HUME GLOBAL LEARNING VILLAGE [1]
An Initiative Taken by a Local Government Council in a Diverse Community
The Hume Global Learning Village illustrates the key role of a local government council in fostering and supporting a vision for an inclusive learning community that integrates social, economic, and cultural development in a diverse community with considerable disadvantage. The Village, located in the northern suburbs of Melbourne has been sustained since 2003 through three phases of development.[2]
The Global Learning Village had its origins a decade ago in the action of Hume City Council in establishing a Safe City Task Force and adopting a Social Justice Charter and Bill of Human Rights. These initiatives reflect the diverse nature of the community with 140 nationalities speaking 125 languages other than English at home, and with 28.8% of the population born overseas. The strong concern for inclusion and social justice has been a driving force for this initiative since 2003.
The Village is a partnership of over 750 organisations and individuals. The community has been extensively consulted in the work of the Village, including strategic planning for the Village.
Strategies
The Village was given an early high profile in the community through the building of an impressive Global Learning Centre which incorporated a public library, community meeting rooms, training rooms, public access internet and a coffee shop. Funding and support was provided by the Victorian Government, Pratt Foundation, The Age newspaper, as well as Hume City Council.
A learning vision for Hume was built into the Hume City Council Plan for 2030 directed at widening lifelong learning opportunities, addressing disadvantage, enhancing quality of life, and fostering inclusion in the community.
Three strategic plans have been developed since 2003: Learning Together 1 (2003-2007), Learning Together 2 (2007-2010) and Learning Together 3 (2010-2013).
Learning Together 3 is a city-wide strategy reflecting the importance of lifelong learning and its promotion in many contexts.. This Action Plan is aligned with the Council Plan 2030 so that long-term perspectives are built into initiatives to be taken over the next three years. This third generation strategy reflects the maturing of partnerships built up since 2003 and positions learning as a strategic driver in the social, economic, and cultural development of Hume city. Its goals are focussed on building a culture of learning in the community, strengthening pathways to learning, employment and shared prosperity, and strengthening the commitment of partners through collaborative planning, community engagement and advocacy of learning.
Setting Directions and Governance
The Village remains the responsibility of Hume City Council and is funded by the Council with additional funding obtained from time to time for particular initiatives, such as building the Global Learning Centre. The Council is assisted by a strong Advisory Board while a Village Committee provides for active community involvement. The Advisory Board is chaired by a former Premier of Victoria, John Cain, with tertiary education, council and community membership so that a balance of community and external viewpoints is obtained. This mix has been creative and has continued to drive innovation in the work of the Village.
Innovations
An on-going process of innovation has been a feature of the Village. Innovations have included:
- Establishment of an Ideas Lab in the Global Learning Centre supported by the Victorian Government and several major ICT companies to foster innovation in applications of ICT in education and training.
- Conduct of an annual Hume Global Learning Village Research Day to enable researchers to disseminate findings relevant to development of the Village.
- Implementation of the Four Seasons of Learning programs to promote and structure learning activities throughout the year.
- Annual delivery of programs to further stimulate the learning environment including a significant Teachers Scholarship program and Village members forums providing an opportunity for presentations to members on contemporary learning issues by noted speakers.
Success Factors
The sustainability of this initiative has been driven by the following success factors:
- The strong leadership and support provided by Hume City Council throughout.
- A clear vision linked to strategic planning for the Council.
- Active partnership building that has developed networks throughout the community supporting the initiative.
- Strategic planning and the initiatives taken have been responsive to needs in this diverse community, and have shown progression in the work of the Village.
- A broad approach has been taken which has linked social, educational, cultural, and economic development.
- The balance and interaction of community and external viewpoints obtained through the machinery and programs of the initiative.
- The progression from an early phase of entrepreneurial leadership to a form of collective leadership as the Village has matured.
- Priority given to communication through print materials, special events, and the role of stakeholders such as the library service.
For Discussion:
- What do you see as the distinctive strengths of the Hume Global Learning Village approach that are likely to sustain this initiative? Are there lessons for other communities?
- Is this approach likely to be more relevant in a community with considerable ethnic diversity and areas of disadvantage so that needs are more transparent?
- In what ways could heritage learning based on the cultural heritage brought to Hume by migrants be made a stronger feature of this initiative? What should be the objectives?
- The Village aims to build up a learning culture in Hume. What are likely to be the best indicators of progress in achieving this objective? In what ways might this evolving culture be made more creative?
- What suggestions can you make to strengthen the work of the Village and speed up achievement of the 2030 vision?
Peter Kearns is the author of this paper. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Hume Global Learning Village, an Associate of the PASCAL Observatory, co-ordinator of the PASCAL International Exchanges, and Director of Global Learning Services. He has had careers as a teacher, Australian public servant and consultant, including a period as a member of the Australian Delegation to the OECD in Paris.
