Literacy training takes place at our education & training cente in Shoreditch. There are four terms per year. Students are referred to the centre from a wide range of sources and start with an individual assessment. Students are monitored at the end of each term by the tutor and centre manager to ensure that progress is being made and that they are finding the training relevant, appropriate and useful.

The London boroughs of Hackney and Tower Hamlets have high levels of deprivation, alcohol & drug abuse, homelessness, low educational attainment, long-term unemployment and socila isolation. Our students are on the road to rehabilitation and are striving to gain confidence and self-esteem. Part of this involves inmproving their levels of literacy to enable them to function more effectively and to move on in their lives.

Usually 10 students per term. Some are very specific why they want to improve their reading and writing,e.g. a man in his 50s had just been admitted to our residential rehabilitation hostel. For the first time in decades he was abstinent from alcohol for two months. He wished to write to his daughter in Australia, but was not confident with his writing. He started 1-to-1 literacy training and soon began to develop confidence and did the course for a year, until he felt he could write to her.