| The report on community learning and development, published today, identified several key strengths with the main recommendation to the council being to keep up the good work.
Dundee City Council is the only local authority to have received an assessment with a rating of good or very good in each of the report’s 32 categories of review.
Communities convener Chris Hind said today, “The report is down to the excellent work carried out by the staff. We try to help people in our communities and this report is an example of what can be achieved.”
The strengths identified in the report were:
l The range and diversity of high quality learning opportunities for young people
l The very effective delivery of literacy programmes
l The significant achievements made by community and voluntary organisations supported by the department
l The highly effective ethos and values in the department at all levels
l The leadership provided by senior staff, accompanied by a clear vision for the department, which ensured that all staff were clearly focused on priorities.
HM Inspectors observed sessions on 46 occasions and carried out 71 interviews with staff, members of relevant organisations and participants in activities.
Several community groups and organisations were also commended in the report, including The Corner, The Shore, The Adult Literacy and Numeracy partnership, The Hilltown Horizon, U3A and Menolej groups, Hilltown FM and FACE.
The report states, “The Corner and The Shore provided very good learning opportunities in an accessible city-centre location. The Corner offered sexual health advice and information to over 9000 young people in 2003-04, 70% of who came from priority areas.
“The Shore provided a dynamic youth venue for 11-18 year olds. It offered alternatives to exclusion and risk-taking behaviours through an exciting and diverse programme. Both projects provided a very effective foundation for other initiatives with young people throughout the city.
“The Adult Literacy and Numeracy partnership was working with learners recovering from strokes and other brain injuries in an Aphasia Group. The group needed to re-learn literacy and numeracy skills and had been targeted in the Community Learning Plan.
“The Hilltown Horizons, U3A and Menolej groups had devised, developed and delivered learning projects on a variety of subject areas such as local history, languages and photography.
“Hilltown FM provided a very good example of a community marking and celebrating its achievements.
“FACE (Fighting Against Child Exploitation), a group run by and for young people who have been sexually exploited, is a successful partnership venture among a number of statutory and voluntary organisations in Dundee including The Corner.”
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