Association for Community Colleges (ACC)
Association for Community Colleges (ACC)
Mr. John Petersen
Postbox 21
Sønderborg DK-6400
Denmark
Tel: +45 24 25 30 68
Fax: +45 73 63 00 23
e-mail: office@acc.eu.org
www: www.acc.eu.org
History
The ACC is in itself a living multiplying effect. The founders of the ACC were organizers and participants of the so-called minority-courses taking place at Højskolen Østersøen (Folk High School Østersøen) within the residential college format. The idea of the ACC is to widen the very good experiences on how to create a European public sphere/opinion obtained at these events. The coming into being of the Youth2002 as well as the Community Colleges we arrange throughout Europe is and was due to this multiplying effect. In 2003 ACC has been co-founding the Rites Tautskola (Rite Folk High School) that on Non-Formal basis works for European (Active) Citizenship. The Rites Tautskola is located in Jekabpils Raj, Latvia.
The ACC is offering a network of contacts for its members in all Europe. The activities of the ACC are thought of as cooperation between centre and periphery, where members can benefit from the services done by the central office. The ACC International programme office is working in close cooperation with local NGOs and our local committees and branches when setting up community college exchanges in different parts of Europe.
The ACC International Programme Office is functioning as a resource bank with budget-proposals, project-descriptions, ideas and documentation material available to its members.
We have set up "The Multiplier" which is a common web-bank of project-descriptions, budgets, "heavy" photos for print releases, guidelines etc. to be used by members wishing to set up their own events. The re-organising was due to the Bridging Community Colleges which took place in Sopron, Hungary, November 3rd - 9th 2003 and which made a lot of new proposals come up for future Community College initiatives all over Europe. The new guidelines on "The Multiplier" are then adjusted to the needs of young organisers of exchanges throughout Europe.
"The Multiplier" should be mentioned as well alongside the "First European Community College". Via "The Multiplier" we are collecting CV´s of and course proposals from Young Europeans. We hope in some future to be able to employ the ones having good proposals and who see themselves as educators in Non-Formal European educational contexts. The "First European Community College" is a main ambition of the ACC in the coming years. We are working on opening an institution for European General Education in (probably) Denmark and within the Act on Folk High Schools. The core idea of the school (legally an NGO, but with buildings etc.) is that European Citizenship issues should be on the agenda of General Education and that it should be run by and for young Europeans.
Alongside the resource bank we are running a common website for the promotion of our exchanges, our political work and our articles and other texts. This service is available from the www.acc.eu.org
The ACC International programme office functions as well as a workshop for the members. Members arrive time and again to work at the office for some days or a week in order to prepare programmes and events.
During 2003 the ACC was registered as a publishing house in Denmark. The first two issues of the ACCENT magazine were planned and edited. The printing of these first two issues took place in December 2003 and were released in the beginning of 2004. The ACCENT no. 1 dealt with the Rights and Duties of Europeans and in close connection with the European Constitution-Treaty. The ACCENT no. 2. was a report on the Transylvanian complex multicultural region as seen in the context of the EU-Enlargement. The ACCENT no.3 is scheduled for 2004. It will deal with the challenges of the EU-enlargement. The ACCENT number 4 is scheduled to be released in the beginning of 2005, and will debate interreligious dialogue and European rights, duties and values. The ACCENT no 5 is planned for 2005 and is to deal with validation of competences achieved in non-formal learning situations. All issues are edited and produced by young Europeans for young Europeans. The reason of being of the ACCENT is!
that it contributes to the development of a European public sphere / opinion via Youth participation.
During 2003 several Danish Folk High Schools have had follow-up events on Youth 2002 Youth. These events have involved more than 100 young people from all over Europe. In 2004 the Danish Folk High Schools have carried out a huge International Conflict-Management project, which explicitly follows up on the Youth2002. It involved many hundred young people just as it can be thought of as continued education for Danish Folk High School teachers.
In general the year of 2004 has been a year of networking with attending different types of conferences, meetings and activities, for instance the "Networking European Citizenship Conference" in Santiago de Compostela and participation in the International Week-activity organised by the Danish National EU Coordinating Unit, CIRIUS. Furthermore, the ACC was nominated for the "Newropeans Think Tank award" in Paris and the organisation received an award for outstanding global work from the Organization Development Network at a conference held in Puerto Rico.
Main act
The ACC:
• promotes the idea of establishing a common European law supporting
community colleges
• organises community college courses
• lobbies the authorities to promote the idea of creating and running
common European community colleges
• debates common European issues.
