Ms Elizabeth Waters:

If one wants to work with people who have been failed by the system, one has to work differently and cannot impose the same. We have a policy whereby our work starts with consultation. The success of the young women's programme was that it emerged from a process of consultation about what they wanted and they needed. It is the same as our young men's programme, which we have just initiated. It is a consultation process that involves an outreach to people. It is the co-creation of programmes that they believe will work successfully.

This works particularly well with young people but also older people. Sometimes we get lost in speaking about young lone parents, young men and so on. The vast majority of the 100,000 people who engage in community education are from disadvantaged communities and most of them are older. A cohort of people aged 30 years and upwards are trying to find their way again. In many ways, they are lost because they are not viewed as being a particular target group. These are the people who are most likely to become actively engaged in their community and bring about the type of social change - the resilience - that is needed.

There is a serious issue with competition for resources. It took 15 years in An Cosán, with which I have been for 25 years, to let go of competitiveness and move into collaboration because I have seen the power of collaboration. This is a long journey when one is fighting for such limited resources. If anything comes out of this meeting, it will be the call to resource community education adequately and recognise independent community education organisations, which work not under SOLAS but collaboratively with SOLAS. Core funding is needed if we are to be able to make the contribution we wish to make. I want to be able to provide funding for lone parents, most of whom are young women, and the young men's programme, which is focused on developing social enterprise with young men aged between 18 and 30 years. That is where we are, namely, pinching for bits and pieces, yet we know they will work.