LLinE Lifelong Learning in Europe

Third International LLinE Conference
Local Learning Partnership Projects and Adult Education

13 – 15 April 2000

A working and discussing conference for people who are planning a local learning partnership project or are involved in such projects. The main focus of the Conference is in local development and co-operation projects in which education is a tool, e.g. co-operation projects concerning social and educational exclusion, partnerships involving enterprises and projects promoting equality and development in communities.

The Conference will hear about and discuss several co-operation projects from different European countries.
Keynote speakers Prof. Herman Baert, Belgium, Prof. Leena Kurki, Finland, Mr. Michael Johnsson, European Commission, Brussels, Belgium, Prof. Skevos Papaioannou, Greece
· a wide variety of partnerships from local neighbourhood association aspirations to slum area educational co-operation with companies for general and vocational education, from learning cities to local rural initiative programmes and educational development projects in areas of socio-economic decline
· projects from Southern, Western, Eastern and Northern Europe
· participants have an opportunity to present their own projects for discussion and feedback in workshops
· the most interesting experiences will be published in the international journal Lifelong Learning in Europe LLinE


Keynote Speakers
Herman Baert, Professor in Adult and Continuing Education, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, General co-ordinator of Socrates-Erasmus intensive programme Adult Education in Europe

Michael Johnsson, European Commission, Brussels, Belgium

Leena Kurki, Professor of Social Pedagogy, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of Tampere, Finland

Skevos Papaioannou, Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Crete, Greece

Projects in Plenum
PRATO Learning City Project, Italy
Viver o Bairro, Portugal
Local Rural Initiative Programmes, Finland
Educational Development Projects, Wales


Program

Thursday April 13
11.00 Transportation from Kiasma (Museum of Contemporary Art) Square to the Conference venue

12.00 Lunch

13.00 Opening of the Conference
Reijo Aholainen, Ministry of Education and Science

13.15 Chair: Eeva-Inkeri Sirelius, The Association of Finnish Adult Education Centres KTOL, Director

Keynote speakers

Local Learning Partnerships: environments for inclusive and flexible adult education
Professor Herman Baert, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium

Socio-cultural Animation as the Ideology and Methodology of Learning
Professor Leena Kurki, University of Tampere, Finland

15.00 Workshops

17.00 Sauna and swimming

19.30 Reception
Buffet Dinner, Cultural Programme


Friday April 14

09.00 Chair: Jorma Turunen, Workers’ Educational Association in Finland TSL, Director

Projects presented in plenum

· PRATO Learning City Project, Italy

· Viver o Bairro, Portugal

· Local Rural Initiative Programmes, Finland

· Educational Development Projects, Wales

12.00 Lunch

13.00 Workshops continued

15.30 Study Visits

19.30 Buffet Dinner
The 5th Anniversary Celebration of the journal Lifelong Learning in Europe LLinE


Saturday April 15

09.00 Chair: Tuula Haavisto, KVS Foundation, Chair of the Board

Market Place of Projects and Contacts
A possibility for the participants to exhibit their projects and find out about other projects as well as find new partners and ideas in the free exchange atmosphere of the market place.

10.30 Keynote Speakers

Local Development and Lifelong Learning
Michael Johnsson, European Commission

Adult Education and Local Development in a Cretan Mountain Village: A European Project
Professor Skevos Papaioannou, University of Crete, Greece

12.00 Closing of the Conference

12.30 Lunch


STUDY VISITS

CAISA
The International Cultural Centre

Kaisaniemenkatu 6 B
FIN-00100 Helsinki
http://kulttuuri.hel.fi/caisa
caisa@kulttuuri.hel.fi

Caisa is an international cultural centre in the heart of Helsinki City.

It aims to support the multicultural development of Helsinki by promoting interaction between people from different countries and by providing information about various cultures and about Finnish society.

In just its few years of existence, Caisa has developed into a centre already well-known to foreign newcomers, as it serves as an aid in their 'settling in'. The knowledge from various cultures is in turn used to benefit projects for educational and development purposes, for both children and adults.

Caisa's multinational staff is an important resource for Caisa. They plan and implement the centre's networking with those who use its services.

Network activities with other offices and organisations culminate in Caisa's autumn fair, arranged to inform people about the functioning and services of the City of Helsinki and various organisations.

Caisa's main principles are the freedom to exchange ideas and partnership.

Ethnic festivals, cultural evenings, discussion forums, art exhibitions and concerts are open to everyone.
Furthermore, as part of its role in the city and in different organisations, the centre offers counselling, listening and guidance.


HERO
HELSINGIN SEUDUN ERILAISET OPPIJAT RY.

