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How ELATT's Equal Voices Programme is Changing Lives: Year 3 Impact Report (2025–2026)

From Learners to Leaders: A Year of Real Change in London

What does it look like when adult learners stop simply receiving support and start shaping the world around them? The answer is in the Equal Voices Year 3 Progress Report.

Between March 2025 and February 2026, ELATT’s Equal Voices programme supported migrants and refugees across East and West London to develop their English language skills, build confidence, and become active, connected members of their communities.

Building on two years of delivery, partnerships and learner-led listening campaigns, Year 3 saw a marked shift towards greater learner agency. Learners didn’t just attend classes; they organised housing workshops, challenged local councils, pitched community projects, and campaigned nationally for better access to ESOL provision. Their stories are extraordinary, and the data backs them up.

What is the Equal Voices Programme?

Equal Voices is an ESOL and community leadership project delivered by ELATT across multiple London boroughs, including Tower Hamlets, Hackney, Waltham Forest and West London. Funded by the National Lottery Community Fund, it supports migrants and refugees to develop their English language skills while becoming active, confident members of their communities.

What makes Equal Voices different is its community organising model. Learners don’t just attend English classes; they use their growing language skills to take real action on issues that affect their lives, from housing rights and women’s health to access to ESOL funding. Over time, many move from participants to leaders, shaping campaigns, facilitating workshops and speaking publicly on behalf of their communities.

The programme brings together free English classes with wellbeing support, employability guidance and hands-on community organising, creating a genuinely holistic experience. For many learners, ELATT is the first place they have felt truly seen and supported.

Building on two successful years of delivery, Year 3 saw learners take this further than ever before. Read about our Year 2 highlights to see how far the programme has come.

Year 3 by the Numbers

The results from Year 3 are striking. Across every outcome area measured, learners made clear, measurable progress:

  • 216 learners reported increased confidence living in the UK (against a target of 200).
  • 197 learners reported increased confidence using English in daily life.
  • 198 learners moved into paid work, further learning or volunteering.
  • 158 participants took part in at least one learner-led community campaign.
  • The Wellbeing Service delivered 35 workshops attended by 203 participants.

Feelings of safety at ELATT saw the largest improvement of all areas measured, rising by 38% from start to end of programme. Core learning skills improved by 25%. Confidence in English rose by 16%, starting from a very low baseline.

These numbers represent real people making real change in their lives.

Stories That Show What's Possible

Mrs N: From Home-Making to a Volunteering Role with Age UK

When Mrs N first joined Equal Voices, she felt her options were limited to childcare and home-making. She had no UK work experience and hadn’t completed her degree in her home country. She couldn’t see a path forward.

Through weekly employability workshops and one-to-one guidance, ELATT helped her identify the strengths she already had: strong social skills developed while living in Dubai, resilience, problem-solving ability, and a solid grounding in maths and literacy. She attended the ELATT Job Fair at the Museum of the Home, rewrote her CV, and began preparing for job applications.

Today, Mrs N volunteers as a befriender for Age UK in East London. She now talks about her career prospects with excitement and confidence. She is planning to apply for paid roles with the charity when they become available. It is a genuinely transformative shift in both her self-belief and her future.

Mariam: Rediscovering Capability Through Community Action

Mariam arrived at ELATT after four years in the UK, feeling isolated and unable to access the support she needed. As a qualified accountant from Palestine who had lost 11 family members in the recent conflict, she was carrying enormous weight. Previous providers couldn’t accommodate her childcare needs, so she had missed out on ESOL and employability support that could have helped her move forward.

ELATT’s ESOL class at Around Poplar Children’s Centre, which has a crèche, changed everything. With encouragement from her tutor and classmates, Mariam became one of her group’s most active leaders. She coordinated formal emails, arranged meetings, and helped her class develop and pitch a community wellbeing project in front of 80 people at a public voting event.

She didn’t win the funding bid, but she won something more lasting: her confidence and sense of wellbeing improved dramatically as she rediscovered her natural capability through organising, built a strong community network, and found a real sense of agency in her new environment.

Learners as Community Organisers: The Equal Voices Model in Action

Housing, Health and Holding Councils to Account

In Year 3, learners across Tower Hamlets organised a three-hour Housing Issues Workshop at the London Muslim Centre, bringing together 38 students from eight different classes. They used participatory tools to explore their lived experience of overcrowding, no-fault evictions and rising rents, and left with concrete campaigns and a community listening survey in development.

One group of learners challenged local policy head-on. After noticing that period products weren’t freely available in Family Hub bathrooms, they met with the Family Hub Manager, drafted a petition, collected over 50 signatures at a summer fair, and submitted it formally to Tower Hamlets Council.

Another class visited the Vagina Museum in Bethnal Green and went on to host a women’s health stall at the Family Hubs Summer Fair, engaging over 300 visitors and raising £60 for a global relief campaign. These are ESOL learners using their English skills to advocate for their communities in real, meaningful ways.

Campaigning Nationally for Access to ESOL

Equal Voices learners played a direct role in shaping Citizens UK’s new national Common Language campaign, which launched in September 2025. Over 40 ELATT learners attended the campaign launch, contributed to its priorities and asks, and took on leadership roles, including giving testimony at the online launch event and developing accessible resources for ESOL students across the country.

This is what learner voice looks like in practice: genuine influence on national policy conversations.

Woman in park holding sign that reads: "Keir Starmer, how many languages do you speak?".
Crowd of people in park facing camera holding signs, foremost sign reads "Migrants need ESOL classes".

A Whole-Person Approach That Works

What makes Equal Voices distinctive is its commitment to meeting learners where they are, not just in the classroom, but in every part of their lives. Alongside English classes, learners accessed:

  • Wellbeing workshops and one-to-one support.
  • Financial and welfare advice, including help during acute hardship.
  • Employability guidance, CV support and interview preparation.
  • Housing advice and connections to local services.
  • Cultural visits, conversation clubs and community events.

This integrated approach means learners don’t have to choose between studying and managing the challenges of daily life. ELATT helps them do both.

Ready to Learn, Partner or Fund?

Equal Voices is just one example of the transformative work happening across ELATT every day. For over 40 years, we have been opening pathways for Londoners facing barriers to move into work, further education and active community life.

Whether you are looking to learn, partner or fund, we would love to hear from you. Browse our free ESOL courses, learn more about ELATT’s projects, or get in touch with our team to explore how we can work together.

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New courses coming to ELATT this September! We're working on new courses in Hospitality & Customer Service, Early Years, and Health & Social Care — and we'd love to hear from you. Register your interest now and be the first to hear when places open.

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