Taking a Leap Forward The sign above the door says Bristol Community Education Shop. This is a community centre in Withywood, a suburb of Bristol, a place where adult education used to be unheard of and where aspirations are low. The building has many functions: a meeting place for community groups, a subsidised restaurant, creche, and adult education. It also houses the local education access programme - LEAP - which will help adults into higher education. In a room above the centre, Lindy Clifton is taking a class on Working in the Community. All the women are single parents, and they are also intelligent - this is a demanding Level Three course accredited by the Open College Network, tailored to local needs. The women would not he able to attend class were it not for the free good quality childcare. Cheryl O'Connor says, "We'd like to get back to work but for the high cost of childcare. I want to take a two-year course as an NNEB but the government is only funding me for one year. How am I supposed to pay for that extra year? I want a good qualification so I can earn decent money and support myself." There is a trap if you are a single parent on income support: you only get funding for one year's education and limited help with childcare costs. But there is a much bigger trap - the postcode. Distant from the city centre and employment, BS13 is as deprived as any inner urban area. Project worker Jackie Tuck says, "We are a peripheral housing estate. There is a history of poor schooling locally. People come to our centre because it doesn't feel like a college to them." ACLF funding has made a big difference. The project offers a limited range of courses - currently Women, Job or Career?, English, Maths GCSE and Working in the Community. All these courses have been run at the suggestion of the participants and all will become modules towards a qualification which will give access to higher education. There is a strong will to succeed and an intense concentration. Cheryl completes her assignments by staying up to midnight after her children have gone to sleep and on the odd occasions when her ex-husband takes the children. NAME: LEAP BRIEF: To pilot a community-based access to HE programme TARGET GROUP: Bristol residents in areas of social/economice disadvantage FOCUS: To promote community action in areas of low income, few formal qualifications and high levels of unemployment and lone-parent families GRANT: Major MANAGED BY: NIACE

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