The City of London Corporation’s charity, City Bridge Trust, has awarded £70,300 to the Latin American Disabled People’s Project (LADPP) to support its advice service targeted at people from the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking communities. It is estimated that there are now up to 400,000 people from Latin America living in London.

The charity, which is based in Southwark, works with around 5,000 clients each year and offers them advice on financial management, and employment and skills training, including IT courses.

LADPP will use the City Bridge Trust grant to fund a Community Skills for Work and Welfare officer. The officer will manage a group of volunteers, delivering English language training in a bid to promote further integration, help its clients secure employment, and understand the support they may be entitled to.

LADPP plans to host 2,000 one-to-one advice meetings to help users tackle their immediate financial problems and debt. It also plans to host 1,200 employment skills meetings which will include C.V. workshops and interview practice.

In the past 20 years, the City Bridge Trust has awarded grants totalling a third of a billion pounds to charitable organisations tackling disadvantage in London.

For more information visit http://www.ladpp.org.uk/

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Notes to editors:

Media enquiries: Susanna Lascelles, Media Officer, City of London Corporation

T 020 7332 1754

E susanna.lascelles@cityoflondon.gov.uk

About the City of London CorporationThe City of London Corporation has three roles: we support London’s communities by working in partnership with neighbouring boroughs on economic regeneration and skills projects. The Corporation supports education - with three independent schools and three City Academies – plus a primary school and the world-renowned Guildhall School of Music and Drama. We also help look after key London heritage and green spaces including Tower Bridge, Museum of London, Barbican Arts Centre, City gardens, Hampstead Heath, Epping Forest, Burnham Beeches, and important ‘commons’ in south London. And – with its heart in London’s Square Mile - we also support and promote the ‘City’ as a world-leading financial and business hub, with outward and inward business delegations, high-profile civic events, research-driven policies and a long-term approach. See www.cityoflondon.gov.uk for much more on our uniquely diverse role, including the City of London Police, etc.

The City Bridge Trust (CBT), London’s largest independent grant-maker has increased its annual giving to c£20 million in each of the next three years (up from c£15 million pa previously). More information can be found at www.citybridgetrust.org.uk.