SALFIA ADVICE CENTRE (SAC)

PURPOSE:
• To promote educational and cultural diversity through training and employment.
• To provide facilities for social welfare, recreational and cultural development.
• To promote links across all sections of society.
• To provide facilities for recreation and cultural development

BACKGROUND:
The Salfia Association is a voluntary organization serving the needs of the local population in West Dewsbury, the association is based 3/4 of a mile from Dewsbury town centre just off the main Huddersfield Road (A644), it is 1 mile from both Dewsbury and Ravensthorpe Railway Stations and from Dewsbury Bus Station from where a regular service every 15 minutes is available to a bus stop some 300 yards from the Centre. There are parking provisions on all the streets in the area.

The Salfia Association was formed in the early 1980’s by prominent members of the local Asian community. They realised that there was a pressing need for an Association to develop an infrastructure to deliver community projects
to allow the local people and area to progress and to raise the profile of the Asian community within local and national statutory and voluntary agencies.
The first generation of Asians to live in this area, as in many other parts of the country arrived in the 1950’s and 1960’s to meet the shortage of labour following the Second World War. These new immigrants were employed in
what was effectively an obsolescent textile industry where conditions were poor and pay was low, consequently they were forced to live in poor housing in mainly industrial or inner city areas, with accompanying high levels of ill health, enduring emotional and economic hardship due to the ever present overt racism.

From the mid 1970’s the textile industries which had been major employers for immigrants began to decline and many Asian lost their jobs. Without relevant qualifications or skills, few opportunities for re-training and inadequate expertise in the English language many of them remained unemployed.

Inadequate English language acquisition is still the main barrier for many middle age or older Asians in obtaining employment or access to services. Many Muslim families have put their hopes in the English education system to
educate their young people with the skills that will lift them and their families out of their poverty, so that the younger generation can repay the moral debt to their parents for the years of effort and suffering endured by them.
However, this has not happened and there is a massive under-achievement by Muslim children, leading to frighteningly high levels of unemployment among younger people and consequent inter-generational tension.

Those young people who are successful in gaining qualifications often leave the area taking their invaluable resources of human capital with them. Many of the young people that remain are tempted into the black economy, risking prison sentences and alienation from their families.

The Salfia Association is a non-profit making organization which aims to work with other statutory and voluntary organisations in supporting the communities of Scouthill, Ravensthorpe, Westtown and Dewsbury Moor.

ACTIVITIES:
The Salfia Association is based in its own Community Centre in Scouthill. At the centre it provides a number of Social Welfare and Community Education Projects including:
• Daycare for the elderly in conjunction with Sadeh Lok Housing Association.
• Activity days for people with learning disabilities in conjunction with the Social Education Centre.
• A study support centre in conjunction with the Local Education Authority and Westborough High School.
• Mothers and Toddlers and Breast feeding group in conjunction with Surestart.
• An advice centre providing assistance to local people on issues such as Benefits, Housing, Immigration and other issues relevant to the local community.
• A women’s group that is working to increase the participation of local women in community activity.
• A youth club providing recreational and leisure facilities.
• A Social Services Awareness Officer based at Salfia to raise awareness and assist in accessing Social Services provisions and benefits.
• Prayer facilities.