19.09.2017

A college to empower a healthy community for tomorrow’s world

EAEA GRUNDTVIG AWARD 2017. The Transformative College helps adult learners with mental illness to empower themselves and find their own path to recovery.

The Transformative College uses a space based on interactions to engage with people with mental illness, emotional challenges, and their carers.

The Transformative College is open to all, and wants to be seen as a place to engage in purposeful progression, with the aim of gaining direction towards recovery or management of each person’s unique mental and emotional concerns.

Focus on mind, body and spirit

The overall aim of the project is to provide a stable, coordinated response to a person’s mental health, physical and social needs thanks to the provision of a space that is solution-focused. It aims to support healthy lifestyles and enhances new relationships with self and others, social inclusion and community participation.

To achieve those goals, students aged from 18 to 78 years old had to choose a topic such as Anxiety & Panic Attacks, Food for the Mind or The Impact of Bullying on the Mind & Person. The class topics that were chosen were then co-produced and delivered by a student with lived experience and professional support to create a meaningful relationship with the class.

So far 200 students have attended classes in the past 12 months. Many impacts can be outlined.

The project helped students to empower themselves and find their own path to recovery. It also helped increase the hope, respect and responsibility of the students, thanks to a peer-to-peer approach.

The project is seen in a holistic perspective, focusing on people’s entire lives, including mind, body and spirit. The Transformative College, by employing a mental health recovery model that empowers students to create change and self-agency, helped to provide a new stable environment for its students.

The project: Transformative Learning – empowering a healthy community for tomorrows world
  • Award category: National projects (Ireland)
  • Learner target group: People with mental illness and emotional challenges, and their carers
  • Innovative practice: Holistic perspective on people’s lives

Project coordinator

Resources

The article series shares good practices on engaging new learners by introducing the nominees of the EAEA Grundtvig Award 2017.

Text: Lou-Andréa PinsonPhotos: Transformative College

22.03.2023 Education in emergencies

EAEA calls for international solidarity to support the people affected by the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria

EAEA stands in solidarity with all the people affected by the devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, calling on the international community to deliver consistent relief and recovery aid for these communities. Adult education is a fundamental brick of our society and will give an invaluable contribution to rebuild the affected communities.

16.03.2023 Bildung

Broader purposed, holistic learning is needed now more than ever

The ongoing European Year of Skills has put skills and the surrounding discussion into the spotlight. The new paper “Basic skills and Bildung” proposes that we should adopt a more holistic understanding of basic skills and rethink the teaching and learning approaches.

14.03.2023 inclusion

Taking steps towards safe spaces for adult learning: co-creating the SAFE Board Game

In February we had a workshop with members of the European civil society in Brussels in order to start with the co-creation stage of the SAFE Board Game. The participants agreed that a safe learning space is not just a place but is essentially how we create relationships that are self-reflective and inclusive.