Babels Blessing CIC

Babels Blessing CIC is a grassroots language school that offers free English language tuition to people seeking asylum and migrants to the UK, supporting itself financially by charging for courses in foreign languages (Latin American Spanish, Yiddish, Arabic, Bengali) and some Jewish cultural courses. Our service users are divided into two categories: one category is people currently seeking asylum in the UK, who learn about public services and other facilities in their local community as well as improving their English, while they await a decision on their asylum claim. The other type of learner is also a migrant to the UK, but not necessarily seeking asylum, who is referred to us by our partner Praxis Community Projects. Our aim is not only to improve the English language level of our service users, but also to improve their integration into the community. Our service users have reported an improvement in their mental health (by participating in an online community in their English classes), a greater understanding of their local area and its services, as well as a greater grasp of the English language.