Slough Refugee Support – SRS – is a registered charity focused exclusively on the needs of refugees and asylum seekers.
Established in 1997, we welcome and offer practical help to some of the most marginalised people in the local community - helping them with the many obstacles they face in their efforts to settle, contribute and thrive in the UK.
Our philosophy and approach is rooted in the belief that refugees want and need to achieve self-reliance and independence as soon as they can. Our core programme is based around drop-in advice sessions and follow-up casework to resolve identified issues.
23 GoodGymers have supported Slough Refugee Support - Maidenhead Depot with 4 tasks.
Wednesday 23rd February 2022
Written by Windsor and Maidenhead runner
The runners met at Homebase for a short 2.5km route around the town before meeting the walking group and other GoodGymmers at the task location to continue sorting through the mountain of donations. Our task owner suddenly realised she had left the black bags in her garage so we needed a Lidl help from the closest supermarket and Apple Pay since we had no cash!
The group worked hard for an hour and sorted another 43 bags. Go team!! We then stopped to celebrate 2 epic milestones, the first two Windsor & Maidenhead members (other than our Skipper Amy of course), to have reached 100 good deeds and graduated to "angel wing" status.
Sadly Amy was too unwell to join us but she made sure we celebrated in style by making medals for our 2 heroines, providing angel wings and writing a fabulous poem which she recited via FaceTime:
Sheila and Jess, true Taskforce heroes! Now both count their good deeds with a 1 and two zeroes.
Jess has been with us right from the start, She practically has GoodGym tattooed on her heart. No matter the weather, she does good deeds, And has even been known to speak to the weeds.
Sawing, digging, or plogging, she always works hard, And did you know she makes a super cross-stitch card? She’s always game for a pancake toss, And when it comes to sorting puzzles, she’s the boss.
If you need someone in goal, she’s number one, But footie can be dangerous – just look at her thumb! We all know she is a keen parkrunner, But it clashes with coaching – it’s such a bummer!
Jess, we are lucky to have you among us, And I’m sorry I forgot about your allergy to citrus. I always have fun with you on my team, Jess you’re the cream of the GoodGym cream.
Now Sheila actually just joined us in May, ‘Was it really that recently?’ I hear you say. Yes, Sheila the legend is relatively new, But she’s planted more trees than me or you.
From vaccination clinics to the waterway, Sheila often does good twice in a day. In January she did more than Westminster or Crewe, And all that with an injured foot in her shoe!
She’s handy with a broom, secateurs or a rake, And for her fiftieth good deed she even baked her own cake. I bet she would also be handy with a spanner, And did you see her bunting and her GoodGym banner?
For GoodGym she’ll cycle over 20 kilometre, And she’s responsible for recruiting the lovely Anita. Sheila, though we have to share you with the netball crowd, You’re a true a star and you should be proud.
Sheila and Jess are amazing, make no mistake. Now I’ll shut up and we can all eat cake!
Georgeta and Tara baked some delicious treats and Sophie bought the bubbles! Jess and Sheila you are both legends!
The group then made their way home and we will return again to continue helping this wonderful charity and to work off the large intake of calories consumed!
Tuesday 22nd February 2022
Written by Windsor and Maidenhead runner
A crisp and much less windy evening saw 12 GoodGymmers turn up to help sort through the mountains of clothes etc at the Slough Refugee Support. For a while it seemed like we might have to turn our backs to the mountains as no key was found in the lockbox! A quick call to a mysterious Jason sorted that out and we were in. Our task was simple, sort the donated clothes into bags, and shoes and accessories into other bags. Our target was to get to 32 bags. Within the next hour, we sorted out 56 and only stopped because there were no more bags left! While some of the piles looked a lot smaller than before, there's still plenty to do when we go back.
Wednesday 16th February 2022
Written by Amy L (she/her)
A big welcome to Ben, who joined us for the first time this evening. Great to have you along Ben, and we wish you well with your challenge to log more GoodGym good deeds than your colleagues at Octopus energy - such a great idea!
We were forced to skip our planned gardening task for this evening, so we returned to the Slough Refugee Support depot for more donation sorting instead. As we ran and walked down to the Maidenhead depot, I couldn't help thinking we were quite lucky to be heading indoors. The wind was really howling!
Having said that, I'm always blown away on arrival at Slough Refugee Support by the enormity of their donations mountains, and despite a GoodGym community mission on Tuesday evening where a whopping 31 bags of clothes were sorted, there is still heaps to be done.
The focus this evening was sorting a huge pile of toys games and books. Jess, Georgeta and Jen were all part of Tuesday evening's dream team, so along with task owner Keriann, they helped the rest of us find our feet.
We had fun taking a few trips down memory lane and meeting some very cute cuddlies, but there were quite a few items that were not fit to go to new owners and sadly had to join the bin pile. It is much harder to bin a sweet hand-knitted bear than it is to send scruffy old clothes to rags.
By the end of the evening we had removed enough toys from the previously hidden sofa for me to have a nice lie down. We had also sorted and gathered up 32 bags of good quality items and stored them neatly in 'bay 2', next to Tuesday's haul in 'bay 1'. So we now have a running total of 63 bags sorted. We are returning next Tuesday and Wednesday evenings for more of the same, and it will be very satisfying to see that number climb. Click here to head over the happenings page and sign up.
Tuesday 15th February 2022
Written by Jess Smith
The 7 strong gang met Keriann at the Slough Refugee Support warehouse, (which is actually in Maidenhead), to help sort the Himalayan sized mountain range of donations.
They had to sort the donations into clothes, shoes, accessories, toys, blankets, kitchenware and general items.
Kelley, Jen, Juli, Jess, Shelia, Anita and Georgetta started pulling bags out of the first storage area and set about sorting the contents.
Anita was dubbed the Shoes-day shoe lady and kept a keen eye on the pairs of shoes being flung in her direction.
The clothes were checked to ensure they were in suitable condition and anything which didn't pass was discarded and taken to the large bin outside. Unfortunately donations of bedding, socks, underwear and hats also met this fate as they cannot be passed on for hygiene reasons.
A small sofa quickly became overwhelmed with toys which had been pulled out of bags, teddies, unicorns, trucks, dinosaurs and colouring books all made an appearance in this new mini mountain we created!!
The team was able to return 31 large black bags of sorted clothes to the storage area and a relieved Keriann could start to see end to the mountain range.
There are two more sessions listed to help next week, so come along and join us.