Situation:
To conclude The Arbour Youth Centre's Practical English Course for Women, TheWholeStory were asked to provide three 3-hour storytelling classes. The Arbour's course aim is to increase participation and integration of young newly married BME women who have moved to the UK in the past year to join their husbands. The project focuses on improving English language and life skills. The workshops would complement the work the students had done in the year while introducing them to a creative way of working and boosting their confidence to speak and express themselves.

Solution:
With TheWholeStory, students created oral and written stories, using the senses as a focus, about their lives before and after arriving in the UK. The exercises were designed to build vocabulary, identify different uses of tenses and to encourage students to form and speak complicated sentences.

Results:
The students showcased their achievements by including their stories as part of their graduation ceremony, performing them to an audience of friends, family, the press and local councillors. The performance created an extra challenge and risk for the students, which they all faced and met head on, increasing their sense of engagement and success. The fun and attentive classes boosted the women's confidence and ability to speak a new language and provided a way to express themselves and their experience of two different cultures and countries.