VIVACE builds on and develops the expertise and experience of the multi-award winning ALLEGRO project, also funded under Socrates LINGUA 1 and which ran from 2002-2005.  The focus of ALLEGRO (Access to Language Learning by Extending to Groups Outside) was to take language learning into the community and to target ‘hard-to-reach’ individuals and groups with no, or only minimal, prior experience of language learning.  Collectively, the six ALLEGRO partners amassed a wealth of experience in terms of identifying disadvantaged target groups, of working with social care providers and voluntary bodies to reach those groups, of preparing tutors and trainers for a classroom role in often challenging and always different situations and, not least, in assessing the value to the learners themselves of the experience. 

In language learning terms ALLEGRO broke new ground and all parties involved learned a great deal from their participation.  Over the lifetime of the project, ALLEGRO was able to show that it was possible for even the most disadvantaged, marginalised and often poorly educated members of our society to derive real gain and positive benefit from their language learning experience.  The social care providers the ALLEGRO partners worked with were unanimous in recognising the beneficial impact of the opportunity for their clients. The tutors and trainers involved in delivering the language learning consistently emphasised that the project had made a real difference to their own professional practice.