This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
Listen
Communities to be given influential voice
25/04/2002
The Executive is committed to placing community learning
and development at the heart of its community regeneration
strategy, the annual conference of Community Education
Managers Scotland (CEMS) was told today.
Deputy Social Justice Minister Margaret Curran, in a
keynote speech, stressed the need to support all public
service professionals to help them work better with the
communities they serve and build up the voice and skills of
their communities to enable them to influence services and
Executive policy.
Ms Curran said:
"Community learning and development is a vital tool in
empowering people within their communities. The lives of
hundreds of thousands of Scots, young and old, have been
changed as a result of the important work being done by
community education managers and their staff.
"However, the Executive believes that the ways in which
community learning and development practitioners work with
people to identify and tackle problems and help them
realise their hopes and bring their ideas to fruition
should be available to a far wider range of public service
professionals.
"In view of this, we will be looking at how the
knowledge which community educators have gained in working
in their communities can be applied to other public service
workers. In addition, we will be holding a three month
consultation exercise aimed at updating professional
training for community educators and we will also be
looking at arrangements for training volunteer staff.
"Our strategy for supporting community learning and
development is therefore 'twin-tracked'. It remains one of
investing in a core of dedicated and highly trained youth
workers, community workers and community based adult
educators and of ensuring that all communities across
Scotland, in particular those which are disadvantaged, have
ready access to such support. Equally, it is about ensuring
that a much wider resource of public service disciplines
increasingly adopt community learning and development
styles of working, of listening and engaging with people.
Underpinning all of this is our strong commitment to
building an empowered learning society in Scotland."
A new national Centre for Community Learning and
Development has been established within Communities
Scotland. This centre took over the professional training
support role, formally carried on by Community Learning
Scotland, which closed on March 31.