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Start Date: November 2022
Duration: 24 months
We have seen a lot of political change and a rise in community tensions. We have recently voted in local and European elections, a referendum on women and care, and we will soon see a general election here too. This makes democratic literacy and social empathy particularly significant.
For this Citizens Xelerator project, partners from across European countries are developing resources for educators of adults to promote democratic literacy and social empathy in their countries.
These include the LifeComp Cards Collection, a tool to help adult learners identify personal, social, and learning competencies.
Another resource is the Citizens' Xelerator Model and Kit, which provides a structured approach for adults with unmet literacy needs to enhance their literacy and promote democratic and civic engagement.
With the resources, AONTAS and other project partners are engaging in lots of different activities across Europe to support adult learning and knowledge of democracy and its link with empathy.
In July, the project coordinator, Mentortec, held a peer learning webinar for all partners to share experiences and learn from project resources and activities.
In February, we at AONTAS provided members of the Community Education Network with the Citizens' Xelerator Toolkit, along with other resources. Have a look at our Micro-Learning Session plans for adult educators.
These tools offer educators hands on, practical activities to deliver with adult learners on abroad range of topics, including democratic literacy.
In April, the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science invited learners to share their experience of the cost of education in Ireland.
The event aimed to inform the Department’s spending for 2025.
We at AONTAS supported 27 learners in adult and community education to attend this event.
To prepare, we facilitated a session with the learners using the Citizens Xelerator Think Tank Manual. This manual provides step-by-step instructions on supporting adults with unmet literacy needs in identifying, addressing, and developing solutions to challenges within their communities.
We used this session to brainstorm ideas with learners about what changes they want to see in the cost of education in Ireland.
After the event, we held another Think Tank session for learners to follow up on their ideas. This all contributes to our advocacy work, and to how we advocate for positive change for adult learners both in Ireland and across Europe.
As the leading expert on Learner Voice in Ireland and across Europe, we regularly facilitate training in this area with staff and learners.
Working with the Student Council in Tipperary Education and Training Board (TETB) in April, we did another Think Tank session, with 21 learners. This Student Council is an active group of learners, which represent other learners and their perspectives to the TETB and policymakers in order to improve learners’ experience on their courses and at their centres. This Student Council were shortlisted for an AONTAS Star Award earlier this year for adult learning initiatives that support Learner Voice.
We will have more opportunities for AONTAS members to get involved with the Citizens Xelerator project later this year.
Citizens Xelerator is coordinated by Mentortec (Portugal) with the participation of eight partner organisations from eight countries: AAH (Greece), ACEFIR (Spain), AEAE (Romania), AONTAS (Ireland), APCEP (Portugal), CESIE (Italy), DANTE (Croatia), and VHS (Germany).
The main target groups of the project are:
We are supporting the provision of democratic education programmes for over 60 participants.
There are also opportunities for learners to influence decision making in their communities.
We intend to use the results to influence policy makers in Ireland and Europe so that they see how adult and community education is vital to strengthening democracy. Organisations in the sector need sustainable funding to continue to play this role.
For more, contact Ruby at rcooney@aontas.com
This project is co-funded by the European Union. Visit Citizens Xelerator to learn more about the project.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. Project number: 101087526
