Latin American House

Who we are

Latin American House aims to contribute to the integration, social inclusion, and well-being of Latin American and other Spanish and Portuguese-speaking migrants in London, as well as other communities in our diverse local neighbourhood.

We strive to improve the lives of Latin Americans living in the UK, particularly those who are disadvantaged or vulnerable, by providing a safe and welcoming space in our Community Centre. We also work to enhance the visibility, recognition, and appreciation of Latin Americans as a thriving ethnic minority in the UK. We deliver our mission through our immigration and welfare advice service, our children and young people's project activities, and our community and cultural programme.

Illustration by @drawnbytoya

Our culture and values

The charity directly addresses the challenges faced by disadvantaged migrants in the UK—such as isolation, exclusion, language barriers, and difficulties accessing services and immigration advice. To tackle these issues, we focus our efforts on four key pillars:

1. Advice Services: We support individuals and families in navigating life in the UK by providing free, confidential, and culturally sensitive guidance.

We assist with a range of issues, including:

Immigration

Welfare benefits

Access to public services

2. Children and Young People Projects: Our aim is to strengthen bilingual skills, boost confidence, and promote inclusive mindsets from a young age by bringing children and young people from different cultural backgrounds together. At the same time, we contribute to fostering the connection of children and young people from Latin American heritage with their family roots.

We offer Spanish Saturday School for children aged 4 to 11, combining language learning with engaging activities such as art & craft, music, storytelling, and cultural celebrations. We also offer after-school supplementary courses, homework clubs, and half-term camps.

3. Community and Cultural Projects: We celebrate the richness and diversity of Latin American heritage while creating spaces for connection, visibility, creativity, and collective joy.

Through a wide range of cultural events, such as performances, movie nights, and other cultural activities, we aim at bringing people from different backgrounds together to appreciate Latin American culute and connect with others.

In our "Thursday in Community" space, we aim to contribute to building meaningful connections among members of the Latin American community and neighbors in our local area through sharing a safe, relaxed, creative, and inclusive space.

We also work to offer lifelong skill-learning relevant to real-world activities. This includes ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) classes, and workshops focused on employability, well-being, and immigration matters.

Equality, diversity and inclusion policy

This policy sets out how Latin American House (LAH) approaches the principles of equality and diversity in employment and service delivery in accordance with the Equality Act 2010. LAH is committed to promoting diversity and promoting a culture that actively values difference and recognises that people from different backgrounds and experiences can bring valuable insights to the workplace and enhance the way we work.

LAH recognises, respects, and values diversity. This policy applies to all Trustees, staff, volunteers, management committee members, users and the general public.

LAH has this policy because it is a people-led organisation that must always ensure it meets the needs of the community through fair and appropriate employment and development of the people who work and volunteer for the organisation.  

LAH believes that all persons should have equal rights to recognition of their human dignity, and to have equal opportunities to be educated, to work, receive services and to participate in society. It is in the best interest of this organisation to recruit and develop the best people for our jobs from as wide and diverse a pool of talent as possible. 

LAH recognises that many people in our society experience discrimination. Discrimination is acting unfairly against a group or individual through exclusion, verbal comment, denigration, harassment, victimisation, a failure to appreciate needs or the assumption of such needs without consultation.

LAH is committed to the promotion of equal opportunities within the organisation, and affiliated organisations, through the way we manage the organisation and provide services to the community. In order to express this commitment, we develop, promote and maintain policies that will be conducive to the principles of fairness and equality in the workplace.

All forms of discrimination are unacceptable, regardless of whether there was any intention to discriminate or not. Employees, Board trustees and volunteers have a duty to cooperate with LAH to ensure that this policy is effective in ensuring equal opportunities and in preventing discrimination.