St Mungo’s Broadway Citizens’ Curriculum from the United Kingdom used the Citizens’ Curriculum to develop a weekly programme of activities for their residential college that supports homeless adults in improving their basic and independent living skills. Later on, the programme to work with learners who were homeless and engaged in part-time college was developed.
Consisting of 2 phases, the Phase 1 programme consists of a full-time educational programme including a variety of activities and lessons spread across the week, which cover many of the interlinked capabilities of the Citizens’ Curriculum: literacy, numeracy, health, digital, financial and civic, which together act as a package of holistic support for learners. In Phase 2, the Citizens’ Curriculum is implemented in a part-time day college. In Phase 2 especially, every aspect of the provision is meant to be shaped and led by the learners e.g. learners choose local places of interest for the walking group, learners write the script, manage the stage and perform the college’s annual theatre performance at the local community theatre.
The programme promotes the holistic aspect of the learning, while all support services are being embedded within the learning. The programme provides learner involvement in determining the curriculum to meet their needs and interests. Learners develop wider life skills through their experience of residential college e.g. developing social relationships, communication skills. Thus, the residential nature of the learning represents a great learning opportunity, especially for vulnerably housed learners.
It represents the flexible model that can be adapted for use in different delivery contexts, including other socially isolated groups. It aims at interlinking as many of the skills and capabilities as are relevant in the context, and suiting the needs of learners.