Throughout today’s Europe people tend to associate the idea of democracy with claims and rights, rather than responsibility and participation. We witness a situation of the individual’s fading commitment to the surrounding society in general, both at local, national and European level. This is partly due to the fact that individuals become part of more and more communities and connections, finding it increasingly difficult to answer questions such as: How should I act as a citizen? When am I a citizen and in connection to which society? Am I a member of the local community, of the nation, of the European or perhaps of the global society? It is therefore more than necessary to create a basis for anchorage and participation in communities at various levels, to create the tools that will enable the majority of people to participate in the practice of democracy.

The formal education system concentrates less on aspects relating to citizenship, or where it does so, it fails to explore the diversity of roles fulfilled by adults and their consequent responsibilities. This lack needs to be filled by the non-formal adult education sector, which provides the context for opening the learning environment to those who are no longer part of the formal system. The non-formal education is also an arena where inclusion of people at disadvantage takes place much easier, the links with working life and society in general are stronger, and meetings between cultures take place free from anxiety: all these make it an ideal place for working with the concept of active European citizenship.

Learning for democratic citizenship has been the one of the main priorities of the European Commission under the programmes that preceded the current Lifelong Learning Programme – for close to a decade now. Nonetheless, only very few of the projects financed by the Commission had the specific aim of exploring the relations between learning for democratic citizenship and non-formal adult education.

The work conducted under the ‘TEACh – Teaching European Active Citizenship’ brand has been focusing precisely on this aspect. We start from the premises that continued learning is fundamental to understanding one’s own identity, which provides the security in which to relate to others. The entire modus operandi of the venture could therefore be summarised in the formula

lifelong learning

strong identity

citizenship and participation.

Lifelong learning in a non-formal context provides a forum for the development and practice of citizenship competencies in all forms of interaction: multicultural, demographic, intergenerational, environmental, spiritual (i.e. the arts).   Those involved in offering such learning opportunities (i.e. adult educators, community workers, volunteers, teachers, animateurs, etc.) are pivotal to the changes taking place in society, and should be valued highly. They are the ones who can change ATTITUDES, the most challenging of all types of learning, and TEACh has made it its ambition to assist these people in completing their imperative mission of returning the citizen to the fore of democracy.