A movement & art workshop for springtime renewal.

Join us for this rejuvenating afternoon of movement, comfort food, and art journalling at Bristol School of Yoga. Hana Masters and Wen Yee Kok will be guiding you through the day, and you can expect a delicious lunch - included in every ticket - from Malaysian comfort food stall Fat Rice UK. Come along to decompress, make new friends, nourish your body, and learn more about the mental health services available to you.

Sign up here using code FRIENDSOFEVR for money off.

Join us at Pelican House for a fun and relaxed board game & snacks session. This event is open to everyone and all board games and snacks will be provided.

We are so grateful for our funding from The National Lottery, which makes all our free mental health services and wholesome community events possible. To show our appreciation, and in celebration of National Lottery Open Week, we invite all National Lottery players to join us for free at this event. Everybody else, please do come along for just £2. Sign up here.

To kick off 2025, we invited some of our Befriending buddies to a big communal kitchen to cook up a Lunar New Year Feast. Each Befriending pair was challenged to create a dish merging their two cultures, and inspired by the snake zodiac, with a budget of £20. From veggie sushi, to handmade dumplings, to sweet and sour pork, rest assured the table was full and no one left feeling hungry. We held this event in both Bristol and London!

It was a great pleasure to join Microsoft’s Embrace ERG at their annual Lunar New Year celebration in London. We hosted a well-loved calligraphy workshop with the support of EVR volunteers Chong Ng and Soh Chua, who drew from their childhood days in the classroom in Malaysia to share their calligraphy wisdom. EVR Board Member Jenny also joined the panel, alongside Olivia Khong and Christine Latayan, to speak about EVR’s services, why they are so crucial today, and her personal experiences as an ESEA community member during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In light of the holiday season and the fast-approaching end of 2024, we felt we were all in need of a detox. We were joined by twenty community members on Saturday 7th December 10:30am-2:30pm at the Mary Ward Centre in Stratford for an intimate, cosy, half-day retreat centring rest, renewal, and refuelling our bodies in time for the new year. Through movement, sound, and food, all individuals left feeling cleansed and refreshed, ready for 2025.

Yuyu Rau facilitated a mindful movement session, guiding us through practices like breathwork, body scanning, tuning into feelings, and allowing the body to take the lead. With her gong and crystal bowls, Claire Wan then led the class through a replenishing soundbath, designed to connect us to our own bodies, and encourage us to practise slowing down. We wrapped up the retreat with a nourishing meal at a local community-owned Thai restaurant, The Pie Crust.

Happy Men's Mental Health Awareness Month! We were delighted to collaborate with David Kam on Sunday 1st December, 11am - 2:30pm at Academy Mews Studios in Camden for an afternoon of movement, play, connection, and food.

Community members practised a moving meditation before engaging in a series of mindful and interactive movement games, including a creative therapeutic activity inspired by the intricate art of Zentangle. David held the space carefully for sharing and conversation, before everyone was off to enjoy a meal together at Vegan Planet!

We collaborated with Jessica Wing, The Counsellor Thing, on this virtual workshop all about mental health within the East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) community.

In an open and supportive space, we dove into why mental health can be a tough topic to talk about, how stigma plays a role, and shared tangible tips and tricks on starting those important conversations with family and friends. Jessica also covered what it's like to reach out for mental health support—what you can expect, and how to navigate the services available. Participants left the session with actionable advice to apply to their own relationships and conversations.

End Violence and Racism (EVR) and On Your Side (OYS) hosted the second annual Community Care Retreat 2024! This year, we were also supported by aloe mental health. The day celebrated ESEA heritages and fostered strong mental health through a curated programme of workshops, a bustling market of ESEA-owned businesses, a delicious food offering, and guaranteed good company - all at Hackney Chinese Community Services in London! Thank you to all of our attendees for celebrating ESEA heritage month with us!

It was a great privilege to collaborate with On Your Side (OYS) and ATISA to deliver Creative Writing vs. The Hostile Environment: Written on the Bodies, a free 3-hour creative writing workshop for transgender ESEA community members.

One attendee noted that the event was ‘wonderful’ and that ‘all participants felt safe and supportive of each other’.

To read about another attendee’s experience at the event, check out The Mollusc Dimension’s blog post here.

We gathered members of the Filipino Domestic Workers Association at St Luke’s Community Centre for a group cooking session, where we shared a meal under the sun. The spread featured a variety of dishes, including chicken adobo, pancit, chop suey, heaps of seafood, cassava cake, and maja blanca. For many of our East and South East Asian communities, food is more than just a way to nourish our bodies. It is a celebration of our cultural heritage and a means of connecting with one another. Through this event of cooking and eating together, we found comfort, support, and a sense of belonging.

EVR has been invited to take part in a panel event at BT around racism during the coronavirus pandemic.

This initiative is a partnership with ESEA Online Community Hub, led by Dr Diana Yeh, Senior Lecturer of Sociology at City University of London.

EVR are participating in the SUTR Conference on Saturday 16 October, 2pm workshop: Sinophobia and opposing racism towards Chinese & East Asian communities.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/stand-up-to-racism-international-conference-tickets-156877425603

That’s TV Broadcast- Interview with EVR Head of Campaigns, Tam Hau-Yu.

Live London broadcast at 6pm. EVR member Tam Hau-Yu spoke about the term Oriental and the framing of ESEA communities.

Broadcast live on ITV1 News at Ten. EVR provided data alongside victims testimonies to raise awareness around increasing anti-asian hate.