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A second year report on the WEA Learning for Community Involvement project showcasing successful community empowerment activities delivered across the country
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GETTING ACTIVEYear 2 Report on WEa Learning for Community Involvement Project
2/GETTING ACTIVE
Contents
Learner Voices 3
Introduction 4
Case Study 1 Capacity for Citizenship 5
Case Study 2 Voices for Health 6
Case Study 3 Health and Community Involvement 7
Case Study 4 Families Get Active Across Yorkshire 8
Case Study 5 How to Campaign 9
Case Study 6 Community Forum & Volunteer Event 10
Case Study 7 Me 2 (Get Active) 11
Other Projects 12
Next Steps and Acknowledgements 13-14
GETTING ACTIVE/3
Learner Voices
“I have the confidence andthe knowledge of how tocontact my local councillor,raise a community issueand follow it through tothe end”.
Learner Interpreting in Child Protection
“I am now more aware of what’shappening in my community and how I can get involved. I also feel empoweredto have my say and hopefully influencechange for the better.”
Learner Families Get Active Across Yorkshire
“I always thought the “bigguys” make all the decisionsbut we can have a voice too.You’ve just got to have theskills and someone to tellyou what you need to do. Ifpeople knew the steps, Ithink more people would beinvolved”.
Learner Community Resource DVD
“I now feel moreconfident toreport a problemin myneighbourhood.”Learner Me2 Get Active
“The course helped me understandand be more aware of how to raiseissues so that I am now morelikely to speak to the relevantauthorities and know who tocontact”
Learner How to Campaign
“The workshops have helped mewith my visits to the GP andbeing confident to talk to healthprofessionals is invaluable forme and my family.”
Learner Health and Community Involvement
4/GETTING ACTIVE
The WEA is well known for our beliefin the power of adult education tochange lives and improvecommunities. This belief underpinsour diverse activities in manyhundreds of neighbourhoods up anddown the country.
This report highlights project work from the
second year of our Learning for Community
Involvement project, supported by the
Department for Communities and Local
Government’s Empowerment Fund. In the first
year we sponsored a range of local pilot
projects that demonstrated how high quality
adult education could inspire and support the
empowerment of individuals and groups at
community level. A range of varied activities in
widely different settings, such as health and
digital inclusion, succeeded in engaging and
supporting people in ‘getting involved’ as
volunteers, campaigners, active citizens and
representatives.
This year’s report documents how the
experience of the pilot project has been built
upon to reach out to a greater number of
individuals and communities. These case
studies provide a strong antidote to
contemporary pessimism about apathy and
popular disengagement from social and
political action.
Examples highlighted in the report show
project participants contacting their MPs and
local councillors in order to press their
concerns. In many cases this contact led to
meetings, visits and productive exchanges. In
other examples people participated in local
campaigns, consultation processes and
meetings with decision-makers, giving voice to
their experiences and views and promoting the
needs of their communities.
This process of engagement had a long lasting
educational impact as participants gained a
greater knowledge of how ‘the system’ works
and how in turn to influence it. A common
feature of many of the case studies is the use
of digital communications to find out
information and contacts, and to spread the
word. The links between digital inclusion and
social action are clearly important in
empowering people, especially those in
disadvantaged communities.
We hope that you are inspired by howthis sort of adult education canbecome part of the everydaymainstream of community life andthat you are encouraged to take partin similar projects to influencechange.
Introduction
GETTING ACTIVE/5
Case Study 1
Capacity for Citizenship WEA Eastern Region
“This course has given me huge motivation to teach my children how tocook from scratch for a healthier diet. I was never shown as a child howto do anything in the kitchen and I realise how important it is to havethose skills to pass down to my children. It will give them a healthylifestyle choice, early in their lives, which I lacked.”
Laura Allen – Learner
This capacity building project exploredways in which the WEA Eastern Regioncould incorporate communityinvolvement and active citizenshipconcepts in its existing adult learningprogrammes.
As well as exposing WEA tutors and branch
volunteers to innovative approaches to learning,
centred around democracy and citizenship, the
project also enabled learners to benefit from
citizenship education embedded in traditional
courses such as Cookery and Geography.
The region delivered a supplementary module called
What’s So Good about Grandma’s Cooking? as part
of a standard cookery course that aimed to teach
cooking skills that had been lost over generations.
Exploring aspects of food politics such as fair trade
and food miles, lessons were drawn from historical
women who made nutritious, thrifty dishes that were
seasonal and had a low carbon footprint.
