Presented at LILAC 2008

1. Alan Seatwo
Knowledge Management Specialist
How information helps to promote diversities and
social justice
An overview of an information literacy project involving
voluntary and community groups in Liverpool

2. Focus of this session
• Explain how Edge Hill University Community
Knowledge Transfer Project promote information
literacy and learning opportunities helped to form new
relationships between information and education.

3. WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER (KT)?
• ‘Knowledge Transfer is about transferring good
ideas, research results and skills between
universities, other research organisations,
business and the wider community to enable
innovative new products and services to be
developed. ‘
• Office of Science and Technology in DTI, 2002

4. CONTEXT: THE INSTITUTION’S POSITION
• Edge Hill’s Research Policy outlines the institution’s
own position in relation to Research and Knowledge
Transfer:
– ‘Edge Hill is a higher education institution and it is
the institution’s collective understanding of the role
played by knowledge in such institutions that
drives and shapes its research policy and the
associated research strategy’

5. THE ROLE OF LEARNING SERVICES WITHIN
KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER
• Learning Services aims to provide targeted support
for KT through specific outreach project work. The
two strands of activity managed by Learning Services
are:
– Community Knowledge Transfer Partnerships
– Clinical Information Services for the NHS

6. Knowledge Management Specialist
• Within the remit of the Knowledge Transfer
Specialist, the Knowledge Management Specialist
has a specific role to support Edge Hill University and
the voluntary sector in the North West.
– Support individual and organisational development
in the voluntary and community sector.
– Widening access to learning for all our
communities

7. The role of Knowledge Management Specialist
We aim to achieve this by developing, promoting and
delivering:
– Learning and development services for people
and organisations in the voluntary and community
sector.
– Innovative and non-traditional approaches to
learning - including e-learning - to employers,
communities and individuals.
– Learning for disadvantaged individuals and
communities.

8. What is diversity?
• Diversity not only assumes that all individuals are
unique, i.e. different, but that difference is value-
added…about learning to include different
perspectives and processes so that the work of the
group or organisation can be as effective as possible,
and to as wide a range of people as possible.

9. What is social justice?
• The notion that society should be organized in a way
that allows equal opportunity for all its members.
Social exclusion describes a lack of or exclusion from
full citizenship. Citizenship includes civil, political and
social rights such as access to education and
information, freedom of speech etc.
• "social justice" A Dictionary of Sociology. John Scott and Gordon Marshall. Oxford University Press 2005.
Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press.

10. My role within the project
• Incorporating four different aspects
– development worker
– educator
– information manager
– expert adviser

11. Skills that required for the role:
• Knowledge: understanding of the social work
profession & awareness of how laws and policies
• Skills: analyse social policy to determine its impact -
intended and unintended
• Values: should be committed to using knowledge and
skills to improve the lives of individuals and the
community.

12. Example 1: Merseyside Open College Network level 2

13. Example 1: Merseyside Open College Network level 2
• 44 were awarded MOCN and 13 were awarded NVQ Level
2.
• Six people gained new employment as part of the
outcome of the course;
• overall feedback to the input from our service is
excellent.

14. Example 1: Merseyside Open College Network level 2
• This flexible way of learning has helped
community groups understand how learning can
be achieved within and beyond the traditional
classroom environment.
• Feedbacks from the clients suggested that this
training programme helped raising their level of
self confident and awareness of information
literacy.

15. Example 1: Merseyside Open College Network level 2
• Christina is a volunteer of a community organisation
supporting domestic violence victims. ‘I am dyslexic
and this course gave me the confidence that I didn’t
have. Not only did I learn the community works skills
in the course, but I also learnt the skills where to find
information to support my work, I am surprised how
much a community development worker can use
from the census. I used to think only academics know
where to find these things.’

16. Other examples
• presentations in community
groups and conferences;
• working with a Chinese youth
programme in Liverpool
• developing online information
and communication tools for
community groups in rural
area.

17. Example 2: Wah Sing Chinese Community Centre
• Implementation of Child Protection Policy
– located the information resources from online and
directly from government agencies;
– took part in their committee meeting and explain
how the information was found;
– discussed key issues concerning the adoption of
the policy

18. Example 2: Wah Sing Chinese Community Centre
• Improvements were made on volunteer recruitment
and registration; building security and guidance for
teaching staff etc.
• We liaised with Merseyside Police to provide the
organisation further advice and support. Merseyside
Police confirmed an unconditional grant in a region of
£1,000 to further enhance the building security
facility.

19. Example 2: Wah Sing Chinese Community Centre
• Improvements were made on volunteer recruitment
and registration; building security and guidance for
teaching staff etc.
• We liaised with Merseyside Police to provide the
organisation further advice and support. Merseyside
Police confirmed an unconditional grant in a region of
£1,000 to further enhance the building security
facility.
• The Cantonese Opera Group within the Centre also
received grant from 08 Culture Company in total of
£4,500 to purchase musical equipment.

20. Other examples
• consultancy work for setting up Liverpool Filipino
Association and 08 Chinese New Year Co-ordinating
Committee;
• organising dyslexia awareness sessions for Chinese
community workers in Liverpool and Manchester
Chinese language school.

21. Outputs
• Since the project started in June 2005, over 277
people and 23 organisations were benefited from the
project. The project supported organisations to raise
£37,700 from various funding sources.

22. Self reflections
• The project helped to form new relationships between
information, education and the wider community
outside of the university.
• It takes time and trust to form relationships with
community groups.
• It covered a wide range of subjects, information
resources and skills.
• It achieved the aims of using information addressing
the needs of diversity and social justice.

23. Looking ahead
• New funding criteria and institutional focus on social
enterprise
• More emphasis on income generation
• Danger of becoming an income generation vehicle for
HE