Development
Project information
Project acronym: TLCD
Project title: Training and Learning for Community Development
Project number: 135744-NL-KA4MP
2007-2206
Sub-programme or KA: KA4
Project website: www.cebsd.org
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This report reflects the views only of the TLCD partnership, and the Commission cannot be
held responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.
Executive Summary
The European-funded project on Training and Learning for Community Development
is run by Consortium of 16 partners from non-Governmental organisations under the
leadership of the Combined European Bureau for Social Development. The Consortium of 16
partners working on Training and Learning for Community Development met as a group in
November 2007 in The Hague (NL), in Palermo in November 2008 and at the Sofia Seminar
in May 2009. Partners have a strong commitment to working in partnership on Training and
Learning for Community Development in order to apply the results and outcomes of past and
current Grundtvig Programme actions to the field training and learning. A photo on the boat
“Europé” taken at joint event on European dialogue became a symbol of horizontal
networking with a view of Europe as the sum of the places where people live their everyday
lives. It was then combined with the Catalonian Castellers, which symbolised a human tower
of European Citizens reaching vertically towards the structures of European institutions. In
the Sofia Seminar on Dissemination, the presentations on Citizens’ Participation Week and
the Council of Europe’s European Local Democracy week demonstrated the actions relating
to these symbols. The triangle of exchange between citizens, professionals and policy-
makers at all levels was identified in the project as a key activity to promote participation in
Life Long Learning.
Learning was shared with other more locally based training projects such as the
Project “Curriculum for Adult Education in Rural Areas in Romania CAERA”. 225352-CP-1-
2005-1-RO-GRUNDTVIG-G1. The evaluation was carried out by Guenther Lorenz from
Tech-net, Berlin which is lead partner in another project (www.cest-transfer.de), where the
objective is to transfer a successfully tested curriculum for the social economy, including its
community development component, in a way that multipliers individually can apply, assess
and monitor. Synergies were also sought with Eastern Europe through the Central and
Eastern Citizens’ Network. Whilst the project itself was limited to the European Union,
dissemination had a wider scope through connections with the Council of Europe and NGO
networks such as the International Association for Community Development.
During this process partners have revisited the application of core principles of
Community Development (as described in the Guidelines for Training and Learning for
Community Development produced in the Grundtvig 4 project 2006) to training and learning
systems. The Consortium seeks means of establishing continuous open networking in a field
dominated by short term funding measures. It had its origins in a previous partnership in
2006, which identified the triangle of exchange between citizens, professionals and policy-
makers as a key activity to promote participation in Life Long Learning.
The work programme started in November 2007 with a planning meeting of the
Consortium in the Netherlands. This led to a series of experimental relay visits where
partners carried analysis of Training and Learning in Community Development from Belgium
to Hungary; from Hungary to the United Kingdom; from the United Kingdom to Slovakia; and
from Slovakia to Germany. The relay visits included field visits and were backed up by
electronic networking. The involvement of local professionals from Local Authorities, non-
governmental organisations, and educational organisations enriched the level of exchange
and learning from practice. At the Laboratory in Sweden in October 2008, partners distilled
lessons from relay visits to make the process of networking
At the Seminar in Sofia, the CEGA Foundation, assisted by a Seminar team,
created a working context where peer learning was set in the context of the principles of
equality and intercultural exchange. 51 participants from 24 countries and 39 organisations
explored methods of interactive dissemination where methods and techniques for training are
adjusted to the context and to the participants, whilst maintaining adherence to the highest
standards of practice in training and learning. Using the OPERA method, participants set
priorities for dissemination and sustainable exchange based around identifying 150 active
multipliers.
Table of Contents
1. PROJECT APPROACH............................................................................................6
3. PARTNERSHIPS....................................................................................................14
5. CONTRIBUTION TO EU POLICIES.......................................................................17
6. EXTRA HEADING/SECTION.................................................................................20
Fragile...............................................................................................................................20
Project Objectives
Main aim: To set up a consortium which will take the lead in networking to apply the
results and outcomes of past and current Grundtvig Programme actions to the field of
community-based training and learning in order to draw maximum benefit from the
exchange of good practice and implications for European policy.
In the implementation phase in 2008 these objectives were given specific focus in the
aims of the Relay visits and the aims of the Laboratory (see reports).
1. Project Approach
The project is based on incorporating diversity into shared Purpose, Process
and Principles that underpin the design and delivery of Training and Learning for
Community Development. The core principles were developed in a European project
on Social Inclusion where CEBSD was also the lead partner and they are described
in the publication Including the Excluded, Paul Henderson, published by Policy Press
www.policypress.org. ISBN 1-86134-745-6. They incorporate discussion of what is
meant by community, which in the words of CEBSD “embraces locality, common
interests and shared identity.” (Page 14, Including the Excluded), (see also Appendix
A for more information on background material to the Training and Learning for
Community Development project.) The CEBSD definition recognises the
distinctiveness of diverse communities, while recognising common patterns across
Europe and potential connection and individual links to a number of ‘communities’ of
place, interest or identity (e.g. shared ethnic or cultural or age-related identity). In
training and learning a sense of ‘community’ implies engagement with the
development of civil society. Members of CEBSD give priority to different areas within
community development for example participative democracy; intercultural mediation;
sustainable development; anti-poverty and social exclusion.
