Latin Hub UK, is a project coordinated by IARS aimed at supporting the Latin American community and preserving our cultural heritage. We are also proud members of SLAN, a multi-sector forum of service providers, community organisations, voluntary groups and activists working in the London Borough of Southwark and supporting the Latin American community. 

SLAN aims to articulate a common understanding of issues, needs, goals and solutions, increasing more effective and equal collaborative working, reducing gaps and duplication in programs and improving services for the Latin American community at a local level.

On the 14 of September we presented our project and concerns at the Southwark Latin American Community Conference, a collaborative and collective effort that aimed to present research on community engagement in Southwark with the Latin American community, introduce SLAN, discuss forms of collaboration across sectors, present a set of asks – by the community organisations. 

LatinHubUK presented in the panel ‘ Education and Culture, Employment and Welfare Rights’. Despite having good educational backgrounds and high levels of employment, Latin Americans in London are usually employed in low-paid and low-skilled jobs (such as cleaning and hospitality services) with weak labour protection and few opportunities for training and further education.

Source: Maria Soledad Montanez

This event was organised by SLAN in partnership with Community Southwark, with the support of the Institute of Modern Languages Research, University of London.  A big thank you to Maria Soledad Montanez  for her patience and dedication to make this conference a success, by making sure that the community requests get properly registered and a follow up process is put in place so that the event has a real impact on our community.