Are you interested in supporting families for whom English is an additional language?
Or, are you a fluent speaker of languages other than English?
Sian Ansell and Lynsey Weston work for A Better Start Southend as Early Years Specialist Teachers and Communication and Language Advisors. They support young children’s communication development and their parents, carers, and early years professionals to develop their knowledge and understanding of the key role they play in supporting children’s communication and language development.
They lead a project called ‘Talking Heads’ which aims to ensure that all families have access to key early years information and are aware of all the services that are available to them and their children before they start school.
Much of the information shared by Health partners, Southend City Council, and Voluntary groups is often in written form and often in English. As Southend becomes increasingly more diverse they are aware that there are families who have yet to access this information. Some are families for whom English is an additional language and aren’t yet fluent speakers or readers of English.
Their project aims to ensure that all can access such information via a series of short videos, where those key messages are translated into a range of other languages.
Lynsey and Sian hope that their project is one that you would like to support, and that you might become a volunteer to help them translate key messages.
If so, please contact Sian at sian.ansell@eyalliance.org.uk, or Lynsey at lynsey.weston@eyalliance.org.uk . They would be happy to have a chat if you would like to discuss the project or have any further questions.
They also invite you to join their next Steering group Meeting on Thursday 26th January from 1.30pm-to 2.30pm (on ZOOM). Please e-mail them for the link.
They look forward to hearing from you soon!