All partners in the Consortium for Training and Learning for Community
Development have the role of assessing and sharing the relevance of the outcomes
and outputs to their practice and the responsibility to act as multipliers of lessons
from good practice. This includes responsibility for sharing the results of their
exchanges with other non-governmental organisations and to network with similar
bodies at a local, regional and national level. CEBSD as lead partner has
responsibility for ensuring the progress of the project and overall management.
Partners are also involved in management of the work packages and at the
management meeting in Palermo, the Consortium members will nominate
participants for the Seminar in Sofia, BG and will incorporate these organisations into
networking at a national and European level.
The task of dissemination of lessons from the project is based on the concept
identified in the guidelines and reiterated in the relay visits and laboratory that
training and learning is an interactive process. The demands on adherence to the
highest standards of training and learning becomes both more real and more
demanding as it demands a high level of commitment to engagement with lifelong
learning. In the dissemination process, partners seek to integrate common purpose,
process and values into the practice of TLCD in Europe.
This interactive process is rooted in the core principles:
Equality, Diversity, Tolerance
Partnership,
Solidarity and Co-operation
Participation
Creative and Innovative Organisation
‘Community’ includes a vision of Europe as the sum of communities not as a
superimposed power structure. Multipliers are committed to further exchange on
what ‘community’ and ‘participation’ means in the diverse cultures of Europe.
Development is achieved through valuing the multi-facetted, diverse contribution to
achieving common purpose. Training and learning is tailor-made and interactive.
Partners analysed the most significant elements from the exchanges so far. They
experimented with methods of passing on information and knowledge in the search
for priorities for action and policy in the field of training and learning from Community
Development. They worked on the most important points for further dissemination.
(See report of Laboratory for more details.)
The process of exchange in the Laboratory clarified the common agenda
amongst partners. Partners agreed to carry forward the findings from the Relay visits
into the process of dissemination. The laboratory used working methodologies based
on utilising linguistic and cultural diversity as an asset. They worked on how to
engage with the development of civic competences within a European dynamic.
Sofia was open to their participation where participants could secure their own visas
and funding for travel and subsistence.
Participants worked together to identify priorities and link them to plans for joint
action see report of Sofia Seminar for more details.
Priority Themes
Suggested Action
3. Partnerships
responsibility for drawing the maximum benefit from the exchange of good practice
and identifying the implications for European policy. The Consortium stimulates
exchanges at local, regional, national and European level and disseminates
guidelines and methodologies developed locally on the following topics:
5. Contribution to EU policies
In the Laboratory in Malmo, Partners identified the low level and patchy
awareness of the Lisbon Process among training providers of Community
Development as problematic and struggled to engage with the Open Method of Co-
ordination. Partners also lack engagement with tools for policy development on
lifelong learning at a national or European level. On the positive side, methods
identified by partners in Training and Learning for Community Development could
make a contribution to the involvement of local communities and interest-based or
identity based communities with democratic processes in the Lisbon Agenda. This is
most apparent in the openings provided by the Central and Eastern Citizens’
Network, which holds annual Citizen Participation Weeks.
The K4 project on Training and Learning for Community Development has
demonstrated that there are opportunities through peer review and peer learning
processes to increase awareness of European policy on lifelong learning from the
“bottom-up”. In the Laboratory, links were made between Citizenship education and
Training and Learning for Community Development. Partners were inspired by Gianni
Orsini of Fundació Desenvolupament Comunitari who brought home to partners the
importance of European links in bridging local and global in the Laboratory in Malmo,
‘A European framework can ensure that on-going education in citizenship really
happens, through resources, delivery and through the facilitation of a structural
framework which ensure that a proper mechanism exist to make a bottom up process
sustainable. When we think of Community Development, we think very often locally
(the French definition of Community Development says, for example,
“developpement social local”). On the other hand, globalisation doesn’t concern only
the global level any longer. Globalisation concerns the local level as well. We cannot
consider ‘local” without associating “global” to it and vice-versa. This is the new
paradigm for transformation action! We should be pro-active on policy instead of
getting their money and subscribe our action in their framework. Lobby work at the
European level could help each national organisation to ally with others and be in
position have more impact at the national level. Thus, the European framework gives
the impetus and the strength to be pro-active. We should struggle against the
construction of a closed and “secure” or “Fortress” Europe. Immigration shouldn’t be
presented as a problem, but as a challenge. We must be able to open borders to a
good practices exchange, between South and North, and East and West. The
Consortium translated part of this vision into action in the Seminar in Sofia in Bulgaria
where there was a dynamic exchange between Community Developers from Eastern
and Western Europe.
The Second year of the project also added action to the image conjured by
Kirsten Paaby, Ideas Bank, Norway at the Laboratory in Malmo, Sweden, She
envisaged a vision of Europe closer to citizens with a combination of a horizontal and
vertical perspective. The horizontal level based on people to people exchange and
linked to other networks such as the Central and Eastern European Citizens’ Network
and especially the Citizen Participation Week which they organise at national level.
