It May take a Village to Educate a Community

Little V¹*

1. Hume City Council, Dallas, Victoria, Australia

Hume City Council recognises that learning and education are key determinants to economic and social wellbeing of individuals, families and communities. To address issues of social disadvantage, Hume City Council facilitated the development of the Hume Global Learning Village (HGLV) formed in 2003. The HGLV is a collaboration of 200+ learning and education providers, both formal and informal, working in partnership to increase community participation in learning, as the driver for real and sustainable change.

Throughout 2003 and early 2004, the Village members developed an action based strategy, ‘Learning Together 2004/2008’. The strategy was developed through extensive consultation with all stakeholders, and it encourages Village members to embrace a leading role to develop a learning community in Hume.

To assess and document short term and long term outcomes for the community, the Village has established a research committee of key Village members with the role of developing a research and evaluation framework using ‘best practice’ evaluation examples.

Key partnerships have been developed with both corporate and philanthropic bodies along the way to facilitate the development of the HGLV, and Hume’s flagship learning centres, the Hume Global Learning Centre and Visy Cares Learning Centre, Meadow Heights.

Even at this early stage, Hume has become a focus for other communities, both local and international who are interested in building a learning community, and are seeking to learn and build on Hume’s experience and strategies.

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