As Ireland’s largest provider of community education, An Cosán is pledging to empower a further 20,000 people to transform their lives by 2030.
Over 20,000 people’s lives have already been transformed through our unique model of education provision and, with the launch of our Strategy for 2022 – 2026, we aim to reach another 20,000 by 2030. This will include not only adult learners, but children, parents and families too.
Speaking at the launch of the new strategy, Vision 2026: Transforming Lives Together, Chair of the Board of Directors, Anna Durkan, said, “I am delighted to share our new strategy. It is bold, ambitious and builds on the remarkable strengths of the team and expertise that An Cosán has developed. It recognises the need to constantly innovate and improve our services in early years’ education and care, counselling and family support, and adult community education.”
Ms Durkan said that, since An Cosán was set up in 1986, over 20,000 learners had been enabled to access education and go on to live better lives. “Now we’re working to grow that impact across the country and reach another 20,000 people over the next eight years,” she said. “We are committed to reaching even more adult learners, children and parents, and having an even greater influence to achieve our vision of ‘a world where everyone can access education to achieve their full potential’.
“Our strategy positions us to promote inclusivity by working with the most marginalised,” she continued. “It empowers us to influence systemic change, whether that is directly through influencing government policy, or through encouraging our learners towards active citizenship and enabling them to influence factors that affect their lives.”
An Cosán CEO Heydi Foster said that, as a forward-looking feminist organisation, An Cosán’s mission was to empower women and children left furthest behind through learning, leadership and enterprise. She said: “We put women and children at the centre of everything we do, holding empowerment, equality and inclusion as core values. They are the ones we must break down barriers for. They are not passive participants in our work; they are supported to be active citizens and agents of their own change.
“We believe that those who are so often excluded from society – because of living in poverty, because of their gender or race, because of being lone parents, because of where they come from – have a right to be respected and valued, and to access opportunities. It is with the support of all those in our network and community that we are able to progress towards our goals of ending poverty and achieving a truly equal society.”
Our new Strategy is online here.
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