What is the initiative and where is it implemented (city or country)?
The Programa de Formação em Serviço (Portuguese for In-Service Training Programme) of Contagem, Brazil, is a network that promotes work-based training and improvement of students’ learning. The initiative was based on the idea that education is linked necessarily with the development of the country and active citizenship. Training the citizens in the construction of knowledge, skills, and competences allows them to plan sustainable personal and professional life.
The Community Speaker Project, as a part of the In-Service Training Programme, aims at long-lasting collaboration with local families to support the underprivileged members of the community while promoting the values of lifelong learning.
How was the initiative established? How was it implemented?
Contagem’s city administration is active in addressing the challenges it faces, which include urban migration, racism, drug abuse and juvenile violence. One of its main goals for the years ahead is to support disadvantaged families and expand early childhood education, especially among the city’s most vulnerable population.
At the heart of the learning city initiative in Contagem are management committees responsible for creating a dialogue between the municipal departments and citizens. These committees comprise representatives of government departments (notably those for health, education, human development and social security), neighbourhoods, private universities and local associations.
Which stakeholders are involved in the design and/or implementation of the initiative? Which sectors do they represent?
Within the city’s In-Service Training Programme, community leaders work with staff from different departments (including education and health) and private-sector bodies to support the concept of lifelong learning. Universities share the cost of the Community Speaker Project (which is part of the In-Service Training Programme) with the city. They also provide rooms for conferences, meetings and workshops for public servants who are members of management committees. In addition, psychology students support community speakers in their work in the 10 schools involved in the project.
Schools, churches and public squares are used as venues by the city during learning events such as the June Festival or Students’ Day in August. Both events offer cultural activities for children and adults, centred on food, music, art, theatre and circus performances.
What are the impacts of the initiative in terms of facilitating lifelong learning? Who does it benefit and how?
Contagem cultivates a culture of learning throughout life and offers its inhabitants a wide range of learning activities, including non-formal learning opportunities designed to address the challenges faced by the city. It has developed a guide to equality-related education policies to support the creation of an inclusive society. Courses on disability, gender and racial equality further promote mutual understanding. The city’s efforts to build a more inclusive society are complemented by its diversity training programmes for working groups within the municipal services sector and its Portuguese language courses for refugees.
Through the Programa Sem Limite (the No Limit Programme), the city supports individuals with restricted mobility and insufficient financial resources by offering them free transportation to learning venues and health care institutions. The scheme provides vehicles adapted to users’ needs and is run jointly by the secretariats of health and education. To increase accessibility for people with hearing impairments and to integrate them into society, the municipality offers interpretating services courtesy of the Central de Libras (the Brazilian Sign Language Service).
References:
UIL. 2017. Unlocking the Potential of Urban Communities. Volume II: Case studies of sixteen learning cities. [online] Available at: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000258944 [Accessed 31 August 2020].