Through old recipes taken from their family history,
learners also looked at how social, cultural and
economic changes spanning the 20th century
affected the lives and roles of women, from a call to
leave the kitchen in the 1920s, through two world
wars, the introduction of the welfare state and
migration,
to the development of fast food and the most recent
demands for women to return to the kitchen to fight
obesity.
Inspired by women from the past, learners took the
opportunity to write to their local MP highlighting
concerns that cuts in public spending and services
will reverse the historical changes which brought
about equality for women.
For more information contact Clive Mobbs: [email protected]
Case Study 2
Voices for HealthWEA West Midlands Region
WEA learners in Stoke-on-Trent havebeen encouraged to get involved andspeak out on issues affecting theircommunity in a project designed totackle voicelessness anddisengagement.
Using health and fitness programmes as forums for
discussion and action, the project targeted learners
who felt excluded from the wider political process
such as Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) women,
people with learning disabilities and difficulties (LDD)
and traditional working class communities.
As part of the project, drop-in gyms were set up to
support discussions on community involvement and
help learners identify needs and propose solutions.
When discussing medical information, learners
expressed difficulties in understanding prescriptions
and wanted to find out more about the medicines
they were given. Resources, including digital tools,
were then developed in response to such needs and
these enabled learners to access information and
make more informed choices.
The drop-in gym was also used to disseminate
information and ‘calls to action’ on locally relevant
topics such as adult education and government
spending cuts. Learners were provided with tools for
effective campaigning such as training in how to
contact MPs, set up petitions and write letters of
protest. This generated significant contact with
elected representatives and helped residents organise
and stage a highly publicised protest against the
council’s decision to close the popular and historic
Tunstall Swimming Pool. Although residents were
unable to save the pool, the process of engagement
brought diverse community groups together and gave
learners confidence in their own ability to make their
voices heard.
The project also helped learners at Shelton
Day Care Centre to have their say in a fun
and informative exercise video promoting
key health messages. As well as
motivating people to get active, the video
prompted discussion on learning disability
issues and highlighted the considerable
health inequalities and barriers to
participation faced by LDD groups. To
watch the video produced by Junction 15
visit
www.westmidlands.wea.org.uk/getexcitedvideo
For more information contact Clare White: [email protected]
Samantha Wright – Learner
6/GETTING ACTIVE
“I have become more aware of local issues and am confident in writing to myMP which I would never have done before. I also read more about local issueson the internet and would consider joining a community action group”
Photograph: Matt Burke
Case Study 3
Health and Community InvolvementWEA East Midlands Region
Dawn Aylward – Learner
GETTING ACTIVE/7
“Since attending the workshops I have grown in confidence and I feel I canhave a say in meetings which I could not do before.”
Addressing health inequalities is notmerely about improving access toservices. It is about empowering peopleto take control of their own wellbeingthrough understanding how decisionsare made in relation to health and howthey can influence these decisions.
WEA East Midlands delivered a series of workshops
designed to encourage people to have their say on
health issues and enable them to be pro-active in
accessing appropriate services with confidence.
In Getting the Most out of Your Health Service,
learners were informed of their rights in relation to
NHS services, how to approach health professionals
with confidence, how new NHS proposals will impact
GP services and how to influence local health-related
decisions through involvement in forums such as the
Patient Participation Group and Local Involvement
Networks. This popular workshop was held in various
locations and was tailored to the health needs of
specific target groups such as carers, mental health
service users and ESOL learners.
How to Feel Confident at Meetings was another
empowerment-themed workshop designed to instil
confidence in learners so they could articulate their
ideas and concerns in meetings. Learners were
taught techniques to be assertive and get noticed by
the meeting chair and were given the opportunity to
put these techniques into practice.
The workshops also helped learners understand the
language of meetings and the key roles and
responsibilities that need to be assigned for meetings
to be effective.
Learners came away with increased confidence in
their ability to make their voices heard in community
meetings and were inspired to act on what they had
learned by being more involved in health interest
forums and patient participation groups in their area.
For more information contact Cherry Heinrich: [email protected]
Case Study 4
Families Get Active across YorkshireWEA Yorkshire & Humberside Region
Learners in Barnsley, Wakefield andScarborough have been helping theircommunities find ways of improvingtheir health. Following an 8 week coursein Community Research, 30 learners wereequipped with the skills and knowledgeto go out into their respectivecommunities and ask questions abouthealth issues and availability ofappropriate and accessible services.
Speaking to friends, family, neighbours, schools and
other community organisations, they were able to
identify common health concerns especially among
parents, map existing services that promote healthy
living, identify gaps in provision and suggest
improvements to services for the benefit of families in
the area.
