Case Study 2 Southern Regional College (SRC) provides training and education to over 3,500 full time learners and over 30,000 part time learners each year. SRC is the second largest college in Northern Ireland with a total of six campuses. SRC works with over 100 community and voluntary groups covering over 1500 square miles within the southern region of Northern Ireland advising on courses available for adults within their community. SRC's dedicated Community Learning Team ensures that adults have access to learning and training to improve their knowledge, skills and qualifications. In 2015/16 SRC delivered training to almost 3000 learners within the community. The College has been awarded a Beacon Award and Queens Anniversary Prize for its community cohesion work. SRC also has a dedicated External Funding and International Affairs and Team (EFIAT). Since 2007, the EFIAT has secured over 2.5m in European funding through the EU Lifelong learning and ERASMUS + programmes and successfully delivered 50+ LLP/Erasmus + projects that have enabled over 1000 staff and students to undertake work-placements, study visits and job shadowing across Europe. The College has also led a number of small and large scale European cooperation projects including the Thanks Project One of the strategic objectives of the College's European Internationalisation Strategy is "To develop European partnerships that will facilitate the sharing of best practice in education and training as well as the transfer of knowledge and innovation." In September 2015 SRC was awarded the ERASMUS + VET charter This recognises the operational capacity of SRC to manage high quality mobility projects and awards and assists its efforts to achieve greater internationalisation through ERASMUS + programmes. The Thanks Project The project aims were: to analyse if the common and European definition of Active Citizenship is valid and representative for families at risk to exercise active citizenship, for a full participation in social and economic life in the community to understand citizenship in an active way This project (THANKS) brought together 13 organisations from various educational organisations from 12 countries examining each participating organisation needs of having direct access to knowledge of other European cultures in a real environment enabling them to embrace and promote the European values. Part of the project examined the role of learners as well as the local communities in a unique opportunity of working together as a team, to investigate the specific problem in each country of addressing the diverse perception of what Active Citizenship learning is, both from a national and international perspective, sharing different experiences and knowledge.
During the first visit, Northern Ireland (UK), partners presented in-depth introductions of their organisations and worked on a number of the key aims and objectives of the project. Key areas worked on included organising project activities; workshops for staff and learners; defining the responsibilities for every partner for the coming months; and presenting detailed information about Active Learning. Partners also discussed the generation of a logo for the project and a sample would be presented in Italy. The partners were given a demonstration of the project management software BaseCamp as a tool for managing the THANKS project. The generation of a website to host the various documents, images and products of the project was also discussed among the partners, this was to be established for the next mobility. A work plan was discussed and the first draft of a timeline was established detailing both deadlines and mobilities. One common outcome was that the participating countries having shared experiences both from an educational point of view and participating students was that Preventing family risk factors from must be a priority of our partnership. Active learning for active citizenship has to start with education for healthy and happy family living, preparing individuals and families for the roles and responsibilities of family living within the existing socio-cultural context of the society. The partners agreed on what should be considered indicators of high risk for the purpose of determining appropriate services for FAR (families at risk) economic stress issues (loss of job, unable to pay bills, loss of primary income source, homeless) substance abuse, child abuse and neglect issues, or domestic violence in the home parent is failing/dropping out of an educational programme recent divorce or loss of family members due to death or estrangement child development issues (health history, or general observation) extreme or questionable health, mental health, or nutrition issues
changes in otherwise typical behaviour families involved with community agencies where a current family plan exists greed on The aims and outcomes of this project were met as each partner shared the experience in projects. Each partner prepared presentations about their institution, region and projects, themes for the web page with the project aims, local activities and partners as well as the different types of dissemination materials. Many of students participating from SRC were from areas of high social deprivation, from underprivileged and disadvantaged backgrounds who had never been outside of Northern Ireland before. The project promoted a culture of lifelong learning among all participants and enabled them to acquire new knowledge, skills and competences. PARTNERS The project further developed the excellent partnership that