Intenational projects
These are activities we have carried out since 2000. It is all more thoroughly described at the website www.acc.eu.org
Exchanges:
August 2000 Campaigning for Community Colleges, Latvia, appr. 40 young people from all over Europe.
November 2000 Final Editorial Conference, Denmark, appr. 30 young people from all over Europe
April 2001 East/West Exchange, 10 young Danes in Latvia during the Europe week.
June 2001 Transylvania Community College 2001, Romania, appr. 50 young people from all over Europe
December 2001 Schools for Europe CC I, Denmark, appr. 30 young people from all over Europe
April 2002 Experimental Constitution CC, Denmark, 20 young people from all over Europe
July 2002 Youth2002, Denmark, around 900 young people from all over Europe (as part of the organisation/network Youth2002).
July 2002 EU/Development Community College (part of Youth2002)
February 2003 Schools for Europe Community College II, Denmark, 30 young people from all over Europe.
August 2003 Europe of Rights Community College, Italy, 40 young people from all over Europe.
August 2003 Transylvania Community College 2003, Romania, 50 young people from throughout Europe.
September 2003 Bridging Community Colleges, Hungary, 15 ACC Committees from throughout Europe sharing experiences.
EVS-projects:
2001-2003 Four volunteers in office up until now: Ruben Marcos (ES), Eric Pichereaux (FR), Naomi Woltring (NL).
2002 12 volunteers in Denmark to help the folk high schools active in the Youth2002 project (see enclosure).
2003 Volunteer at the Højskolen Østersøen, Aabenraa (DK): Torben Grocholl (D)
Conferences etc.:
July 2000 Conference together with FFD and Højskolen Østersøen, "Visions for Europe…", Denmark
April 2001 Conference and Seminar together with AWE-Denmark and AWE-Council, Denmark.
November 2002 Enlargement Tour: 10 young people from all over Europe (incl. candidate countries) travelling around Denmark just before the EU-Summit to tell about the Enlargement as seen from their perspective.
September 2003 Snoghøj Seminar, Denmark. For 13 members of the working body of the ACC.
October 25th 2003 The Rites Tautskola in Latvia was co-founded by the ACC together with a Local Latvian and The Swedish-Danish Support Circle. The school is now legally an NGO.
These are our activities / Community Colleges in 2004:
January 2004 Release of the ACCENT no.1.
February 2004 Release of the ACCENT no.2.
July 2004 Rural Development Community College (RDCC)
August 2004 Challenges of Enlargement Community College (CECC), 40 young people from all over Europe.
September 2004 Europe of Rights Community College, (European Identity, the role of religion in human rights and new rights) 40 young people from all over Europe.
October 2004 First European Community College - seminars, networking and publication.
December 2004 Release of the ACCENT no.3.
All year First European Community College preparation
Moreover, the following activities have been carried out at the Rites Tautskola (our new NGO in Latvia):
- July 2nd- 11th - "Diverse world" children camp in Rites Tautskola, Rite (LV)
- August 27th-29th - 5 years reunion of children camps participants at Rites Tautskola (LV).
- October 28-31 2004 - Seminar with 24 participants on: "European Parliamant - what does it mean for me?", Rite Folk high school (LV).
- courses for entrepreneurs and individual workers,
- psychological support to unemployed and low income local people,
- courses for farmers,
- courses on writing and implementing projects,
- English language courses for adults (responsible I.Butkus),
- courses on environmental issues,
- creative courses.
Activities/ community colleges planned for 2005:
Mai 2005 Schools for Europe Community College III
Spring 2005 Demos Community College
June 2005 Bridging Community Colleges
August 2005 Cornwall Community College
August 2005 Representations Community College
The main task through 2001 was the preparation of the so-called Youth2002 together with four other associations and 13 folk high schools in Denmark. The Youth2002 gathered around 900 young European citizens during summer 2002 in Denmark.
As is well known to the commission, the Youth2002 is partly due to the effect of multiplicity caused by the voluntary work of the ACC.
At the World Council meeting of the Association for World Education, April 7th, 2001, the ACC was approved as a European branch of this organization. Our board member Mjellma Mehmeti was elected as a world council member together with the chairman John Petersen, who automatically has a seat. This made our network even bigger, both in Europe and in the rest of the world.
The ACC nominated Mjellma Mehmeti as a candidate for the award "Young European of the Year" in summer 2002. The award ceremony took finally place in Berlin on December 2nd, 2002, and hereinafter we are proud to be able to refer to our board member Mjellma Mehmeti as "Young European of the Year 2002".
