New Common Charter supporter profile: Minority Ethnic Support Armagh

Minority Ethnic Support Armagh (MESA) works to address the complex challenges faced by Roma, Traveller, asylum seeker, refugee and other minority ethnic families in Armagh and its surrounding areas.

Many of the families it supports experience multiple barriers, including difficulties accessing safe and adequate housing, securing healthcare, navigating education systems, and engaging with statutory and community services.

These challenges are often compounded by language barriers, cultural differences, social isolation, discrimination, and systemic inequalities, leaving families vulnerable and at risk of exclusion.

Family support

MESA provides tailored advice, advocacy and practical support to help families navigate these challenges.

The team works closely with individuals and families to ensure they can access housing, health services, education, and social welfare, offering guidance that is culturally sensitive and informed by lived experience.

For asylum seekers and refugees, MESA provide essential support in understanding legal rights, accessing benefits, and overcoming the additional stress of displacement and uncertainty about the future.

Improving wellbeing and confidence

In addition to meeting immediate practical needs, the team works to address social and emotional challenges. Families often face isolation and a lack of community networks, which can affect wellbeing, confidence, and the ability to participate fully in local life.

MESA creates safe, welcoming spaces where families can connect, build social networks, and access culturally appropriate activities that celebrate identity and heritage.

This holistic approach helps families develop resilience, confidence, and the skills needed to navigate the broader community and statutory systems more effectively.

MESA’s work is driven by the recognition that minority ethnic families, asylum seekers, and refugees often face overlapping and complex challenges that cannot be addressed in isolation.

By combining practical guidance, advocacy, and social support with opportunities for cultural connection and community participation, the team helps families overcome barriers, improve access to essential services, and build a sense of belonging.

Cross-border work

While its primary work is in Armagh, the team is beginning to look at extending support across the border into County Monaghan. This initial cross-border engagement has been prompted in part by the ending of the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS), which has left some EU citizens, Roma, and minority ethnic individuals navigating new legal and residency challenges.

Through this emerging work, MESA is exploring opportunities to support families whose lives and needs span both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, building relationships with statutory agencies and community organisations to provide consistent, accessible support.

Looking forward, MESA aims to strengthen this cross-border work, learning from early engagements to create sustainable support pathways for families navigating challenges across jurisdictions.

Its goal is to ensure that all minority ethnic communities, particularly those facing displacement, legal uncertainty, or social exclusion, can access the support they need to thrive, feel secure, and contribute positively to their communities.

Get in contact with the MESA team here.

Membership of the New Common Charter

The New Common Charter for Cooperation aims to empower civic society to drive cooperation, North-South and East-West, by

• increasing opportunities to share information, knowledge of policy and best-practice within and across these islands
• improving policy-making by matching it to realities on the ground
• identifying cross-border opportunities to collaborate to solve shared problems or exploit common resources
• engaging with and supporting human rights, particularly for the most isolated and marginalised in our communities, and
• facilitating the exploration and celebration of a community’s culture and heritage with a view to future cooperation.

The Charter may be able to help your group – find out about the membership benefits here.

Photographs: Minority Ethnic Support Armagh projects, events, and activities