What people say about us….

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We regularly ask our learners for their views on the sessions we run. This enables us to explore how engaged our learners are, and to collect data we can use to improve the way we work.

“The way they do things here is good. I enjoy everything, the English class and the gardening. I have strongly improved my English” Helen

“I appreciate the way you are encouraging us to learn more to prepare for our future.” Sara

“I like best speak street art talks sessions because it important because its a distraction from our problems” Amir

We’ve recently been told: “I have gained a very different impression of the area, before I only knew the main road but since starting the sessions I’ve seen all the beautiful shops and lovely places to sit down together” David about our sessions at the Skip Garden

“ One of the students told me they didn’t think art galleries wanted people like them to visit, I was so pleased to see the student discover they were indeed welcome”

Speak Street volunteer

“As a volunteer I’ve enjoyed seeing the reaction of the student’s faces when they were truly fascinated and engaged by a piece of art. I like seeing students’ engagement and reaction to pictures and objects that I normally wouldn’t give much attention to, for example and a picture of palm tree in the Photographers’ Gallery. It is extremely easy to volunteer on this project and not a large commitment in terms of time. I think compared to last year, Speak Street has really stepped up its game in terms of the exhibits and galleries that it takes it students to so in this respect, keep up the good work! There has also been an improvement in having a space to discuss the pieces that the students have seen, if this could be maintained that would be great. It is very important that Mishcon supports Speak Street because it is such a niche initiative and it also allows people from all walks of life to meet.”

Michaela, Mishcon de Reya volunteer

Speak Street at C4WS

C4WS runs a winter night shelter in Camden providing emergency accommodation to those with nowhere else to go and then supports them to move on into housing. In a shelter season the guests referred to us come typically come from more than 25 different countries. For many of them, English is not their first language and their ability to speak and understand English provides a significant barrier to both their housing and wellbeing.

Consequently, provision of English Classes is a vital support for these guests and we were delighted to team up with Speak Street this winter to facilitate this. Every Wednesday afternoon the Speak Street teachers would come to our office and run fun, informative and tailor-made sessions to help our guests improve their English. Over the course of the five months we were able to notice the significant improvements not just in guests’ ability to communicate, but their confidence to hold conversations and manage their paperwork and the emergence of a growing bond amongst each other as they also developed friendships and built a community.

The Speak Street teachers were friendly, warm and instantly helped put guests at their ease. The classes were focused on things that mattered to our guests e.g. health, employment, homelife. This created real engagement, but also helped our guests prepare for the work we would do with them to help them gain jobs and housing, ensuring a real synchronicity of support.

Each week guests would tell us how much they were looking forward to their next session and we would often find them at the shelter with heads in dictionaries or using apps on their phones because they were eager to build on what they had learnt and prepare for the next week. Having worked at C4WS for eight years I also saw the rare phenomenon of guests arriving for appointments not just on time, but early, as they were anxious not to miss a moment of the classes!

Being homeless brings with it additional complexities and worries for our guests and the care the Speak Street team took to create a learning environment that catered for this was incredible. Not only were they able to deliver for all abilities but the structure of the sessions was fitted around the rolling nature of referrals to our project which meant that each week there would be new people arriving who could easily sit alongside those who were regular attendees. In fact, this is probably the biggest testament to the sessions as guests who left the shelter and moved into their new houses were keen to continue attending the classes and we saw many people participating months after they had left us.

We cannot thank Speak Street enough for running these classes. This went beyond helping people learn English. It contributed significantly to them being able to leave homelessness, start to rebuild their lives and forge new, independent and exciting futures for themselves.

Sam at C4WS

What people say about us….

We regularly ask our learners for their views on the sessions we run. This enables us to explore how engaged our learners are, and to collect data we can use to improve the way we work.

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