Turning the key, unlock the change
NIACE recently held an event in London which showcased some of the projects funded through the Community Learning Innovation Fund (CLIF). The focus was the difference projects have made to learners, families, communities and the organisations involved. It was attended by project staff and learners, representatives from key government departments, and NIACE’s Patron Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal.
It was an incredibly inspiring and moving day. There were interviews with learners, musical performances, films, displays of creative project materials and interactive activities. The wide-ranging positive impacts of adult learning shone through in everything we heard and saw.
Learners with learning disabilities spoke about how their skills and confidence in money matters had improved, giving them more control and choice in the way they manage and spend their own money. Young, unemployed parents with no qualifications spoke about how learning and volunteering improved their confidence and skills, leading to apprenticeships or employment and enabling them to support their children in their own learning. We also heard from learners about how their physical and mental health had improved as a result of learning: people living with HIV becoming healthier as a result of nutrition workshops, people overcoming mental health problems through learning and peer mentoring rather than drugs and therapy.
There were some interesting displays to browse throughout the day, including ‘Out of the Frame’ loan boxes, which essentially contain objects from the Wallace Collection that are loaned to care homes and day centres giving care staff and residents the opportunity and confidence to talk about art and heritage. City College Peterborough also displayed their ‘Cultural Boxes’, featuring items that represent different countries and cultures that are used to increase skills such as IT, photography, confidence-building, cultural awareness and ESOL.
We also saw some fantastic films; digital stories produced by women prisoners as part of the Stretch-Story Box project; a creative dance produced as part of CALAT’s disability and bullying awareness programme ‘RSVP’; a film produced as part of an intergenerational digital learning project in North Tyneside called ‘Back to the Future’.
Lastly, we were treated to two wonderful musical performances. Members of a choir from the Creative Edge project led by Sheffield Cathedral performed two of their own songs. And at the end of the event, Janet Wood from the Creative Directions project led by darts (Doncaster Community Arts), performed Turning the key, unlock the change – a song written on the day based on conversations with staff and learners from other projects about important moments in their learning journeys (which they were asked to write on to luggage tags attached to keys).
Image courtesy of Darts, Doncaster Community Arts
I was overwhelmed by the projects showcased on the day, which were only a very small sample of the 96 projects that have been funded through CLIF. The Fund has given so many organisations the opportunity to run creative and innovative community learning projects with learners’ needs and potential at their heart. As a result, they really have, as the Creative Directions song says, turned the key, unlocked the change.
