From Language Skills to Long-Term Success: The Unexpected Transformation of Our Community English Classes

In May 2023, we launched a project alongside Making It Happen, a programme funded by East Sussex County Council. Our mission was to offer English language classes to residents from ethnically diverse backgrounds in Uckfield and Peacehaven.

Our initial goals were clear: focus on skill improvement, understanding the local neighbourhood and its institutions, creating a safe environment for community building (providing time for community members to build relationships in a learning space) and supporting participants in building confidence in their newly acquired skills.?

As the project unfolded, we witnessed the success of the classes beyond our initial expectations. Witnessing the learners' progress ignited a broader vision: these language skills weren't just temporary improvements; they were laying the foundation for achieving long-term goals. Today, we want to share our experience in the hopes of inspiring others to always think beyond immediate outcomes.

About the Project

Diversity Resource International (DRI) established welcoming and relaxed environments where community members could openly express their needs, which we addressed through our English sessions. We tailored these sessions by planning special activities, organising outings, and inviting guest speakers to support the specific goals of each group.

For instance, in Uckfield, our group consisted mainly of older participants who were eager to learn English for everyday use, allowing them to socialise more confidently outside their immediate family circle. Meanwhile, in Peacehaven, younger members were keen to reintegrate into the workforce and gain insights into the UK’s work culture.

We were fortunate to reconnect with community members who had previously participated in some of our other activities. Some had been part of our Support Group for Carers in Uckfield, a collaborative project with Care for the Carers. Others had engaged with the Hong Kong Welcome Programme, which we ran from 2022 to 2023 with support from the Department for Leveling Up, Housing and Communities.

For six months, we conducted a total of 50 sessions across these two locations, with an average weekly attendance of 18 individuals.

Taking Success to the Next Level: Setting Long-Term Goals

Language serves as the initial gateway for individuals seeking to integrate into the UK community, whether they aspire to socialise like the Uckfield group or to re-establish careers and settle down like the Peacehaven group.

As learners in our English classes gained confidence and access to resources, they began to envision bigger goals for themselves. The instructors, bilingual advocates, and members of the DRI team who supported them were able to witness their energy and provide guidance to help them pursue their aspirations more effectively.

Some of the long-term goals we were able to establish with the group participants were:

Uckfield:

• Reduce isolation by providing an opportunity to meet other people from their local communities, who also share similar experiences and goals to them.
• Use English to articulate their rich experiences, feel more confident accessing the different UK systems and express themselves comfortably in another language.

Peacehaven:

• Build a community of individuals who thrive in a new locality.
• Use English as a way of self-enablement to reestablish their professional journeys in East Sussex by finding equivalent work to the one they had in their home country.?
• Acquire the confidence to aim for technical jobs and more customer-facing roles.

The ability to gain confidence in oneself and truly believe you can thrive in a new society is a powerful source of motivation to learn the relevant skills to reach these goals. By setting long-term goals and feeling supported by their instructors and the bilingual advocates they engaged with, participants were able to acquire language skills that were relevant to them.

Scaling the Results

The journey of our learners continued to surprise us. A few months into the project, the Uckfield group embarked on an interesting learning activity: writing food recipes from their home countries in English.

This idea sparked naturally as several participants had culinary expertise. Two were chefs at local restaurants, while others had years of experience in the catering industry. It was a topic that resonated deeply with the group.

Beyond language skills, this activity became a platform for cultural exchange. Participants could express their culinary knowledge in English, sharing a taste of their homelands with the class.

Aabha, one of DRI’s project coordinators, explained how she discovered that this topic was also relevant to our second group of learners:

“I saw some photos from that class, and then when I went to visit the class in Peacehaven the next week I found out that they were talking about food and trying to describe their food in English. I saw a link there, and I thought that maybe we should try to put this all together”.

And so it happened. Aabha discussed the idea with representatives from Making it Happen, DRI and the English instructors, and they all agreed that this progress and ideas deserved to be documented and shared with the wider community.

The Recipe Book Takes Shape

This is how the idea of creating a recipe book came together. The learners met to prepare the recipes they had written. They cooked collaboratively, captured their dishes in photographs, and even designed and edited the book themselves!

Wave, a learner with professional experience in photography and graphic design, played a key role in creating a visually stunning and informative book

The book was launched in March 2024 with great happiness, pride and excitement. 19 recipes were included from 12 different regions.?

We spoke to several participants who attended the launch event, and they shared their perspectives on this journey:

“Initially we started the English class in June 2023, and then in the middle of the course we started some practice writing about dishes from our home country [...] We united with other learners from Uckfield, our teacher would cross-read the information, and also Wave, who is very good at cooking, did a very good editorial job. He helped us edit the photos, the information, everything, to make it perfect”.

“It’s a good idea to join different nations and different kinds of meals to come up with a recipe book like this”.

The launch was at the Hillcrest Community Centre in Newhaven, in which learners will now be offering their delicious dishes to visitors every Friday from 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm, with vegetarian and meat options.

“Most of our classmates come from different countries, for example Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, so we think maybe we can exchange our ideas. This is a very good opportunity for us to work together [...] so that more people get to know our culture [...] It is a very good way to integrate us all in the community”.?

You can follow their project, Café2Gather, on Instagram by accessing this link.?

Final Words

When we initiated this project, we had high expectations for its success. However, we didn't anticipate that its success would increase exponentially, thanks to the eagerness of the learners to improve, integrate, and contribute their knowledge, skills, and unique personalities to the learning process.

The commitment of the instructors was also a crucial factor. Latest TV, the local TV station for Brighton, Hove and Worthing, interviewed Ling Young, instructor for the Uckfield class, about the experience with these classes:

“I really believe teaching is also a learning process for myself [...] I put myself in the position of learning with them, I enjoy the whole process as well”.?

For us, one of the biggest lessons from this experience is to always think bigger, to not underestimate the skills of those around us, and to find ways we can collaborate and find value in each other.

We invite you to explore the full project report on our website, accessible here.

To learn more about our bespoke English classes model, please stay tuned—we will be publishing another blog very soon!