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Wai Yin Society

Wai Yin Society

About them

Wai Yin Society has been supporting, empowering and working in partnership with Chinese individuals and families for more than 25 years. Founded in 1988 by a group of community-minded Chinese women, Wai Yin has become one of the largest Chinese Community centres in the UK, sustaining its operations through commissions and contracts with mainstream organisations. As the Society has grown, we have developed a range of employment, education and community services for Chinese men and women and for other ethnic minority groups, including Somali, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Indian and many European nationalities.

The Society aims to challenge all forms of discrimination and social exclusion through the provision of diverse and reactive services, delivered by a team of qualified social workers, nurses and other professionals.

Wai Yin has over 1000 service users, 450 adult learners and an annual turnover of £1.2 million in 2011. We recognise that our success is rooted in the talents, enthusiasm and commitment of our people and we are proud to have 8 Committee Members, approximately 50 staff, 27 contract based tutors and over 50 volunteers. Wai Yin has a successful history of awards and our achievements include the Investor in People Award (2002-2018), the Matrix Quality Mark (2008-2018) and the Best Social Enterprise Award (2010), Advice Quality Standard (2015-2018) amongst others. Working in partnership with Lancaster University, MMU and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Wai Yin has published a number of research papers relevant to BME communities. We offer social work and healthcare placements to UK and international students and we are strengthening ties with universities in China and Hong Kong.

We currently have three bases in Manchester: our Swan Street Headquarters which provides services for children, young people and families, and also hosts our Learning Centre, which caters for about 70% Chinese learners and 30% other BME learners; we have the Sheung Lok Centre which provides the services for older Chinese people and for older Somali women. The Welcome Centre, which is situated in the centre of Cheetham Hill provides English Classes, IT classes, Work Club, Welfare Advice, free Lunches and Food parcels distribution to the most in need, gardening classes to grow your own food, arts and craft classes, and job search support to the local residents in Cheetham Hill and Crumpsall areas.

The Society values equality, diversity and mutual respect. We are deeply committed to extending the reach of our services to all members of the community and many of the people who use our centre are non-Chinese. We are proud of being British and Chinese and we promote the positive expression of culture by working in partnership with BME community groups.

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