Learners were able to raise local families’ awareness
of the government’s Change for Life campaign and to
encourage them to develop action plans to achieve
health improvement goals and take part in local health
activities. In Scarborough, community members were
inspired to get involved in promoting healthy eating
and physical exercise in schools as part of Change for
Life after being informed of the scheme by the
community researchers.
Research findings were presented at three local mini-
conferences in Wakefield, Scarborough and Barnsley,
where the collective voice of each community was
heard by key decision makers including local MPs
and health and education professionals. The
conferences were a valuable opportunity for the
groups to share their findings and discuss community
health inequalities with a view to bringing about
change and influencing policy.
Following the Wakefield conference, health
professionals requested a copy of the group’s
research findings as an important community
perspective to consider when planning new health
projects. At the Barnsley conference, John Healey
MP commended the project for its pro-active
approach to health awareness and pledged his
support. The project culminated in a final joint
conference in Leeds to meet and celebrate success.
As a result of the project, learners have gained
greater insight into health inequalities that affect their
communities and feel empowered to campaign for
change. One learner commented, “this has made me
more determined to stand up and fight for better
facilities for families in Scarborough.” Learners also
came away with valuable skills in research,
campaigning, decision making and public speaking
which have given them confidence to present ideas
and challenges to decision makers.
For more information contact Sheila Smith: [email protected] Quinney: [email protected] Hollies: [email protected]
Kate Murray – Learner
8/GETTING ACTIVE
“The project has empowered me to play a greater role in my own communityand be an inspiring role model for my children.”
Case Study 5
How to Campaign WEA West Midlands, East Midlands, Yorkshire & Humberside Regions
WEA tutors across the East and WestMidlands and Yorkshire andHumberside regions rolled out a two-hour web campaigning module thatadded community involvement value toa host of WEA learning programmes.The module was developed toencourage learners on ICT, DigitalMedia and Skills for Life courses to usethe internet as a campaigning tool toinfluence decisions in their localcommunity.
Learners were shown how to report problems
affecting their neighbourhoods through the Fix My
Street website which was widely used by learners to
highlight problems such as hazardous road
conditions during the winter months. Learners were
also introduced to online resources such as They
Work for You that enabled them to contact MPs and
write letters challenging decisions that impacted their
lives. As a result many learners contacted their MP
about government spending cuts, increased
university fees, proposed building developments and
threats to adult education.
In many cases learners received replies from their MP
which they shared in class with their tutors and
peers. In Worcester, Skills for Life learners contacted
their MP in a campaign to protect adult education.
Robin Walker MP replied to learners individually and
visited the Brush up Your Reading and Writing Skills
class to discuss their concerns and present
certificates to the group.
The activity empowered learners, who had been
relatively disengaged from the political process, to
get involved in community issues and campaign for
change. Most learners had no idea who their MP was
or how to contact them about issues of personal and
community importance. Having gained valuable
campaigning skills, learners felt confident that they
had a voice and that their views were important.
For more information contact Sheila Bregeon (West Midlands):[email protected] or Gill Lawrence (Yorkshire and Humberside):[email protected] Caley (East Midlands):[email protected]
Anonymous Learner
GETTING ACTIVE/9
“I now feel confident to contact my MP and will do if I have issues aboutanything in the future.”
WEA Yorkshire & Humberside organiseda range of community interpretingactivities to highlight the importance ofinterpreters in ensuring equalopportunity and choice for BAMEcommunities whose language abilitiesprevent them from accessing andbenefiting from local services.
Over 40 learners from diverse BAME communities
participated in taster events held in Sheffield, Leeds
and Scunthorpe. The events were designed to
support learners who were fluent in English and a
community language to progress onto a formal
interpreting course offered by the WEA. With support
from local partners including the Refugee Education,
Training and Advice Service (RETAS), and Sheffield
Community Access and Interpreting Services
(SCAIS), learners were given advice and information
about the course and a chance to integrate their own
life experience in course activities. Each taster event
encouraged learners to think about the impact of low
levels of literacy and spoken English on their
communities and inspired them to pursue next steps
in volunteering and further training.
The region also hosted a Community Interpreting
Forum in Sheffield bringing together professional
interpreters and representatives from voluntary and
statutory organisations across the country to share
good practice and discuss important citizenship
issues.
The event was also attended by MP Paul Blomfield
and Sheffield Councillor Mazhur Iqbal whose input
encouraged participants to focus on major campaign
issues such as cuts in ESOL funding and the future of
subsidised adult education.
