Crossings

Crossings is a charity focussed on providing support and social opportunities for asylum seekers and refugees in the local area. Every Monday, the Crossings members come together to  collaborate on the development of and performance of music, sharing experiences and having the opportunity to socialise with a diverse group of individuals. Along the way Crossings have been struggling and they face an uncertain future as they are entirely dependent upon funding and charitable donations.

The Crossings project is focussed on transferring business knowledge and skills to help the Crossings organisation establish and develop a more sustainable, self-generated source of income. In addition to the sessions provided on a Monday evening, Crossings also deliver workshops in the local area. The purpose of these is, firstly, to show people the positive power music has of bringing people together and secondly to increase awareness and understanding of the struggles of asylum seekers and to encourage anti-racism. Until now, the workshops have been organised and delivered in an ad-hoc manner, thwarting the potential they have to impact others and generate a profit for Crossings.

We plan to assist Crossings in developing their workshops and organising a business model in order to establish these as a permanent source of income for the organisation. Through helping Crossings to set the workshops up as a business faction within the organisation we hope to empower the management team of Crossings – as they will finally see generating their own income as a viable option, and once the project takes shape, they will hopefully be generating a profit and achieving income outside of the funding and donations they currently receive. Secondly, as Crossings members themselves will be trained in organising the administration of, and the operational side of this venture, we believe that these individuals will be empowered as they will be facing new opportunities previously not afforded to them.

We will be recruiting for a new Crossings project leader in September, so if you are a student at Newcastle University and would like to put your skills to test while learning more about enterprise please contact us at sife@ncl.ac.uk