Welcome to the UK is an organisation dedicated to supporting people who are new to Southend. Their mission is to foster inclusivity and empowerment by offering free ESOL classes, Friendship Groups, valuable advice, and information. By bridging language and cultural gaps, they aim to ensure that newcomers, who might otherwise feel excluded, can seamlessly integrate into the vibrant fabric of the city. Welcome to the UK is committed to building a stronger, more united community where all individuals have the opportunity to thrive, making Southend an even more welcoming place for everyone.

The Community Investment Board recently invested funding from Active Southend into a project with Welcome to the UK. The investment supported families to try bouldering at Indirock, which encouraged friendships and confidence and gave children the opportunity to be active with their parents! Normally, the families they work with would not have access to this opportunity, either because they would not have been aware of the facility, or they may not have felt confident to attend on their own, or because of financial challenges. They were able to give 26 people the opportunity to try bouldering over several sessions.

The families that attended had lots of fun! Some of the comments made were:

“Thank you so much; my children had so much fun during this activity!”

“This was so much fun! I loved it, and so did my daughter. We will definitely come back again to do more climbing”

To find out more about Welcome to the UK, please visit – www.welcome2theuk.com