West North West Homes Leeds was fully aware that one of the barriers to involvement of Black & Minority Ethnic groups in service improvement and accessing services was due to language skills.
The Cohesion & Diversity team looked at addressing this and one of the ways that this could be done was to provide a language course.
ESOL (English for speakers of other languages)
This was delivered in partnership with jobs & skills Technorth family learning centre. The venue chosen was Space at Little London Primary School due to the accessibility for tenants.
The course was over subscribed and a waiting list was set up. Eleven tenants, from the original 19, successfully completed the course. The tenants have improved their language skills, are now able to socialise and make new friends and happy to meet staff from WNWhL.
Cooking around the world
Cooking around the world was another 5 week project in partnership with Healthy Living Network .
Tenants and children participated in the course. The first session was to encourage healthy eating and learn about a balanced diet. Using this information, different dishes were cooked each week from the home countries which were Iraq, Gambia, Tanzania and Russia. The group shared the food which helped to create new friendships. Individuals gained new skills and increased self confidence and self esteem.
Attendees of both courses were invited to a certificate presentation at Space at Little London on Friday 15th May.
Claire Warren, Chief Executive of West North West Homes Leeds, congratulated everyone on their achievement and presented them with their certificates.
If you would like any further information please contact Rukhsana Mahmood ( Cohesion & Partnership Officer) Tel : 0113 247 7173