The Workers’ Educational Association in partnership with

Presents
 

Me, Myself, I/Take 2

A photography project for the over 50's LGBT community

How do senior groups support and sustain learning within their groups in today’s difficult funding environment?  The Learning Age team have developed a new Learning Sustainability Guide to help older people take control of their own learning and create a learning culture where later life learning is an integral part of the group’s activities.

It is now widely recognised that later life learning encourages people to come out and learn with others and develop new skills.  Classes and activities for older people help to increase confidence whilst socialising and learning helps to ease isolation and helps make new friendships. However, the recent economic climate is making the sustainability of later life learning more difficult than ever before.

This LAP Sustainability Guide has been developed in collaboration with older learners and groups in the ageing sector and is intended to provide advice and support to older adults wishing to organise their own learning activities. 

A group of men from the Colin area are taking part in a joint project with the WEA’s Learning Age Project and the Colin Neighbour Partnership. The men from the Colin Men’s Group will work with WEA tutor and artist Charlie Bosanquet to design and produce a bespoke chandelier made with fused coloured glass and recycled glass for Cloona House Entrance Hall.

Many of the men in the group have experienced extreme personal difficulties and have overcome many obstacles in life. They have found a renewed sense of hope through joining the men’s group and they wish to take part in a project which will highlight the journey many of them have made for a very dark place into the light.

The project is both of a creative and social relevance. It will help support the men in acquiring new skills or deploy and enhance existing ones in a shared creative endeavour. The concept of ‘from the darkness into the light’ comes from the men themselves and they believe the chandelier will be a symbol of their progress and the life experiences that has brought them to this point.

By displaying it in Cloona House – the hub of the local community- they hope it will act as a symbol of hope and the power of working together in the community, not only for the men’s group but for the community as a whole.

Body Wisdom recently performed their latest dance piece Views from the Hill at the Millennium Forum Studio to great acclaim.

Body Wisdom is the unique dance project which offers older people the opportunity to train and develop dance work under the gentle guidance of Steve Batts, Artistic Director of Echo Echo Dance Theatre Company. The project began under the Learning Age Project initially as a training and skills build programme. The idea of the project, as Steve puts it, is to

"Draw on the deep wisdom embedded in the experienced physicality of older people. Often the emphasis on dance is placed on the athlecticism of young dancers. Here being older is to the advantage. It is something as an older dancer now in my fifties that I am particularly interested in"

Two drama groups under the Learning Age Project from the North West will be developing a new film project during Adult Learners Week.

Dont......be my guest is a play about bogus callers which was originally funded by  the community Safety Partnership (Derry City Council) and The Atlantic Philanthropies. The play and tour of the performance has been so successful that the CSP have invited the WEA  to film the play. The two theatre companies involved; Top Women and The Happy Go Luckies have emerged from the Learning Age Project. Both companies now have quite a reportoire of plays and performances under their belt within the last four years of LAP.

The Workers' Educational Association has offered education projects catering specifically for the needs of older learners aged 50+ for many years and the Learning Age Project (LAP) is our latest programme funded by The Atlantic Philanthropies.

The Workers' Educational Association has collaborated with Echo Echo Dance Theatre Company over the years to create many wonderful dance projects together and we are delighted to announce that "Body Wisdom" - a dance course with a difference is now extending its programme with new funding from the BBC Performing Arts Fund. "Body Wisdom" has run successfully over the past three years with a beautiful performance "Mapping Memories" in April this year.

Starts: 21st October 2011
Runs for: 6 Friday morning 10.am - 12 Noon.
Venue:  Echo Echo Dance Studio

Body Wisdom is a dance project designed specifically for those aged 50+ and rather than age being against you in terms of movement, it is used to your advantage to help inform the movement taking place.

The Association for Education and Ageing, Age Action Ireland &
Workers' Educational Association N I
& The New Dynamics of Ageing
Research Programme UK

present an international conference 20-22 March 2012

NEW DYNAMICS OF LEARNING AND AGEING:
RESEARCH, POLICY AND PRACTICE

at the National University of Ireland Maynooth (NUIM), Dublin

The WEA Learning Age Project (LAP) recently celebrated the achievements of older learners at an event in the Long Gallery, Stormont. The event held as part of Adult Learners Week allowed learners the opportunity to showcase their work and provided an opportunity to celebrate the talents of older people. The learners took centre stage at the event speaking about their experiences of the programme and showing digital stories they had produced . Joining in the celebrations were MLAs Chris Little and MIke Nesbitt who acknowledged the importance of later life learning and the work of the WEA.

The WEA were invited by Age NI to be a partner on a recent exciting digital storytelling project entitled: "Stories of our Age".

The project was aimed at older people living rurally and to give them the opportunity of having their voices heard on issues affecting them as they grew older. It also offered them the chance to develop some new skills using digital technology. This was not a prospect the participants were particularly looking forward to as many did not have much experience of working with computers. However with patience and perseverance, all the participants on the project developed a wonderful digital story. One participant has recently received a new lap top from her family and is delighted that she can now use it to create other digital stories for them.