Open Meeting Todiscuss Plans For Community Learning

Life changing experience was the name of the game on Tuesday (28th June) when an Alness audience was asked to reflect on a positive experience of adult learning. An invitation is extended to local people who were invited to attend to give their views at the first of two community meetings being held in Ross & Cromarty this week.  The gatherings aim to shape to feed into the developing Ross & Cromarty Action Plan for Community Learning & Development.

The first meeting in the Averon Centre drew in east coast communities from Ross and Cromarty. The meeting was well attended by a mixed audience including Community Council representatives, members of local community groups, local providers of adult learning and past participants of adult education events. West coast communities will have a similar meeting on Thursday (30 June) at the Ledgowan Lodge Hotel in Achnasheen.

The Highland Council is leading a partnership of agencies who are hosting the meeting, which aims

 To explain what the Community Learning & Development Action Plan is and how it is evolving
 To help refine clear priorities for the Plan.

Set up as a series of workshops, the meeting allowed everyone who attended to have a say, as comments were recorded with the use of flip charts and coloured pens. After hearing exactly what community learning and development was about and how it was a way of using learning and other support to positively help individuals and communities develop, the participants reflected on their own positive experiences, before looking at national priorities in the Highland context. Finally, those attending identified a list of learning needs  for individual communities in Ross & Cromarty.

Peter Hoffmann, Ross and Cromarty Area Community Learning and Leisure Development Manager, said: "I am delighted that people have given up an evening to help us decide how best to deliver community learning in the Area- their comments are really valuable."