The event inspired participants to contribute to a
WEA campaign video to save ESOL provision and
learners in Sheffield even wrote to their MP speaking
out against ESOL cuts. The impact of this action was
significant in that it influenced Paul Blomfield MP to
propose an Early Day Motion in parliament
recognising the importance of ESOL in enabling UK
citizens, refugees and others to contribute to public,
social and economic life and to build inclusive and
cohesive communities.
For more information contactSharon Watson: [email protected]
10/GETTING ACTIVE
“Through the interpreting forum I learned how people from differentcultures are working together to help their community. I also learned aboutWEA campaigning and cuts in ESOL provision which I am very concernedabout as I have experienced the impact of these cuts first hand.”
Daniel Kahsa – Learner
Case Study 6
Community Interpreting Forum and VolunteerInterpreters’ Showcase EventWEA Yorkshire & Humberside Region
GETTING ACTIVE/11
Case Study 7
Me 2 (Get Active)WEA North West Region
“I am now actively involved in a mentoring programme and hope to deliverdrug awareness to the community as I have gained more confidence to speakto large groups.”
Mark Hodgkinson – Learner
WEA North West has helped learnersget involved in local issues throughdelivering a range of courses thatincorporate citizenship themes in acreative and engaging way.
Courses focused on using ICT as a tool for
campaigning, drama to encourage self-expression,
media studies to make news more relevant and
volunteering training to encourage community
involvement. Activities were especially designed to
help learners who felt marginalised due to illness,
disability, mental health problems or language
barriers, to overcome their isolation and feel part of
an integrated community.
All activities used group discussions to explore how
people felt about their communities and how they
could all contribute to making them better. Learners
felt empowered after learning how to contact their
MP, find out information about their community and
report problems affecting their neighbourhoods. A
group of disabled learners has started campaigning
for better facilities for the disabled by reporting
access difficulties to train companies and contacting
their local MP. Many learners have used the Fix My
Street website to register complaints about
vandalism and lack of facilities.
The project has highlighted the importance of giving
marginalised individuals the opportunity to be heard.
Not only does it enable them to connect with society
but also gives them confidence in their own ability to
effect change within their communities.
For more information contact Julie Ballantyne: [email protected]
Other Projects
12/GETTING ACTIVE
Community Involvement Using ICTWEA East Midlands Region
Embedding the “How to Campaign” web resourcemodule in the delivery of ICT and other coursesoffered by the WEA. Learners were encouraged to use the internet as a
campaigning tool to influence decisions affecting their
community.
Contact Julie Caley: [email protected]
Open DoorWEA Yorkshire & Humberside Region
Empowering learners to raise awareness of issuessuch as barriers to civic involvement faced bypeople with learning disabilities. Presentations were delivered to help people with
learning disabilities understand their rights as citizens
and get involved in issues affecting them.
Partnerships: Bradford Care Trust, Bradford People First,
Keighley People First, Leeds Care Trust, Leeds Homefarm TrustContact Jane Bilton: [email protected]
Disseminating DemocracyWEA Yorkshire & Humberside Region
Series of democracy-themed workshops examiningthe role of women in society. Workshops aimed to encourage and inspire women from
different backgrounds to be active citizens through
participation in democratic processes and involvement in
civil society issues.
Contact Catherine Barker: [email protected]
“The course has inspired me to do somethingpositive with my life. I have enrolled on achild care course at my local college and hope to become a teaching assistant.”
Make Yourself Heard (Trade Union Learning)WEA Yorkshire & Humberside Region
Encouraging Trade Union activists and members tolink their union roles with wider communityconcerns. TUC workshops focused on community involvement
activities such as identifying and influencing power
brokers and building support for campaigns to
demonstrate how trade union representatives can put
pressure on decision-makers by articulating the
collective voice of the community.
Partnerships: Trades Union Congress (TUC), UnisonContact Brian Chadwick: [email protected]
“The course helped me realise the potentialfor effective organised action to buildcommunity cohesion and understanding.”
“I have a better understanding of thestructures which exist to support communityactivities and how important it is to attendmeetings to ‘stay in the loop.”
“Since learning about Fix My Street, Ireported a vandalised manhole cover whichposed a danger to passing vehicles and people using the road. The problem has beenresolved and now that I now how to getinvolved, I will not hesitate to report issues in the future.”
GETTING ACTIVE/13
Speak Out on Local IssuesWEA West Midlands Region
Tackling voter apathy and disengagement throughinformation packs that demystify and localisepolitical issues. “Why Vote” packs provided key information on how
decisions are made locally and nationally and how those
decisions can be influenced through democratic
participation.
