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Saolta – Empowerment for a better world through Adult and Community Education.




29/09/2019

Drogheda based NGO Development Perspectives is delighted to lead a consortium of organisations chosen by Irish Aid to be their new strategic partners for the Adult and Community Education sector in Ireland.

The partnership, which also includes AONTAS, Concern Worldwide, Irish Rural Link and the Adult and Community Education Dept of NUIM, will take the form of a programme called “Saolta”

Saolta, an Irish word that translates to ‘Worldly Wise’ is the perfect title as the programme will explore a variety of global issues with stakeholders from the Adult and Community Education sector along with encouraging action across Irish society. Issues such as poverty, inequality and climate change will feature strongly as areas of engagement.

The programme will target the Adult and Community Education workers in a variety of ways including interactive workshops with Further Education Institutions and Public Participation Networks across the country.

Another aspect of ‘Saolta’ - The SDG Advocate programme will offer active citizens an opportunity to represent their community, by becoming one of Ireland’s positive changemakers. The eight-month training course will allow the advocates to deepen their understanding of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals, represent the project internationally and lead transformative change in Ireland. The chosen participants will travel to Vietnam or Tanzania for 2 weeks for a work/study visit that will afford an invaluable chance to experience first-hand perspectives and challenges that people face in a different global context.

Other facets of the programme will involve coaching and mentoring, webinars, networking meetings along with a library of resources which will also be produced over the next 2- 3 years.

The Development Perspectives team is excited at the possibilities this innovative new partnership will present. Bobby McCormack, Co-founder and Director of Development Perspectives, says: “Education needs to be transformative in order to be truly effective - this is what we will offer through Saolta. We believe that informed and engaged citizens are best placed to address complex social, economic and environmental issues and working with a variety of multipliers throughout Irish society is the best way to create these active citizens.”


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