Cultural Connections: How migration made Southampton

What is Cultural Connections?

Cultural Connections, part of the wider Mayflower 400 project, is an exciting partnership between Southampton City Council Cultural Services, Southampton City Council Adult Learning and the CLEAR Project which aims to offer rich cultural opportunities as well as English as a Second or Other language (ESOL) teaching to members of Southampton’s diverse migrant communities. These activities will be done in a fun, relevant and accessible way that aims to make a lasting impact on participants and those around them.

Participants in the project will have the opportunity to improve their understanding of, and confidence in, reading, writing and spoken English while at the same time gaining local knowledge that will allow them to access more of Southampton’s culture and heritage.

Who is it for?

This project is for adults in Southampton from immigrant and migrant communities who can’t normally access Southampton’s heritage, find it difficult to connect to the city or whose level of written or spoken English excludes them from easily accessing Southampton’s cultural offer.

What will happen in the sessions?

All of the activities will make use of the city’s extensive history, museum collections, heritage venues and learning teams, and participants will be able to take part in a wide-ranging programme of activities including English language workshops, interactive sessions and museum visits.

The focus of activities will be to explore common cultural connections and shared experiences that can be found between 21st century migrant communities and people throughout Southampton’s past and present (for example the Windrush Generation and Southampton’s role as a sanctuary town welcoming refugees and migrants from across the world).

Is it all face-to-face sessions?

In addition to physical workshops, there’ll also be lots of fantastic FREE downloadable activity sheets, trails and packs that will help explore the town’s amazing history and improve English language skills. These will also be available to pickup in Southampton’s Cultural Services venues for free too.

Resources

These resources have been designed in collaboration with The CLEAR Project, a local initiative supporting asylum seekers and refugees in Southampton. For more information about their work please visit their website