From October to November 2023, three staff members seconded from Japanese local authorities to CLAIR’s Tokyo Headquarters came to the UK to research projects on their chosen themes. Miho Kumamoto from Tokyo’s Arakawa City Ward carried out research on her project titled ‘New trends in Volunteering: From the Olympics to Coronavirus, During the Cost-of-Living Crisis’. Kana Asato from Chiba Prefecture researched ‘English Language Education for Migrant Workers in the UK’ and Shuhei Oshima from Nagoya City researched ‘LGBTQ policies in the UK’.
Their research included making appointments to speak with relevant experts and visits to various museums and volunteering programmes in cities including London, where Ms Kumamoto joined several volunteer groups including Borough Food Cooperative and the evening running volunteer group GoodGym, who run, walk, and cycle to help local community organisations and isolated older people by doing practical tasks, while Ms Asato and Mr Oshima visited organisations in Liverpool and Leeds.
To research her project about English language education for migrant workers in the UK, Ms Asato spoke to Jacqueline Broadhead, the Co-Director of Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS), a research institute at the University of Oxford. Ms Asato also visited an English class for recent migrants in the London Borough of Waltham Forest.
Ms Broadhead talked about the different types of English language education available in the UK. Official ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) classes are offered at colleges and informal classes are often run by charities. Both types of classes have their advantages. It was impressive to hear how English classes are being developed in ways that involve the local community, such as practising English conversation whilst playing sports or cooking. It was great to see the two systems which allow students to choose how they want to study English depending on their goals and objectives.
Ms Asato was also able to participate in English classes held by Waltham Forest. As well as in-person classes, Waltham Forest also offers online lessons to suit people’s schedules and needs. Classes are available to anyone, even people who don’t live in Waltham Forest. It was great to hear about efforts to offer support to a wide range of people, as in Japan, Japanese language classes often have requirements for participants, such as living in the city in which the classes are being held.
Shuhei Oshima’s research included a visit to Leeds City Council to speak to Cllr Hannah Bithell and Cllr Geoffrey Turnbull about their support of the local project The Angels of Freedom, a community-based initiative organised by volunteers and supported by Leeds City Council, British Transport Police and West Yorkshire Police.
The initiative aims to provide visible support for the LGBT+ community-based in the Freedom Quarter area of the city every Friday evening. Volunteers provide conversations on support & social groups, activities and events in Leeds, along with just being a friendly approachable face on the bar scene for anyone wanting a chat.
Discussions also revolved around the importance of LGBT representation in Leeds City Council with councillors serving on committee roles and how they worked with colleagues to ensure the local authority considered the LGBT community in policy making.
Thank you to colleagues in Leeds City Council and the staff at Waltham Forest for taking time out of their busy schedules to introduce their interesting initiatives.
Top photo: ‘derek dye’. Permission: (Reusing this file) Creative Commons Attribution Share-alike license 2.0
