. If that’s what they can leave with, then job done for myself.
Yeah. No, that’s great. Definitely. I wasn’t born and bred here, but I can feel that sense of community and home in this part of the country. I’ve lived in quite a lot of parts of the UK, and actually, I’m not surprised I’ve ended up here because to me, it feels that it’s really got-, a really unique sense of community. I don’t know why that is. That’s just from my life experience. But I do really love the diversity of this part of the UK and the welcome from people and the teamwork and that feeling that we’re in it together and we’re here to support each other, I think, is really, really prevalent in places in Calderdale.
It is, and it is a unique place, particularly Halifax. And I think we’re in a really great setting for how I would sum Halifax up.
Okay.
Rough and ready.
Yeah.
We’re in a room that we can try and describe.
Yeah, this is…
Damp is prevalent.
Damp.
It’s a bit dark. It’s a bit dingy.
So it’s where they’re storing some of the stuff from the gym. And we’re in an old mill, aren’t we? Is this building an old mill?
Yeah, it is.
As are many buildings.
Yeah, but thankfully, it’s getting utilised.
Yes, definitely.
So mills aren’t getting utilised. But it’s just rough and ready. And for me, that’s what Halifax is. If you’re ready to embrace it. And yeah, there’s no plaster work. Yeah, we’ve got curtains falling off. That’s a bit of the beauty of Halifax really, that it’s not perfect, but we get by in a unique way in that no matter-, yeah, we might not have the biggest of resources, but we get by. We do what we can for the community. And I think we’re in a perfect setting to discuss what we’re talking about.
Definitely, definitely. I love that. I think there’s so much scope for what’s happening right now, this boxing class that’s going on above us. The people in there that are getting moving, connecting with each other, working through what they’re feeling in their body, what they’re feeling emotionally, and what that means, and the ripple effect out of that little room into the things we’ve been talking about, that we are seeing and feeling all over the place in this borough. And yeah, rough and ready, I like it. People just get stuck in and get on with it as well, don’t they?
100%.
And if people need help, generally, you can find somebody that will help.
Yeah, exactly. Again, some of the boxing sessions we’ve got at the moment, Sam, it’s blooming hard work.
Yeah, I bet it is. Sounds it.
Yeah, but what they get out of it is they get pushed, but in a different way to being mentally pushed by the asylum system. It’s like a physical-, it’s a physical push that-, keep going. And that helps them in their asylum journey, really, about, right, I’m going to get knocked down, but I’m going to get up. I’m going to improve myself. I’m going to try and prepare myself as best as possible to build up a lot of resilience. And then for some, Sam, after tonight’s session, it’s probably the only good night’s sleep they’re going to have because of the mental health trauma they’ve experienced, the stresses that they’ve experienced. After here, you can’t help but not fall asleep. And again, you don’t necessarily think of that, but again, it’s such a powerful thing that they might even just have a good night’s sleep for the first time in a week.
Wow. Yeah. So important, isn’t it? It’s not just benefits in the room in the moment. It’s really feeding into life and the next day. And then sleep is such an important thing. And again, hence why using the body is just such an important way to be looking after yourself, let alone processing trauma and things like that, which I could go on all day about, which I won’t. But I can really understand what you mean about that and how these sessions can really make such a massive difference to people that are having to go through some of probably the worst experiences you can imagine.
Yeah, exactly. And here, they don’t talk about it. They’ve got other people to talk about things like that. But here, it’s just a one hour to forget all that. Let’s have a bit of positivity. And then it’s like, okay, you’ve been boxing. I’m going to grab you. Let’s get you in our free shop, helping, volunteering. We’ve got this new person who’s come in, use your experience of your welcome in Halifax to pass it on to someone else. The peer-to-peer stuff is so, so, so valuable. What they say is a hundred times fold what I can say to them.
Yeah. No, that’s great. Well, we’re coming to the end of the boxing session in a little while as well, aren’t we? And I think the end of our chat for today, Adrian, thank you so much for sharing a little insight into sport and St Augustine’s and people seeking sanctuary and what we can do locally here to support them is really quite amazing. And this is a perfect example of that. So thank you for having me here and chatting about it.
Yeah, no, thank you very much for having me as well, Sam. I will just end on this one thing that I’m truly, truly blessed. St Augustine’s, it has a unique vibe about it. I can’t really-, again, I can’t articulate it into words. But if anybody would like to come see what we do, please reach out to myself. I’d love to show you around. We have our welcome cafe on a Monday and a Thursday at half past twelve, which is open to absolutely anyone to come get a free lunch on us. And the beauty of it is that the chefs are all people seeking sanctuary themselves. So we get food from all different parts of the world. Yeah, and just do what you can. Just be human. If you’ve got someone you’re not sure where they’re from or wherever, just knock on the door, introduce yourself, make them a cup of tea. There’s so much we can do. And I just want to leave on that people seeking sanctuary give so much to our communities if we let it happen. It’s not all negative. It’s not all the rubbish that you hear on mainstream media. It’s getting to people, get to know them on a human level, and they just bring so much light and vibrancy to our communities. I just want to end on that positive message.
Perfect, Adrian. What a perfect way to end it. Thank you so much.
It’s time to wrap up another episode of Calder Navigation. And as we do, we want to express our gratitude for joining us on this journey through Calderdale’s stories. We hope these conversations have moved you and reminded of the power of human connection.
Calder Navigation is part of the Welland Activator Project, aimed at combating loneliness in Elland and Calderdale. A massive thank you to our funders, Calderdale Council, Culturedale, and Reaching Communities from the National Lottery Community Fund, empowering us to continue our mission of fostering connection and combating loneliness through projects like the Welland Activator. A big thank you to Untold Creative for production support too. Remember to subscribe to Calder Navigation on your podcast app, share it with others, and please leave us a review. Keep exploring and connecting. Until next time.
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