Empowering parents and volunteers to take community-based action to address the educational needs of the school and the community was the main aim behind a training course organised by the Foundation for Educational Services (FES) and Appogg.

This course, for which the participants were awarded a certificate, took place over a span of 12 weeks, after which a proposal for a community project intended to be carried out in their local school or community was presented.

The Cottonera community team of Appogg, based at Access Community Resource Centre, hosted the course since the focus was on the Cottonera community.

Participants, who included mostly parents, also organised two courses, spread over five weeks, for other parents in Cottonera about "How to help our children with their studies" and "How to help our children build their self-esteem to do better at school". The courses were held at Lorenzo Gafà Boys' Secondary School and Birgu Primary School respectively.

Topics and areas dealt with throughout this course included group dynamics, communication, organisational and leadership skills, mapping and making use of community assets, reaching and working with families at risk, parent participation in school life through school councils, and designing of a community-based project.

This initiative by Cottonera Community Services is not a first for Appogg. Another project, Reach, funded by the ETC and organised jointly between Apogg, Sedqa, Access, Cottonera College, Erin Serracino Inglott Girls' Secondary School and Lorenzo Gafà Boys' Secondary School, was held earlier this year.

This comprised an alternative curriculum project implemented in two state schools in Cottonera, namely Lorenzo Gafà Secondary and Erin Serracino Inglott, aiming at offering alternative schooling to a small group of students and integrating them within the educational system.

The project aims at decreasing the rate of absenteeism, while empowering students by building relationships through informal sessions with the young people. This project will be continued throughout the next scholastic year with ESF funds.

The main aim of the Access complex is to make it easier for Cottonera and Kalkara residents to access a number of related services in an integrated manner.

In this complex, information, advice and support in a number of areas in a professional manner is aavailable including employment, housing, social work, parenting and other social benefits available.

The centre is also used by residents to hold activities such as parenting skills training, meetings by and for young people to plan social initiatives, exhibitions, cultural and other activities. Also, there is free Internet access for local residents together with literacy and IT skills training.

For further information about Access or on any other service within Appogg, the public is invited to log on to www.appogg.gov.mt or to the Website of the Ministry for Family and Social Solidarity www.mfss.gov.mt

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