Faith Regen Foundation: Work Focused ESOL Project
The Faith Regen Foundation is a Musliminspired, multi-faith national charity which works in the employment sector to secure sustainable jobs for the most disadvantaged individuals, including ethnic minorities and women. It has a strong track record of achieving targets and outcomes to ensure positive change.
The organisation’s ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) project is based in Tower Hamlets, one of the UK’s poorest boroughs, which has a large South Asian population. Many of its members have gone through their lives without speaking English. The project’s aim is to break down social barriers, isolation and poverty. It has improved social mobility, enhanced social cohesion and helped people to lead fully assimilated lives. One of its most striking achievements is in the numbers of Bengali women – an often overlooked section of society – who attend courses.
Originally the project’s target was to engage 56 people, but it has already reached double this number. Staff also work hard with local businesses to gain work experience places and routes into full-time work for learners. Approximately 90 individuals have gone on to get jobs, 66 of whom secured long-term employment.