January 2011
[1] Hume has a population of 164,000 in an urban–rural fringe with considerable manufacturing industry. The area has been a destination for successive waves of migrants over the past 60 years.
[2] Information on the Global Learning Village is available from the Hume City Council website (www.hume.vic.gov.au [1]). The current planning documents, Learning Together 3 and Learning Together 2030 can be accessed from this site.
Comments
Sophistication of the HUME Global Learning Village
I am very impressed by the strategic nature of this initiative and its sophistication. City Council commitment to inclusion and social justice is obviously more than just words-deep -- and perhaps that is the crux of its success. The partnerships that have been built are also authentic and strong, which augurs well for its sustainability, as does the thoughtful governance structure. The developnment of the facilities -- the physical village -- is such a perfect focal point for the partners, the community, and the residents. Moreover, the programming sounds attuned to the needs of the various audiences. No wonder there is financial support as well.
In light of its size, the cultural diversity of Hume is staggering. I'm wondering about the relative size of the various cultural communities. Specifically, I'm wondering whether a more even distribution across cultural influences would itself advance inclusiveness. That is, would ethnically diverse communities wherein there are 2-3 dominant cultural communities be more inclined to overshadow the others and actually work against inclusiveness in an odd sort of way?
As for measuring outcomes, we will be keen to learn your approach over time. While the measurable behavioral outcomes (enrollments,, library usage, etc.) are straightforward, they are obviously only partial indicators. Making the case for the broader social and economic outcomes is the tricky bit we continue to struggle with here in Canada. The Composite Learning Index approach had great potential, but has not grabbed hold in a sustainable way. We will be watching with interest.
Intercultural relations in Hume Global Learning Village
Stacey is right to question whether the Hume Global Learning Village has taken suffient advantage of the high cultural diversity that exists in the district. While there have been activities under the Social Justice Charter program, the Village is now planning for a significant Intercultural and Heritage Learning project to be conducted over 3 years (20011-2013). It is hoped to take advantage of insights from other countries and communities. Ideas welcome.
Hume Global Learning Village by Peter Kearns
In a follow-up to my comment on Hong Kong, I must say that Peter Kearns’ Stimulus Paper on Hume in Melbourne, Australia, provides an explicit description on the kind of role a City/Municipal Council could, and should, play in engineering change and renewal of urban (indeed even rural) environments—its ‘total’ dedication to and involvement in the evolution of the necessarily multifaceted process of innovation, such as Hume’s Global Learning Centre and its ‘Ideas Lab’ (a fund of tested and probably also yet-to-be tested alternative ideas); the Learning Village Research Day (a dissemination event for research information); the Four Seasons of Learning (a conscious planning/scheduling of the year’s learning activity); and the Annual Delivery of Programmes. Hume endears itself to would-be twinning seekers/enquirers precisely on the varied whats, whys and hows of things in different (and flexible) contexts of a learning region in search of innovation, change, renewal and advancement (the latter being a distinctive part of the whole process of development that can be test-evaluated for feedback). In such a situation, partners (including the “twinning” cities) would benefit optimally from each other’s tested experience and plans. For people interested in issues—in the theory and practice of innovation—I think Peter Kearns’ summary of the success factors is quite instructive – favourably comparable to the classic works by Everett Rogers (Diffusion of Innovations, 1962 and subsequently reprinted). {Abel Ishumi}
Hume and the innovation process
Abel is right to seize on the multifaceted process of innovation that has occured in Hume. While there is a certain chicken and egg dilemma in untangling the components and relationships in this process, my hunch is that values are crucial in the process with the commitment of Hume City Council to its Social Justice Charter the origin and glue that has held the series of innovations together. This of course hinges back to the high ethnic diversity in the district which underpins the ial Justice Charter. So is this a chicken or an egg?
COMMITMENT BY LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Peter is correct regarding the driver of ethnic diversity which in itself brings both opportunities and challenges. Add to this the historical underachievement in the southern areas of Hume in education and employment. No doubt our community needs support. I believe the difference is that we have a council that understands the need (this required community champions and a sticky councillor and council officer in the early days), and a strong strategy and supporting plans to address the need.
Council provides a stewardship role supporting the Hume Global Learning Village members in achieiving both our and their goals. Its a kind of learning stimulus package. Council also acts as a trusted and neutral broker between the state and federal governments, tertiary learning institutions, schools, community organisations and private training providers regarding education and lifelong learning.
So in essence:
a community that needs it,
a local government that gets it, and
a strong plan to help win support and resources.
All supported by an active members network - The Hume Global Learning Village.