Community development organisation The Renewal Trust has received a £59,300 grant towards English language classes for women in Newham aged 60 and over.

The funding, which will last for three years, was given by the City of London Corporation’s charity, City Bridge Trust.

The classes will help over 100 older women from refugee and migrant communities who have lived in the borough for years but have never learned English.

The project will provide a safe learning space for the women who could also be isolated at home, widowed, unfamiliar with formal classroom settings or struggling with literacy.

Around half the women are expected to be drawn from the local Bangladeshi community.

The Renewal Programme was set up in 1977 with a mission to work with displaced or marginalised people, primarily in Newham.

City Bridge Trust has awarded 210 grants totalling £8,500,000 to organisations based in Newham – and over £324million to groups across London in the last 20 years.

The Trust is the City of London’s Corporation charity and London’s biggest independent grant giver, making grants of £20 million a year to tackle disadvantage across the capital.

It helps achieve the Corporation’s aim of changing the lives of hundreds of thousands of Londoners.

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For media enquires please contact Susanna Lascelles, Media Officer at the City of London Corporation.

Tel- 020 7332 1754

Email- susanna.lascelles@cityoflondon.gov.uk

About the City of London CorporationThe City of London Corporation, headed by the Lord Mayor, provides local government and policing services for the financial and commercial heart of Britain, the 'Square Mile'. In addition, the City Corporation has three roles: (1) To 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 all reflecting a long-term approach. See www.cityoflondon.gov.uk for more details. (2) to support London’s communities by working in partnership with neighbouring boroughs on economic regeneration, education and skills projects. In addition, the City of London Corporation’s charity City Bridge Trust aims to address disadvantage across Greater London through quality grant-making and related activities. It makes grants of c £20million per year to charitable projects in London. The Corporation also supports education with three independent schools, three City Academies, a primary school and the world-renowned Guildhall School of Music and Drama. (3) To 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.