FCDL
Annual Conference and AGM 2008
The
Circle, 33 Rockingham Lane, Sheffield S1 4FW
Tuesday 20 May 2008
Following on from the success of last year's FCDL conference and
AGM, our conference for 2008 took place at our new offices.
The theme of
the conference reflected current issues important to our members
and others in the voluntary and community sector promoting the benefits
and impacts of community development learning.
Community
Empowerment - Themes and Perspectives
The role and contribution of community development learning
Effective and
inclusive community empowerment needs to be underpinned by community
development learning and practice. This event aimed to provide the
opportunity for us to:
- share
and record evidence of how community development learning and practice promotes
a more inclusive approach to empowerment;
-
explore how community development learning can bring forward the themes and perspectives
that are important to communities;
-
discuss how to identify and address the learning and support needs of all stakeholders
involved in community engagement strategies.
Workshops
1.
Community Empowerment Policies & Community Development Learning
Community
Empowerment is much talked about at present by Government and is becoming increasingly
enshrined in policy and strategies such as the 'Duty To Involve' being required
from local authorities from 2009.
This workshop looks at current government
policy and seeks to identify opportunities for promoting community development
learning, routes to empowerment.
The workshop will:
- explore an overview
of current and emerging policy relating to empowerment.
- critically assess
challenges and opportunities for community-led learning and development within
such initiatives.
- discuss ways of influencing decision and policy makers
to incorporate CDL practice based on the values and practice principles of community
development work.
2. Informal Adult Learning - Shaping the Way Ahead
This
workshop will discuss the above consultation paper and identify the key points
that FCDL members want to make in our response. -
The contribution of community development learning and practice to informal learning
- The obstacles that exist, both historical and due to current government
policy
- Needs and opportunities for resourcing community development learning
-
The link between individual learning from experience and collective action
3.
Listening and Learning from Practice - Capacity Building with Black and Minority
Ethnic Organisations
This workshop will share the experiences of some
of the work done during the last year by the Federation and partners such as TWICS
as part of the Improving Reach project.
This project was driven by a bottom-up
approach to identify and meet learning and development needs within black and
minority ethnic communities across four regions in England.
This workshop
aims to:
- Share the lessons, experiences & challenges from this work.
-
Offering insights and reflections from groups and individuals who contributed
to this work.
- Explore the challenges andopportunities for embedding this
approach in empowering communities.
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