Contact Sheila Brégeon: [email protected]
“The information pack helped me understandhow changes in the health service such as GPcommissioning will affect me. I rely heavily on our local health service and feel anxiousabout what the changes might mean.”
Community Involvement for HealthWEA East Midlands Region
Helping carers and people recovering from mentalhealth problems to be pro-active in accessing andinfluencing local health services. Workshops demonstrated how to speak to health
professionals with confidence and encouraged
involvement in health
forums and patient participation groups.
Contact Cherry Heinrich: [email protected]
“I feel confident to say what I think in a way that professionals will understand and respect.”
Getting InvolvedWEA Southern Region
Citizenship education for learners enrolled on ESOLand Skills for Life courses. Group activities exploring power structures, the role of
local authorities and opportunities to influence decision
making through council surgeries, neigbourhood forums
and community petitions.Contact Chris Sanders: [email protected]
“The course has helped me understand my rightsas a citizen and how I can do more to helpmyself and my community get better facilities.”
Working Together: Supporting WomenFacing Domestic ViolenceWEA Yorkshire and Humberside Region
Series of workshops helping women across SouthYorkshire discuss and develop strategies onaddressing violence against women. Local MPs, activists, representatives from women’s
organisations and women from diverse social and cultural
backgrounds worked together to highlight the impact of
domestic violence and identify support services needed to
help women facing violence.
Contact Shirley Allen-Jackson:[email protected]
Active Citizenship for Mental HealthWEA Yorkshire and Humberside Region
Short courses to help people recovering frommental health problems feel more confident inmaking their voices heard. Learners explored issues that were important to them
through citizenship-themed workshops and identified
barriers preventing them from speaking up and how they
might overcome these barriers in order to be heard.
Partnerships: MIND, Scarborough Survivors, WhitbyDisablement Action’s Think Positive Group, OurCelebration, Selby Mental Health Resources Centre,Brighter Futures, CentrepointContact Helen Widdowson:[email protected]
14/GETTING ACTIVE
‘We want to give citizens, communities and local government the power andinformation they need to come together, solve the problems they face andbuild the Britain they want. We want society – the families, networks,neighbourhoods and communities that form the fabric of so much of oureveryday lives – to be bigger and stronger than ever before. Only when peopleand communities are given more power and take more responsibility can weachieve fairness and opportunity for all’
‘Building the Big Society’, Cabinet Office, May 2010
What Next?
It can be seen from the above extractthat the idea of putting choice andcontrol in the hands of local people andencouraging them to take an active rolein their communities is at the heart ofthe Big Society agenda. The WEA’sLearning for Community Involvement(LfCI) project is making a significantcontribution to this agenda.
The case studies highlighted within this report provide
evidence of how purposeful adult education can
provide the necessary skills, knowledge and
confidence to enable people to influence the
decisions that affect their day to day lives.
With funding from the Department for Communities
and Local Government confirmed for a third year
(covering the period 1st April 2011 to 31st March
2012), we plan to respond to requests from project
workers and partner organisations to further develop
project work. For instance, a key theme emerging
from feedback sessions was the importance of tutor
engagement to embed and sustain citizenship and
community empowerment themes within educational
provision.
In Year 3 a Tutor Engagement Fund will be set up to
support more tutor involvement across all 9 WEA
English regions, through briefings, curriculum and
staff development, piloting of mini-modules and
follow-up evaluation. As partnership working is vital to
the success of our adult and community learning
programmes, we invite public, private and civil society
organisations interested in becoming involved in the
project to contact us. We look forward to hearing from
you.
For further information please contact Howard Croft, LfCI Project Coordinator, WEA West Midlands on 0121 237 8133 or [email protected]
Acknowledgements
This end of year report has been produced as part of an Association wide adult education
project, co-ordinated by WEA West Midlands Region (2009-2012). It has been supported by the
Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) via the Empowerment Fund.
We wish to thank all WEA staff, sessional tutors, learners and volunteers and partner
organisations who took part in project activities during the year and contributed to the report.
For further information please contact Howard Croft,
LfCI Project Coordinator, WEA West Midlands on
0121 237 8133 or [email protected]
GETTING ACTIVE/15
Learning for Community Involvement (LfCI)
WEA West Midlands Regional Office
4th floor
Lancaster House
67 Newhall Street
Birmingham B3 1NQ
Tel 0121 237 8120
Fax 0121 237 8121
Email [email protected]
Website www.westmidlands.wea.org.uk
Registered charity number: 1112775. Company limited by guarantee in England and Wales no: 2806910. Registered office: 4 Luke Street, London, EC2A 4XW.
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