Members of our Refugee Working Group at last year’s Annual Event with Antonella Sorace
At the Edinburgh branch of Bilingualism Matters, we are lucky enough to have a large group of enthusiastic volunteers to help us. Many of them are post-graduate language students keen to see the messages from their research reach appropriate audiences, such as families, teachers and speech therapists. We also have academics, professionals and members of the public who all have an interest in seeing the science of bilingualism research being available in the community.
Members of the group help out at our public events, write posts for our website, help with our social media and also get involved in project work in smaller groups. Here is what some of the groups are up to this year.
- The Multilingual Stories Group is planning to collect amusing stories about what it means to be bilingual in modern society and connect with an artist or comedian to create video stories that can be shared online.
- The Multilingual Libraries Group wants to investigate how Bilingualism Matters can assist with libraries in the community. They are currently gathering information on what is available in libraries in the Edinburgh area.
- The Schools Partnerships Group is investigating how Bilingualism Matters can make stronger relationships with schools in Scotland and assist with their valuable work with bilingual pupils and language teaching.
- The Refugee Group is continuing with its work from last year compiling a language directory for refugees in the Edinburgh area. They are planning another event at the Scottish Refugee Festival this year, details coming soon.
If you are interested in volunteering with us, you can find full details here (pdf): Edinburgh Branch Volunteer Information. There is an application process and although we cannot guarantee that we will have spaces available, we do try to include all those interested in some capacity.