already existed between SRC and some of our existing partners in Spain and Italy. It was also an opportunity to develop new partners namely Latvia and Portugal. This project has benefitted from the partners ability to harmonise our 13 different approaches and provide a knowledge base that Family Learning is for everyone. This encouraged life-long learning and allowed for of workshops / courses for families to learn together, tailored to the individual needs. In active workshops we introduced the European training framework and sup-porting resources to increase collaboration in family learning, developing a relevant curriculum for a family learning programme. The third meeting was hosted by Municipality of Linköping on 15-17th May 2014 in Linköping, Sweden. During the two day event partners shared learning resources, materials, innovation in learning practices with a particular focus on disseminating projects focused on Family Learning. Partners also exchanged examples of best practices in Active Citizenship as well as presented a set of documents which defined Active Citizenship which is highly useful for parents, teachers and trainers and included tips and educational messages. There was also a presentation of the local results - focus groups, questionnaires and interviews - evaluating differences and similarities of attitudes to active citizenship and family learning. Discussions also took place and proposals were made for a local campaign entitled "Opportunities to Learn for Families". There was also a discussion around the instruments and tools used to support the development of parental and community involvement as well as family/school partnerships. The THANKS project served to put Families at Risk on the map, raise awareness, and support the involvement of the wider community. The project resulted in the development of new products such as educational material, a handbook composing of a compendium of case studies. By combining theory with concrete examples, the project provided a resource for education and training stakeholders to discover and learn from a variety of successful and innovative approaches about active citizenship education for families at risk. The project contributed to lifelong learning and personal development, both with respect to those
undertaking the project and those whom the project aims to support, generated interest in transnational cooperation. The partnership created a Family Learning Campaign to promote and to support family learning events across the partners involved. SRC and its partners contributed to lifelong learning and personal development, both with respect to those undertaking the project and those whom the project aims to support, generated interest in transnational cooperation. The partners created a Family Learning campaign to promote and to support family learning events across the countries involved. Developing a relevant curriculum for a family learning programme, the partnership promoted resources to facilitate opportunities to share good practice and Active Citizenship skills. The partners also agreed that FAR is a shorthand term for families with multiple and complex problems such as wordlessness, poor mental health or substance misuse. Many of the families considered at-risk especially in case of young families, there is the short-circuiting or destruction of the social learning system. As a direct result of the THANKS project, working relationships with partners at local, regional, national and European levels have been greatly improved. The College s internationalisation strategy ensures that European cooperation is embedded within the College. When developing strategic European projects such as this, SRC takes into account geographical and subject area priorities. The links that have been developed to organise this project has created an increased awareness of the difficulties facing families at risk and we believe that THANKS has had an impact on the students involved. During our visit to Porto on Friday 26 th September we visited the facilities of the Association for Social Development headquarters of the Volunteer Firefighters of Gondomar and the Horta à Porta project which is a self sustaining eco friendly organic horticultural project situated on the banks of the river Duoro in Porto. This project which is very similar to SRC s Grow Programme The Horta à Porta project is an innovative self sustaining, eco friendly organic horticultural project situated on the banks of the river Duoro in Porto. It is situated on what was abandoned waste land which the local authority donated to the local community. Basically HORTA is a horticultural project with the aim to provide 25 m 2 plots to local families to grow their own organic vegetables to eat or sell such as chillis, beef tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes and olives and to encourage them to move away from fast food and see the benefit of natural produce. There is a waiting list of 100 families. There is a pond on the site, no wider that 6ft x 2ft, with frogs and tadpoles. The purpose of this is to educate children in biodiversity ie when the tadpole grows to a frog the frog will eat the small insects which damage the vegetables. The families also grow aromatic plants which again encourage other creatures to the area which thrive on the insects eating the vegetables. They also grow and a range of flowers for sale in the local market. As the community has developed its expertise they have started to build cobbled pathways, raised bedding plots, a playground with wooden swings, climbing frames, etc.
