EmpowerESOL: supporting local Latin American parents
Despite an estimated 12,000+ young Latin Americans aged 15-24 living in London, only 41 home Latinx students enrolled to King’s in the 2022-23 academic year.
Parents play a crucial role in their children’s decisions, but research has highlighted that limited English proficiency is the main barrier to these parents supporting their children's education. Language barriers can also create inequality in accessing things like healthcare, legal support and housing.
EmpowerESOL will investigate the positive impact of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) classes on helping Latin American parents navigate local systems that affect them, whether that’s gaining a deeper understanding of their housing rights or improving their children’s access to educational opportunities.
By improving proficiency and confidence in speaking English, parents will gain increased understanding of the UK educational system, higher education, housing, legal rights, healthcare and employability. The project aim is also to ultimately increase the representation of Latinx students at King’s through the programme.
"Receiving this funding to launch the EmpowerESOL project feels like a huge win for the Latinx community in South London and recognition of the challenges they face. This project is set to make a positive difference for Latin American families by providing them with essential English language skills and knowledge about higher education, housing, legal rights, healthcare and employability." - Isabel Fernandez-Moreno, King's Social Mobility & Widening Participation
Partners and Collaborators
A network of multidisciplinary partners from across and beyond King's are working together to maximise the impact of EmpowerESOL.
The project collaborators include:
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Dermot Bryers, ESOL teacher & co-founder of English for Action, Senior Community Organiser (Citizens UK)
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Kari Jaldin, Living Wage Organiser & Empoderando Familias Community Organiser (Citizens UK)
Find out more about the project partners:
- King's Social Mobility & Widening Participation
- King's Volunteering
- Empoderando Familias
- English for Action
- King's Department of Languages, Literatures & Cultures
- King's Language Centre
- School of Education, Communication & Society
- South London Citizens UK
- Student and staff volunteers at King's. Interested? Apply to be a volunteer here.
Impact
EmpowerESOL will:
- Investigate the positive impact of ESOL classes on helping Latin American parents navigate the education system more effectively, including improving their children’s access to educational opportunities.
- Evaluate if classes enable parents to feel closer to their children, communicate with their schools, and provide necessary support in their studies.
- Help parents to improve their English to undertake further study and find better-paid employment – including increasing Latinx community employment across King’s.
- Contribute to research on Social Mobility & Widening Participation, ESOL for migrant communities, second language acquisition and the Latin American community in the UK.
- Produce a report of the project that will serve as a model for other Higher Education institutions to adopt or learn from.
This project is supported by the One King’s Impact Fund.
The One King's Impact Fund is part of One King’s Impact, King’s strategic programme to support and accelerate work within and beyond the University which creates positive change for people, planet and society.
EmpowerESOL responds to the following Impact Priorities:
Advancing equality and social mobility | Whole life health for mind and body | Peace and justice in a turbulent world
Principal Investigators
Head of Social Mobility & Education
Social Mobility Community Organiser
Volunteering Partnerships Manager
Investigators
Senior Lecturer in ESOL and Applied Linguistics
Professor of Latin American Cultural Studies
Affiliations
Funding
Funding Body: One King’s Impact Fund
Amount: £41,886.00
Period: August 2024 - August 2025