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.