First published on November 2011.
The seeds of hope can best be seen at a local level, in the countless examples of grass roots initiatives, where people come together – not just to compensate for the failings of government – but to affect real change.
The seeds of hope can best be seen at a local level, in the countless examples of grass roots initiatives, where people come together – not just to compensate for the failings of government – but to affect real change. In my own field of community media we daily see the value of making creative tools available to the public – in the case of the Engine Room in Bridgwater through the provision of a year round accessible high street drop in centre offering facilities and equipment supported by advice and expertise. Coupled with outreach projects, centres like ours create informal learning opportunities for all ages and for many of those who fall through the educational net, left wanting (as I was) by schooling, frustrated by circumstance and by the prevailing ideology which too readily writes people off for any number of convenient reasons.
In a competitive climate of getting and spending it is critical that people have an opportunity to explore their creative potential, to develop understanding and knowledge from becoming citizen producers rather than mere passive consumers.
Creativity Money Love: Learning for the 21st Century by Creative & Cultural Skills is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Illustrations by Paul Davis - http://copyrightdavis.blogspot.com/