The Linguist is a languages magazine for professional linguists, translators, interpreters, language professionals, language teachers, trainers, students and academics with articles on translation, interpreting, business, government, technology
Issue link: https://thelinguist.uberflip.com/i/1077738
FEBRUARY/MARCH The Linguist 7 @Linguist_CIOL FEATURES Thebig idea of the learning process. The women rehearse for daily life by role-playing familiar scenes, such as at the doctor's, and imagining how things might have gone differently. Speaking in front of a group gives them confidence. Q How does the mentoring work? A Each mentor and mentee works together on defining a set of goals – from passing an exam to improving English-language skills. We give mentors 12 hours of training and ongoing support; they develop purposeful leadership and communication skills. Q What new skills have you learnt and who have you brought in to support your work? A We've learnt accounting skills, website development, social media, blog writing… The biggest one is the accounting and legal side: what legal structure to choose, who to set up a bank account with, how to give travel expenses in the most efficient way. Three regular volunteers help to deliver our theatre workshops; Leyla and I have a co-Founder, on growing a company that offers drama- to women refugees, with a focus on building confidence mentor through Allia Serious Impact; and we have a volunteer advisory board and faculty. Q How do participants come to Routes? A We have a number of referral organisations and people also self-refer. We work with women from all over London who speak languages including Arabic, French, Urdu and Yoruba. Our first mentors came through social media and word of mouth, but we are now approaching more companies directly. Q What other changes have you made? A We set up as a company limited by shares, which was the speediest way to get going, but that has made it harder to access funding, so we're looking at converting into a community interest company. Leyla and I work full-time but could only pay ourselves part-time at first. We initially thought the women would do the theatre and mentoring programmes at the same time, but they are living very precarious lives so that's not always practical. It's difficult to explain to our mentors that their mentees might have to take a month's break, or do the programme over a longer period of time, but they've been very understanding and patient. Q What does the future hold for Routes? A We are developing purposeful leadership training for companies who can't commit to our full mentoring programme. In April, we're holding a conference to explore how theatres can become spaces of welcome for refugees. We equip our mentors with the tools to articulate and understand the asylum process, and many of them want to talk about this publicly, as do a number of our mentees. So we are developing a campaigning arm in order to collaborate with similar organisations to try to make real change. See www.weareroutes.com for further details. Q How is Routes funded? A We are developing our business model to get to the point of sustainability: people pay to be mentors through their employers, which covers their training as well as transport and childcare costs for mentees. To run our theatre programmes, we rely on support from organisations and individuals, including Accenture and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. Q How did you develop the teaching method? A We did a lot of research into participatory Esol, met with creative Esol practitioners and drew on our own experiences. Every workshop has three things at its heart: joy, welcome and patience. This creates the perfect environment for people to feel safe to practise their English. Theatre is great for encouraging people to make mistakes and celebrate failure as part COMING TOGETHER Routes co-Founders Daisy Jacobs (l) and Leyla McLennan (main image); and (right top and bottom) Routes participants work with their mentors IMAGES © CHIARA MAC CALL