On the day that Lord Goldsmith’s Citizenship Review was released, learners and partners from the Workers’ Educational Association’s Active Citizenship project were busy celebrating their achievements in Sheffield. No-one swore allegiance to the Queen but there was a clear sense of shared experiences and of belonging to local communities.

More than 500 learners have been involved in a wide range of the project’s activities funded by the Academy for Community Leadership. People of all ages and many faiths, countries of origin and background spoke movingly of their experiences leading up to and during the project. The approach to engaging people in citizenship activities has been successful on the basis of a trusted multi-agency partnership approach at community levels.

One highlight of the project was a visit that learners made to Parliament to launch a booklet on Active Citizenship. The diverse background of learners has seen refugees who had been denied the right to vote in their own country querying why Yorkshire-born learners were so casual about elections.

Homeless people, substance misusers and former refugees joined pensioners and local community activists in showing how the Active Citizenship project had brought people together to learn from each other. They showed videos that they had produced and there is a wealth of evidence that the project has made a real difference to a number of people and had an impact of sections of the community.

This project is grounded in real communities, and the WEA will continue to run courses on similar issues. What we will find more difficult to fund is the essential development work that is essential to maintain contacts outside courses and the resources that have been available for travel to Parliament and other such non-teaching elements of the project.

We have a lot of statistical evidence about targets, but there is powerful evidence of learners’ personal journeys though the project and of the relationships that engage people as active citizens, with genuinely increased allegiance to the communities in which they live together.

For background information contact Ann Walker on 0113 245 3304 or Jol Miskin on 0114 2679934 or visit the WEA’s regional website: www.wea.org.uk/yh.