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.

ENDS

For more information, please contact:

Julie Zhu, Media Officer, City of London Corporation

Tel: 020 7332 3451 / Mobile: 07012 041 124 / Email julie.zhu@cityoflondon.gov.uk

You can contact The Renewal Trust at www.therenewaltrust.co.uk

About the City of London Corporation:

The City of London Corporation is a uniquely diverse organisation. It supports and promotes the City as a world leader in international finance and business services and provides local services and policing for those working in, living in and visiting the Square Mile. It also provides valued services to London and the nation. These include the Barbican Centre, Barbican Music Library, Guildhall School of Music & Drama, Guildhall Library, Guildhall Art Gallery and Roman Amphitheatre, London Metropolitan Archives, a range of education provision (including three City Academies); five Thames bridges (including Tower Bridge and Millennium Bridge), Central Criminal Court at Old Bailey, over 10,000 acres of open spaces (including Hampstead Heath and Epping Forest), and three wholesale food markets. The City of London Corporation is London’s Port Health Authority and also runs the Animal Reception Centre at Heathrow. For more details, visit www.cityoflondon.gov.uk