Two local authority staff are employed to help the community. These posts are part-funded by the local authority and the EU project. The advantage to the local authority in providing this small amount of funding is that they have ultiised approximately 100 acres of land where the wider community can take their children out on Sundays. SRC as a community based college, engages with families from across our region including those from deprived areas in order to improve their educational and employment prospects. As a direct result of the families participation in the THANKS project, they will become more aware of the issues involved and have begun to contribute more locally. THANKS has not only enriched the lives of the partners but has also had a positive impact on participating families. At various times during our conferences SRC was able to demonstrate to our partners on THNAKS tha family learning is an integral part of our community education programmes at SRC and that we use inter-generational learning both as a tool to engage with adult learners and their families and as a way of supporting them back into education and training so the whole family can gain maximum benefit from learning. Our family learning programmes are primarily focused on marginalised and disadvantaged families including lone parents, older people, people on low incomes, people with disabilities, migrant families and Irish Travellers and include accredited and non-accredited courses in essential skills (IT, literacy & numeracy), ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) and practical skills such as horticulture, offshore work, forklift driving, security work, joinery, plastering, mechanics, art and craft, health and safety, first aid, food hygiene and much more. Many of our adult learners in these programmes left school without any formal qualifications; are often unemployed; isolated and require considerable practical and emotional support to return to education and training. We work with individual families to identify those barriers and seek solutions where possible to overcome them. We shared with our partners some of our out reach work in for example Drumellan Family Learning Centre and Chrysalis Women s Centre which provide secure spaces, services and support for families living in areas of social disadvantage. Most of the residents who come to the centres cannot afford the costs of access to education and training. To make their access possible, SRC and our Centres try to either raise funds to pay for their courses or the centres pay up front and the students pay back over the course of the academic year. Without this strategic intervention most would not benefit from the training opportunities that transform their lives. The majority of our family learning classes are held in community buildings, Church halls sports clubs and schools that are familiar to the learners and we often provide transport and childcare as required. To facilitate the Chrysalis centre provides access to free, high quality
crèche services for women involved in training, volunteering opportunities and counselling services. The provision services high levels of unemployment and poverty. We shared with our THANKS partners the many benefits to this approach including: Educational Benefits Adults are gaining qualifications many of our students (particularly members of the Irish Traveller community) have no formal qualifications when they are first engaged so we begin with short courses which take up to 10 hours to complete before moving onto higher level programmes Progression into further training and lifelong learning we support our students to continue learning by helping them to identify other training opportunities both within and beyond our College. This is done at a pace applicable to their individual capabilities and needs. Higher Aspirations for their children we have found that many parents attitudes to education changes and they want their children to gain more from formal education than they did and aspire to higher paid employment in the future Adults are increasing their employability skills some of our learners have gained employment or have been promoted as a result of newly acquired skills which have had a positive impact on the income of the family. IT skills have vastly improved which has enabled people to use social media, e- commence sites and access information across the internet with confidence. Benefits for the Individuals and their families Our students have widely reported an increase in their individual levels of confidence, self-esteem and mental health and wellbeing We are aware of improved family relationships as they learn together and parents have a greater understanding of their children s education needs and processes Benefits for the College We have increased our enrolment, achievement and retention numbers by breaking down barriers and supporting students and their families We have made changes to our teaching materials to make them more relevant to certain marginalised groups We have been able to share our good practice with Colleges across Europe and improve our practice by learning from others The College has an excellent relationship with many community groups who work with us to promote programmes and earning opportunities in their local areas Benefits to Community We have seen greater integration of marginalised groups in the community as they learn and develop together and build more social networks as a result of our classes There is often an increased sense of community and social cohesion as parents are taking more active roles in their children s schools and in community activities. During our Italian visit our staff and students took part in presentations promoting the Biodanza method through anecdotal evidence and personal testimonies. Biodanza
(neologism from the Greek bio (life) and the Spanish danza (dance), literally the dance of life) is a system of self-development that uses music, movement and positive feelings to deepen self-awareness. It seeks to promote the ability to make a holistic link to oneself and one's emotions and to express them. Biodanza also claims to allow one to deepen the bonds with others and nature and to express those feelings congenially (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/biodanza As a result of this project each staff member and student who participated is now better equipped to understand the issues concerning FAR. Staff and students have gained a sense of understanding and accomplishment which has led to an increase in providing services to FAR. The project provided those students with an opportunity to travel (a number had not previously travelled outside of the N. Ireland before), gain new skills, become more culturally aware and see that Family learning has common strands across the EU. The students who participated in THANKS were exposed to different cultures, where they had to adopt and attempt to overcome barriers and make a positive contribution. This unique opportunity has enabled SRC to work together as a team on a European level to investigate the specific issues surround active citizenship and family learning in each country while having a comprehensive and diverse perception of active citizenship learning by carrying out collaborative research and sharing the findings. Preventing family "risk factors" from becoming prevalent must be a priority of every citizen of our partnership. Active learning for active citizenship has to start with "education for healthy and happy family living", preparing individuals and families for the roles and responsibilities of family living within the existing socio-cultural context of the society. The Partnership has now developed innovate strategies for active social inclusion by providing learners with the opportunity to learn the ways of communication, meet with their local community by enabling positive paths and share with the others the diverse experiences and skills acquired.