The Waterford Women’s Centre works with women living in Waterford City and surrounding areas who experience social, cultural, educational and economic disadvantage. The Centre supports women through community development, community education, information and support.
– “community education embraces all three domains of learning, intellectual, physical and emotional (thinking, doing and feeling). It is a holistic approach to education that requires a skilled facilitator using a wide range of methods to facilitate the process of learning.”
– Garavan et al 1995
Key characteristics of the work:
• barriers to participation are addressed
• a needs based approach is used and learning takes place in a informal relaxed way
• a safe, respectful space is provided
“Community Education is education and learning which is rooted in a process of empowerment, social justice, change, challenge, respect and collective consciousness. It is within the community and of the community, reflecting the developing needs of individuals and their locale. It builds the capacity of local communities to engage in developing responses to educational and structural disadvantage and to take part in decision-making and policy-formation within the community. It is distinct form general adult education provision, due both to its ethos and to the methodologies it employs.”
– Aontas