[Report from Maire's, Maeve's, Mary's sessions] 2nd PM session Saturday ----------------------------------- Maire Dorgan ------------------- Community, politics, community education ---------------------------------------------------------- Empowerment model of community education Involved in Cork Anti-Poverty Project before Community Womens' Educational Initiative Project brought together community groups from round country Gave award to acknowledge activist work Very diverse gathering - drawing from paper given there Community education: ------------------------------- new Green Paper is first to recognise adult education and to see community education as specific methodology Ireland has low level of adult literacy - OECD Government concerned to get people into labour force Concerned not to allow this to be taken over by "army of professionals" -> focus on community education Community education: _is_ process of empowering local communities enable them to become learning communities "life-long learning" Continuing development of community Social change and disadvantaged communities How can we use this? Government: Community education is "approach" and "relationship" [Extensive government description of CE] Also a process of co-option Government paper assumes local autonomy and control - in theory Experience of work with adult literacy, women etc. suggests that CE: - located in community - targets whole community - consciousness-raising key - draws on women's movement and development conflicts (Freire) Empowering people to take control of their own lives Organised around community Issue-based CE has come into lingo But now applied to relocating traditional classes in community -> institutions siphoning off money Example of CE: group identifies issue study it as collectivity move towards action return to reflection etc. Issue: what motivates people? what actually touches their lives? Can't be controlled by professionals But increasing credentialisation Pressure to do this to CE But process of individual stamping runs counter to CE Aware individuals are recycled out of community People come in as engaged activists & go out as sausages -> a lot of "CE" is dangerous to communities Empowerment model has to be translated into practice -> need structures but these need to be collective collaborative we need to change structures in own heads Avoid system where one person is in charge Structures and practice need to change [...break in note-taking...] Trying now to find way that that world of education can be incorporated into the system without losing control "Mainstreaming" -> find a way of opening up what they're doing to other people Trying to turn model of education around -> "learning by doing" as valid as through books Professionals have credentials Activists don't! CE redefines "work" and qualifications needed -> so you can get a job and get paid for it and stay in own community and empower it. [Discussion] Alex: do we just fall back into the same patterns? Maire: we all have the individual - collective struggle within each of us Concept of leadership in working-class communities System says: "the middle classes know" Problem of boundaries for activists: "facilitator" or "neighbour" Issue of plagiarism Concern to protect ideas Role of middle classes in working class communities ambiguous Environmental issues seen as "them" Mary - Working class don't have time / space for environment Alex - But working class are most affected Isolde - Concerns over health bring this together. Kevin - spent 20 years in TU movement / adult education having run courses for TUs but basic problem: illiteracy system took leader out 800 years of colonisation -> those who've got a little space are over-protective of it Has AONTAS provided link? Maire - yes Green Paper does reflect input eg of Community Women's Education Coalition It is possiblt to push things in a certain direction But no money made available to enable meetings to input into White Paper Kevin - Middle class has been brought further away by TV, consumerism, etc. Maire - "You need resources ... but the lack of resources never stopped us doing anything" We want to take the money and use it for our projects. FAS schemes are replacing volunteers -> then the money is taken away ? - Tension between who does the working and who takes the power - being part of another agenda which is not our own ? - Research - does it empower the researched? Maeve O'Grady --------------------- Partnership and change ---------------------------------- Partnership is dirty word in Community Development Decision to go into partnership with institution Personal development had taken place in communities for years Funding for community jobs not going to those without formal qualification Had to get more skilled to draw down more funding for community Horizon in Wexford - graduates found their extra-mural diploma had no currency to get job in community sector Need for third level accreditation to get the paid jobs they had been doing voluntarily FAS - women couldn't qualify for training because not on live register Going back to education problematic for women in funding terms Decision to go into partnership - Funding for NOW allows you to get childcare allowance - insists on it. Wanted ownership of process at all levels Barrier of self-financing in adult education NOW funding put them in position of being able to go to WIT and say we have money Only after going through process do you understand it. In the negotiations for designing the course wanted WIT to design the course to fit their needs Expectation of mainstreaming Neither side understood the other at the beginning - particularly around group vs individual learning Not theorised at the beginning Didn't understand the constraints of institution Ownership by institution Process so important to outcome Paying organisation no control over future process Two members pushed for places on the course board - in order to gain some control. Mainstreaming - to make the learning permanent for other people. Structures not changing in the institution When the funding runs out what happens then? What about child care? Who funds it? Course co-ordinator part-time - no clout in the institution Now there is a full-time outreach coordination In practice of own organisation outreach is something different Coordinator can now liaise between community groups and institution to look for changes in structure Hope that long-term access for community groups to institution will improve Potential for change still there in the partnership. Gave a lot of power away at the beginning because they hadn't theorised what they did and how different it was. Partnership forced them into dialogue between the institution and the community groups [Discussion] - To what extent can this relationship be replicated in other places? - Community courses accredited by OCN and retain ownership. - Documentation of the learning curve needed Reinventing the wheel - Cork women have a group to prepare people for the institution Can only work with the process intact in empowered / politicised groups Mary O'Connell --------------------- Involved 10 years - cam looking for help and was dragged into an English group where anything could be brought up. She was politicised Group invited her - Cork Women's Action Group - to join supporting women to get out & do something Built up skills through encouragement to go out & participate - to do it for herself Encouraged to do it for herself rather than have it done for her Went to a harrowing meeting but was encouraged to reflect on what she learned. Cork Women's Action Group - sat down & discussed what they would need if going through court. help-line accompany people to court. support group afterwards Learning by doing - slow but empowering Standing next to people to support them. Go in twos - one more experienced one learner Philosophy - if professionals work with us they are privileged to do so - they are learning from us - very few refusals Small community - need for boundaries in facilitating groups - confidentiality Also coordinates & facilitates alternative health programme for women has learned massage & Reiki Doing it all on a FAS course Bringing other people along with her One woman becoming empowered needs to be linked into a system which allows her to go back out & empower other women. There is a broader context for each woman's story A lot of assertiveness training etc. that was given to women was individualistic & was pernicious in communities No political analysis Who are the facilitators / counsellors? Where are these individual projects going? Feminists with a class analysis Is it to be coopted by state now? in order to get the funding? Conflict between representative and participative model of democracy. Dilemma is there. Statae is so inserted into community sector. Creative tactics needed Community sector is very vulnerable State - & poverty industry Getting inside the policy making bodies Strategic Policy Committees Time consuming Need for alliances of movements Need to know about each other