One late 2002 project was the so-called Enlargement Tour. During the Enlargement Tour week in Denmark, we had an occasion also to discuss the future of the ACC. Please find enclosed the resulting work plan for 2003-5, which among other things made clear for us, that we are going to work for the establishing of a First European Community College, understood as a non-formal general education institution managed by Europeans and for Europeans and dealing with the common issues of Europeans.
The planning of the First European Community College has been one of the main activities during 2003.
In December 2002 the ACC board together with an enlarged working group had a very fruitful seminar in which the aim of founding the FECC was included in the working plan for the years 2003-2005.
In February 2003 a group of 30 young Europeans met at the "Schools for Europe Community College II" in order to edit the spring issue 2003 of the Journal of World Education. The "Journal" can be seen as a compilation of preparatory and PR-material in order to set the stage for the founding of the FECC. This step in the process was especially important since a group within the group of 30 were working on a proposal for a set of bylaws for the FECC. The "Journal" including the first proposal for bylaws was released in April the same year.
We have uploaded the proposal for bylaws (version one) to the website in order to allow everyone to comment, criticize, and to advise us on what should be changed in order to prepare the next version.
The first project description of the FECC was created in October 2002 and since then there has been more than 15 versions. This means that the project keeps on developing, gathering inputs from the board, the members and other organisations or individuals. ACC-members are in particular contributing by offering themselves as future Community College facilitators and with concrete suggestions for courses and events to be carried out at the FECC. All this happens through "The Multiplier" at our website.
The most recent contribution to the debate about contents of the FECC came during the Snoghøj Seminar in September 2003. A public seminar was organised at the Snoghøj Højskole, Fredericia (DK). Again, and enlarged ACC working group was debating and this time with a public audience on what should be the contents of a institutions aiming at adding real life to the concept of (Active) European Citizenship. A range of proposals are now included in the most recent project description of the FECC.
On October 25th the ACC co-founded the NGO Rites Tautskola (Rite Community College).
The ACC has for some years been co-operating with the Rites Tautas Augstskola in Latgale, Latvia. During the summer of 2003 people backing the school have been working on re-founding the school as an NGO. Up until now it has in legal terms been a limited company (SIA). The re-founding as an NGO will to a larger degree make it possible for the school to apply for funds just as the re-founding should be seen in the context that the NGO will take over the property, so that the school owns itself.
Since especially ACC-members in Latvia have been actively organising Community Colleges and other events at the school, the ACC was invited to be among the co-founders of what is now named the Rites Tautskola (RT). Please find more information about the school at http://www.zednet.lv/~rta/ The site is not 100% updated, but there are a lot of photos showing the site of the first school with ACC directly behind it.
During 2003 ACC was registered as a publishing house in Denmark and the first two issues of the ACCENT magazine were planned and edited. The printing of these first two issues took place in December 2003 and was released in the beginning of 2004. The ACCENT no. 1 deal with the Rights and Duties of Europeans and in close connection with the European Constitution-Treaty. The ACCENT no. 2 reports on the Transylvanian complex multicultural region as seen in the context of the EU-Enlargement. The ACCENT no.3 is scheduled for 2004. It will deal with the challenges of the EU-enlargement. The ACCENT number 4 is scheduled to be released in the beginning of 2005, and will debate interreligious dialogue and European rights, duties and values. The ACCENT no 5 is planned for 2005 and is to deal with validation of competences achieved in non-formal learning situations. All issues are edited and produced by young Europeans for young Europeans. The reason of being of the ACCENT is that it c! ontributes to the development of a European public sphere / opinion via Youth participation.
Publications
ACCENT
Mission statement
Mission statement:
The ACC is working for the development of a European public sphere.
he main idea of the ACC is that a unique way of promoting this objective would be through establishing community colleges on a common European level.
The vision of the Association is to establish community colleges all over Europe.
The ACC defines community colleges as schools that:
• take their starting point in an idea and an objective, which has
been defined by a non-governmental group of people running the school (this
could be interpreted as the principle of subsidiarity),
• have as their ideal boarding-school courses that last for a longer
period of time (preferably at least one month),
• organize courses on topics of common (European) interest in
accordance with the idea of the group running the school,
• are "governed by culture" in the sense that life at the individual
schools should be influenced by local traditions and culture
• have adults as their target group; adults who are interested in
learning and thus also in paying part of the courses themselves.
