Volunteer with LGBT Asylum

• Contact persons
• Community organisers
• Mentors for our new Mentorship Programme
• Translators and interpreters

The next onboarding for new volunteers in Copenhagen will be on February 24th and 25th 2024 from 10:00 to 15:00 both days.

Please look at the following description of expectations for the different roles.

As a volunteer in LGBT Asylum you will:

• Become part of a strong LGBTQI+ community formed by people that have lived experiences of being an LGBTQI+ person
• Become part of a very committed volunteer group
• Actively work to support the conditions and rights of LGBTQI+ asylum activists and refugees
• Gain experience with working relational and methodically with a group of people in marginalised positions and getting insight into fields of asylum and integration in Denmark
• Getting practical training in mediation and communication
• Get help to improve your knowledge and communication centered around our members’ needs

If you are interested in being part of LGBT Asylum, please send a motivational letter to info@lgbtasylum.dk with a short presentation of yourself, your motivation for volunteering with us and which areas you would like to volunteer in (you can take part in several). The deadline for applying is the 14th of February 2024.

As a contact person, your task consists of two things. Firstly, you advise the asylum activist (the person seeking asylum) in connection with their asylum case in Denmark. This may also mean that you assist the asylum activist in gaining access to information or documentation for the purpose of processing the asylum case. In addition, you also support that the asylum activist has the opportunity to partake in our community events and give advice and guidance as to life as an LGBTQI+ person in Denmark. We work on the premise that as volunteers we support asylum activists in making their own informed choices, no matter the subject.

Your role as a contact person includes, among other things,

• Informing the asylum activist about the asylum system
• Preparing the asylum activist for interviews with authorities
• Obtaining background information from the asylum activist’ country of origin if relevant
• Assisting the asylum activist directing questions and concerns to relevant persons, authorities or organisations
• Bridge-building to relevant special counselling services
• Informing the asylum activist about social events within our community
• Familiarise yourself with the relevant legislation and changes in practices within our field
• Be prepared for periods of intensive workload
• Can communicate in English and be able to navigate documents in Danish
• Committing for a period of minimum 1 year
• Contact persons always work in pairs on a case, and are supported by the Head of Counselling

We are looking for people who have experience with voluntary work and who are interested in asylum related issues and who want to have knowledge of the Danish asylum system. Furthermore, you need to have a desire for continuous learning within our specialised field of work.

In this role, you will be a mentor for a LGBTQI+ refugee (mentee). After being granted asylum, LGBTQI+ individuals may face significant difficulties when it comes to navigate life in Denmark. Your work is to guide and support the mentee in working towards their goals, helping navigating challenges, and offering a listening ear. Throughout the programme there will be meetings 1:1 between mentors and mentees and workshops with all the mentorship programme participants.

As a mentor you will support the mentees with:

• Building friendships, finding community and support networks
• Accompanying them to meetings or interviews with different authorities (e.g. Kommune and Jobcenter)
• Understanding their rights and obligations in Denmark
• Accessing Danish courses, practising Danish or learning other skills (e.g. riding a bike)
• Applying for a relevant job or starting an education
• Being part of a larger queer community
• Accessing mental health services
• Accessing the relevant health care service (e.g. trans-specific, dentist or GP)
• Translating letters from the authorities and navigating systems (e.g. Skat, dagpengesystemet)
• Being available for a quick chat or cup of coffee to catch up and lend a listening ear
• Bridge-building to relevant organisations, health services, LGBTQI+ groups and communities, the municipality, language schools, educational institutions, specialised counselling services, and current and future employers

While we don’t expect you to have prior knowledge of all the things listed above, we hope that you carry some level of familiarity with some things and a strong eagerness to collaborate, learn, and exchange knowledge.

As a community organiser you will be responsible for building and maintaining our LGBTQI+ community. You will be part of our team that organises community events and gatherings for all of our members and volunteers. We are looking for people with experience and an interest in creating safer, inclusive and accessible social spaces, and community events for LGBTQI+ people.

As a community organiser you will:

• Organise one community gathering a month taking place on Saturdays as well as three weekend trips a year
• Organise sharing circles, cultural trips, Pride related events and learning activities
• Organise and create workshops and activities for the community (e.g. in the past we have facilitated workshops on sexual health, mental well-being, anti-racism, religion from an LGBTQI+ perspective, holiday parties, lipsync battles, karaoke, Nada ear acupuncture, ice skating, and arts and crafts)
• Work together with the Head of Community and Volunteers, who supports the community organiser team in building capacity, coordinating tasks, leadership, and social awareness
• Organise events for 40-50 people

All our events are planned and organised in close collaboration with our members and contact persons. Therefore it is an essential part of our work to include our members and volunteers in LGBT Asylum and to ensure that their needs and dreams are reflected in our community organising.

LGBTQI+ asylum seekers and refugees are often an invisible group, who face particular challenges in the asylum system and, very often, social isolation along with racism, homophobia, and/or transphobia. Knowledge and information about one’s possibilities in this kind of cases are almost non-existing within the Danish asylum system, and that can have severe effects for not just the asylum seekers’ conditions during the application process, but also for the outcome of the individual cases.

Many of the asylum activists (the members in the group who are applying for asylum) in the group do not speak Danish or English, but for example Farsi/Dari, Arabic, Malay, Luganda and several other languages. Almost all contact persons speak Danish and/or English.

Most asylum activists live in asylum centres far from Copenhagen, so much of the contact is done by text messages, email and telephone. We host several social events and meetings where all contact persons, asylum activists and refugees in the group get together in Copenhagen and Aarhus.

We are looking for interpreters/translators who are LGBTQI+ sensitive and can help us with interpretation and translation associated with:

• Case-preparatory meetings where the contact persons prepare the asylum activists for interviews with the authorities, such as the Danish Immigration Service, Refugee Appeals Board or others
• Written and oral translation of documents, newspaper articles, letters, minutes of meetings, and other things to be used in asylum activists’ asylum cases
• Text messages, emails, and phone messages from contact persons to asylum activists or vice versa, when, for example buying bus tickets to social gatherings, talk about problems at the centers or simple questions
• Ad hoc interpretation at social events and presentations

We need interpreters/translators, who:

• Can interpret and translate between Danish or English and another language
• Is either an LGBTQI+ person or have an understanding of topics related to LGBTQI+
• Can help with interpretation and/or translation about twice a month

As an interpreter/translator in LGBT Asylum you are an important part of the group’s political and social work and it is expected that you can be part of the group for a longer period.

You are bound by the duty of confidentiality and you are not to disclose any information or names.

If you want to volunteer as an interpreter/translator please send your application to info@lgbtasylum.dk.