The vertical level from practice to policy – from bottom up to the top is symbolised by
the Catalonian Castellers, reaching the European Stars where European
Citizens/human towers reach Europe vertically. How can our practice influence the
policy structured to support inclusion of each individual? Important steps have been
taken to weave the horizontal citizen-to-citizen approach and the vertical impact from
bottom-up practice to European policy into the training and learning practices of the
partners. The Seminar in Sofia developed a plan for networking among 150
committed multipliers. This could be related through education and training to the
proposed new legal basis for relations between EU and civil society under Article 8:
‘Every citizen will have the right to participate in the democratic life of the Union.
Decisions shall be taken as openly and as closely as possible to the citizen.’
On the negative side, the low level of awareness and engagement with the
Lisbon Process and the Lisbon Agenda among partner organisations is a major
obstacle to further progress in involving lower-skilled and marginalized populations.
There is insufficient use of peer learning and peer review to make the connections
needed at every level to reach Lisbon Targets. A Community Development approach
offers the opportunity to help identify tools and methods more appropriate to training
and learning for groups at a local level, regional level, national level and European
level. The big question of how to have an impact on European policy is one the
Consortium has struggled with in the second year of the project. Two strands have
emerged – one is achieving collaboration on European Standards for Community
Work and the other is increased collaboration with the Council of Europe and the
European Commission on Citizen Participation. The panel session in the Sofia
Seminar gave a context to this collaboration. Ilona Vercseg of the Hungarian
Association for Community Development spoke about the continued relevance of the
Budapest Declaration which inspired the original TLCD project. Chuck Hirt, Centre for
Community Organising, Slovkia described the realities of Citizen Participation Week
and Jos Lemmers gave it a European dimension in his presentation of European
Local Democracy Week.
Ilona Vercseg accepted the commitment to empowerment in Community
Development training but suggested the addition of “special emphasis to 3 fields: the
socialisation process of young people; community and democratic socialisation in the
CEE regions; and non-formal education for adults. “ She also emphasised that
“Europe and its member states must provide more community-based training and
learning opportunities in order to strengthen civil society, by developing awareness
on community and democracy, and perspectives on social, economic and
environmental policy.” In his presentation on Citizen Participation Weeks, Chuck Hirt
described how “It seemed to the Central and Eastern Citizens’ Network that it was
appropriate to Eastern countries and now we are a bit surprised that Western
countries are saying we need this too. CEECN is now faced with the challenge of
broadening it to include more countries and more organisations. We want to keep
this event separate from the Council of Europe led democracy week because it is
bottom up.”
Jos Lemmers of the Council of Europe expressed the potential for making the
two ends meet, “European Local Democracy Week is the occasion for raising local
councillors’ and local civil servants’ awareness of democratic participation and
enables them to meet their fellow citizens in an informal, entertaining and sometimes
festive setting. It is an opportunity to debate on issues of local interest, to assess
citizens’ needs more accurately, to establish a relationship of confidence and to pass
on a message of mutual responsibility. And all this to also remind citizens and local
civil servants of the European context in which towns and cities operate and of the
common values in respect of human rights, democracy and social cohesion. It goes
without saying that an initiative, which enjoys the dual support of the NGO community
active on local democracy issues – and of the elected leadership at municipal level,
could go a long way to make two ends meet.”
Links between the participation of citizens, awareness raising and the uptake
of opportunities for Life Long Learning urgently need to be explored further with more
active involvement directly from citizen groups supported directly by non-
governmental or governmental organisations.
6. Extra Heading/Section
Fragile
The second year of the project has reinforced the fragility of Community
Development work on Training and Learning. Many non-governmental organisations,
large and small, struggle to survive in the current economic climate. Local and
national government agencies are also less able to mainstream innovative
Community Development initiatives. The fragility of the connections through non-
governmental organisations to the most precarious peoples of Europe is reflected in
the low levels of resources and input into supporting Training and Learning for
Community Development at a national level. Any substantial improvement in uptake
in non-formal adult education demands a change in funding practices at a national
level.
Cross-cutting
One of the strengths of Training and Learning for Community Development is
through an approach to social inclusion which is multi-dimensional and runs through
policies for urban and rural development, Local Agenda 21, health, sustainable
development, citizenship, civil society and the social economy. Community
development has a history of involvement in these areas and using participative
methods in training and learning designed to improve the overall quality of
community life. In a crisis situation this strength can become a weakness as there is
a lack of recognisable focus.
One of the issues that emerged during the relay visits was the distinction
between Community Development and Community Organising. The discussions on
this were presented in the Laboratory in Malmo, Sweden. Partners agreed that it is
important to continue networking together and to see these approaches as
complementary (See Paul Cromwell and Randy Stoecker’s papers to give
background to the distinctions between the two approaches as they are defined in
the US and how they can be complementary.)
Note:
This report reflects the views only of the TLCD Consortium and the European Commission
cannot be held responsible for any use, which may be made of the information contained
therein.