1 / 12

Empowering Communities Through Social Inclusion and Lifelong Learning

This seminar aims to provide a common language for public library service managers and senior staff to confront confusion and enhance community building. Key concepts include social capital, social engagement, capacity building, and addressing the digital divide. Topics covered range from citizen engagement to the need for better governance arrangements. Participants will learn about the three kinds of social capital and the importance of lifelong learning in fostering a vibrant and inclusive community. Join us to explore ways to strengthen community ties, promote social justice, and bridge the digital gap.

lpaine
Download Presentation

Empowering Communities Through Social Inclusion and Lifelong Learning

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Libraries Building Communities: delivering the message A seminar for public library service managers and other senior staff Key Concepts

  2. Providinga common language • Need for a common language • Confront the confusion that can be caused by the range of terms used • Practical and simple meaning • Concepts - help us understand the values and principles that underlie community building

  3. Communitybuilding • Developing communities which are active, confident and resilient • Respond confidently to change • Embrace opportunities as they arise • Enhancing the ability of the community to work together through: • Better links, networks and partnerships • Development of skills e.g. leadership • New governance arrangements • Providing public places which support communication and interaction

  4. Community Building - Goals and principles • Goals of economic, social, cultural and environmental well being • Principles of citizen engagement, local democracy and social justice • ‘Bottom up’ approach - driven by local vision • Recognition that people and relationships are central • Focus on building stronger community linkages • Focus on need to change the way government delivers service to communities

  5. SocialCapital • Social capital refers to the networks and links between residents, organizations, businesses and government. • Social capital - the glue that holds a community together • Helps create a sense of identity, trust and common purpose within the community • Provides a channel for exchanging knowledge and information • Enables residents to act collectively

  6. Three kinds of social capital • Bonding social capital - the ties between people and organizations that are alike such as families and ethnic groups • Bridging social capital - ties across groups who are not alike. It seeks to forge greater understanding of the needs and perspectives of others • Linking social capital - promotes involvement and inclusion across social strata - focuses on inclusion of people who have been physically or socially excluded from decision making within the community • Linking is one of the most challenging tasks facing community building

  7. Social engagement • Promotes the active participation of communities and individuals in decisions that affect them • Critical ‘new frontier’ in government thinking, social engagement has led to a search for new and better mechanisms for engaging communities

  8. Social inclusion • Ensuring all members of the community have the opportunity to participate in our core institutions and experience a sense of belonging and ability to contribute to community enterprise

  9. Social exclusion • Social exclusion - when people or areas suffer from a combination of linked problems such as unemployment, bad health, poor housing and high crime • Key risk-factors include: low income; family conflict; being in care; school problems; being an ex-prisoner; being from an ethnic minority; mental health problems, age and disability. • Overcoming social exclusion is one of the biggest challenges for community building

  10. Capacity Building • Strengthening individual, organisational and community capacity • Building new skills • Growing leadership • Increasing ability to work together • Developing people’s ability to make active use of leisure time e.g. by engaging interest and involvement in the arts.

  11. Lifelong Learning • Acquiring and updating all kinds of abilities, interests, knowledge and qualifications from the pre-school years to post-retirement • Moving away from learning as preparation for life and work, to learning as an integral part of life and work • Values all forms of learning, including: formal learning, such as a degree course; non-formal learning, such as vocational skills acquired at the workplace; and informal learning, such as inter-generational learning

  12. Digital Divide • The gap between people with the resources, capacity and skills to use the Internet and related technologies and those without • Concerns • The ability to access and use information is not equally distributed. • Impact on community capacity to develop socially and economically

More Related