Members of the Cross-Language Dynamics team based at the Institute of Modern Languages Research are working in partnership with the Latin American Women’s Rights Service (LAWRS), and in collaboration with Southwark Council, to develop a project for Latin American young women and girls (aged 14 to 21 years old) in Southwark. The project aims to explore and encourage civic engagement and leadership, and to promote positive appreciations of the participants’ own multilingual identities and capabilities.
The programme of activities involves a series of creative and discussion-based workshops exploring the links between gender and cultural identity, language, and leadership. The project will also promote opportunities for civic engagement and encourage the participants to be involved in local advocacy work, for example by meeting local leaders and engaging with the Southwark Youth Council.
Following Sin Fronteras’ traditional model (LAWRS’ Youth Creative Group), participants will develop their reflections on language, identity and leadership into a series of creative outputs (photography, drawing, creative writing, mixed media, etc). The project will include a final event to showcase the participants’ work and priorities as a collective.
The sessions will be facilitated by Tamya Bustamante from LAWRS, and María Soledad Montañez and Naomi Wells from the Cross-Language Dynamics project.