Vilhonkatu 4 B 13, 00100 Helsinki
www.lukihero.fi (in Finnish)
hero@lukihero.fi

HERO is an association for the interests of people who learn in a different way e.g. dyslexic people, ADHD, people whose brain processes information in a different way; they may also have problems with their short-time memory, sense of their own body, slowness, clumsiness, uncertainty in determining directions, etc. Altogether these problems have caused them problems with learning and communication, often in their social skills.

HERO serves also parents, teachers, health care and social workers, employment officers, rehabilitation experts, civil servants, with training and information on ways of serving people with these problems.

HERO Centre organises many activities and services: consulting, training, groups for different hobbies (mainly training the missing functional skills), expert services in testing, therapy, rehabilitation, remedial teaching, etc., experimental projects looking for solutions and possibilities for people with these problems, publications. HERO also houses a book cafe, a room with several computers with programmes for training reading and writing or for training the uses of computers at the user’s own pace.

Mode of working
HERO operates as a partner in networks. There is a local network of representatives of the university department of remedial teacher training, rehabilitation experts, representatives of adult education providers, representatives of school planning offices in Helsinki and the neighbouring cities, etc.; a board of some 25 representatives from the Church , the National Board of Education, to the Union of Finnish University students, the doctors, researchers, libraries, and associations of several different kinds of deviating learners. HERO is a co-ordinator or a partner in a few projects, which again form other kinds of partnerships and networks, to e.g. adult education providing institutions and SMEs to find jobs.
The Centre itself houses not only HERO but also the MBD Association in Helsinki Region, the Association for the Support of the Dysfatic Children in Helsinki Region and the Association for Neurofibromatose in Finland.


KALLIOLA SETTLEMENT

Sturenkatu 11
00510 Helsinki
tel 7701 2310
fax 7701 2333
e-mail kalliola@kalliola.fi
Developing volunteer activities and networks
Activities of Kalliola Settlement
· Adult education centre
· Work with alcohol and drug addicts
¨ Nurmijärvi rehabilitation centre for alcohol addicts
¨ Kuvernöörintie halfway home
¨ Kisko rehabilitation centre for drug addicts
¨ Pasila open care unit
· Kalliola home for young people
· Work with children and youngsters
· Cultural activities
Supported housing project
The starting point is to support independent life among young people recovering from alcohol and drug problems.
The aims of the project are:
To develop
· settlement work,
· volunteer work and
· networks
The aims will be reached by:
· Training support persons;
· Developing networks between authorities and volunteer workers;
· Continuous training and advising voluntary support persons;
· All participants (voluntary support persons, those supported, authorities) learn together, develop and evaluate the activities.


MALMITALO
The cultural Centre of Northern Helsinki

Ala-Malmin tori 1
FIN-00700 Helsinki
http://kulttuuri.hel.fi/malmitalo
Malmitalo@hel.fi

Malmitalo is one of the three district cultural centres in Helsinki. Completed in 1994, it serves some 100,000 residents living in the area. Malmitalo arranges cultural and art events and provides facilities for all sorts of activities. The programme is tailored to meet the needs of residents and users. Visitors are free to come and go from morning to night, and the local residents and users of the Malmitalo are heard in planning the activities.
Malmitalo also has an Adult Education Centre. It arranges courses of a general educational nature and for goal oriented amateurs. Allowance is made in planning the courses for the wishes of the local residents and the need arising in the area. Among the subjects offered at Malmitalo are languages, the visual arts, handicrafts, data processing, cookery and music. The Adult Education Centre also arranges Open University courses and public lectures. The courses are open to anyone aged 16 or over.

Partnerships
The target groups of the Adult Education Centre defined by the Board in its strategy are those in danger of social exclusion such as immigrants, unemployed, handicapped, young families and pensioners. To reach these groups the Centre co-operates with partners (organisations, authorities, etc) who already have contacts with these groups. In 1999 following courses were planned on the basis:
· A course on voluntary work organised with the Social Office and local organisations doing voluntary work.
· A baby sitter course for young people organised with the local association of the Child Care Union.
· A Finnish course for senior immigrants organised with the Pensioners’ Association.
· Courses planned with the Social Office’s multicultural project. E.g. six immigrants attended the course ’Conciliation of Crimes and Disputes’ to be trained conciliators for immigrants.
· Courses in cookery, handicrafts and computing planned with the Social Office’s Unit for Mental Health.
· Sustainable Development and environmental issues should also be considered in the Centre’s programme. Here we have co-operation with local neighbourhood associations as well as national associations specialising in this field.
The experiences in co-operation have been positive. The strategy of the Centre is to widen this type of co-operation to reach those who do not find the Centre’s programme through ’normal’ marketing.

