Recovering Outreach : Concepts, Issues and Practices

A succession of recent policy and funding initiatives aim to encourage education providers to work more with their local communities and to develop responsive opportunities that will help create a culture of learning, assist community regeneration, and combat social exclusion.

Outreach is central to these agendas and is essential if lifelong learning is to become a reality and institutions are to meet widening participation targets.

There has been a long period in which such work has been accorded low priority.

Now, many education providers have to recover some of the concepts, practices and skills required to make an active engagement with their local communities and extend their services to groups who are not taking advantage of mainstream provision.

Veronica McGivney's study explores the multiple understandings and connotations of the term 'outreach', the complex questions and issues involved in engaging with local communities, and the very broad range of skills that this kind of work requires.

It outlines the diversity of aims and practices in different education sectors, illustrating the varying importance attached to outreach work by different organizations and institutions. The study is intended as a resource for staff in organizations, institutions and voluntary groups that are engaging in the process of widening adult participation in learning.