Fieldway Local Action Group (FLAG), Croydon The FLAG project is managed by Croydon's Continuing Education and Training Service (CET-S) and is based in one of their community centres in New Addington, the third largest council estate in Europe. The estate houses large numbers of lone parents, elderly people, refugees and other isolated or disaffected groups. It is a government priority zone, and deprivation exists across the estate, although it is worse in some areas than others. The idea behind the project was to take local people who had been educated at CETS and wanted to 'give something back', and train them to promote learning in their community. CETS provided training for these local residents to go out as 'Learning Promoters', giving information and encouragement to individuals within the community on a face-to-face basis. The learning promoters go out in pairs, introducing themselves door-to-door and encouraging people to think about learning. In return, the promoters were entitled to expenses, a contribution towards childcare, and a small allowance to spend on their own learning. The learning promoters themselves live in the area and understand the culture of the community, and this has been key to the success of this work. The approach that many learning promoters have taken is to sell learning by telling others; 'if I can do it then so can you', and this has been very successful. If people are interested, they are sent relevant information. The learning promoters have worked together as a team to publicise CETS and the learning opportunities it can provide, and in doing so they have improved their own skills, knowledge and confidence. Many have left to take up paid work or other opportunities. The project has been running for nearly four years, and during this time there have been around 15 learning promoters, who have reached over 1,300 potential learners. As a result of their efforts, many of the courses in the centre are full, with an estimated 70% of students having joined as a result of the learning promoters work.

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