History writing project
The Centre takes part in ‘the Citizens’ History’ project launched by the Department of Social History of the Helsinki University. The project aims at saving local history in the internet. Local libraries, schools and associations work for the project, too. The Adult Education Centre organised a course on history and memory writing ‘History of People’, after which a computer course was held to train the students to use the computer and make their own history pages in the internet. The project continues in the Centre with an open home page work shop, where anyone can come and practise history writing of his own or of a local association etc.

The Adult Education Centre has well equipped teaching facilities for painting, ceramics, graphic art, sculpture, photography, porcelain and glass painting. It also has special rooms for cookery, sewing, weaving and fabric painting, a language studio and a music room. The ADP room has 14 computers for students.

Besides the Adult Education centre, Malmitalo houses also a City Library, an art school for children, a youth centre and a cinema.


EDUPOLI
Vocational Adult Education Centre

Lämmittäjänkatu 2 A
00810 Helsinki
tel 020 513 1721
fax 020 513 1759
www.edupoli.fi

EUROPEN – European Practice Enterprises and their partner contacts

This is part of a transnational network running a simulated company. There are about 3000 practice enterprises in different educational institutions all over the world. Our students are post-college / university graduate level interested in entrepreneurship (inner and outer). The link between the practice enterprise and real-world businesses runs through a partner enterprise which is a real local enterprise (Projektimyynti Leivo Oy). The executive manager of the enterprise is a member of the board of our simu-enterprise and provides the experience and views of entrepreneurship in close co-operation with the students.


VarmaDuuni (SureJob) ESF project

VarmaDuuni is a focused ESF financed educational project which searches a job / jobs and unemployed people who will be trained for these vacancies. The project has successfully created contacts to the local business world, other projects and organisations.

Women Entrepreneurs’ Network in Eastern Helsinki

EDUPOLI is the home base and provides the mode of working (EU Urban). There are 110 local women entrepreneurs in the network for co-operation and education / training. The impulse for this network was provided by encouragement to partnership projects initiated by the City of Helsinki. EDUPOLI will take the administrative responsibility with the help of the EU programme URBAN. That is why the ‘home base’ is there. Being the node of the network provides an excellent opportunity to develop entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship training in the area.


THE UNEMPLOYED IN MERI-VUOSAARI/
WORK & ACTIVITY
MERI-VUOSAAREN TYÖTTÖMÄT

Vuosaarentie 8
00980 Helsinki
tel 341 6291; 041 511 0525; 041 516 2919
fax 344 441 62
e-mail honkanen@nic.fi; mvt@nic.fi
www.nic.fi/~mvt

The Unemployed in Meri-Vuosaari
An association of the unemployed which initiated

Work & Activity
which includes

Recycling centre, Ekorasti
These together employed about 30 (formerly unemployed) people in 1998 and over 50 in 1999 with projects and recycling.

Ekorasti specialises in recycling IT devices. It may receive up to 10,000 kilos of used equipment per month. About 15% of the items are repaired by Ekorasti and sold on, either as IT packages or spare parts. The rest are disassembled for secondary use. Other recycled goods are also repaired for sale or donated to children’s or old people’s homes in Karelia or Vyborg, for example.
The idea of the Vuosaari recycling centre was put forward by a group of unemployed people in the area.

Goals and gains
Vuosaari, a suburb in eastern Helsinki, has a population of 27,000. It is the most multicultural area in Finland. There is a lot of construction in the area and new people are continuously moving in. There are a lot of unemployed people who have difficulties finding work due to their outdated education, a disability or their immigrant origin.
Ekorasti aims to offer a place where long-term unemployed people can get accustomed to working life again. For immigrants, Ekorasti has become a place to learn about the Finnish work culture. Ekorasti has served as a trainee workplace for almost 30 people. Some of its workers have found work on the open labour market, while some continue to be employed by the recycling centre.
· The unemployed people are the most obvious group to benefit from the activity.
· Quite a few of them have found a proper job after re-adjusting to working life in the centre.
· The costs of unemployment have decreased in Helsinki city.
· The firms have benefited from getting a cheaper channel of and free transportation for recycling their IT devices.
· Private people find a recycling system for the devices they are discarding.
· Nature.
· People in the country and outside who get recycled items for their use.
· Associations co-operating with the third world.
· Numerous pensioners on unemployment benefit who cannot be employed by the centre but who can do voluntary work there for the social contacts and sense in life. They also receive some small benefits like food and travel expenses. »