TestMonday February 06, 2012

Foresight (North East Lincolnshire) Limited is a registered charity and company limited by guarantee. The Community centre has been designed in consultation with our service users and purposely built for disabled access.

Foresight is a UK online centre which provides a unique method for engagement of some of the hardest to reach audiences, encouraging progression into learning and community activities by helping people get online for the first time, learn new skills, and access e-government services.

We host a wide range of courses which include various levels of IT, including beginners computing an absolute beginners course for people who have no computer experience, next steps computing, a course for people with some knowledge of IT and further computing for the advanced student. Other computer courses cover web design and blogging and using webcams and Skype. We also offer courses on digital photography for the beginner, next level and the advanced student.. Our arts and crafts programme covers creative card making where students design their own personalised greetings cards, ceramic art, water colour painting and tactile art which involves working with fabrics and textured materials. We also offer local history classes, introduction to video shooting and editing and have an active drama group. Foresight offers a wide range of training courses for independence and life skills.

Courses include literacy and numeracy, volunteering skills, computerised accounting using spreadsheets from basic to advanced levels, managing you budget, this course covers budget control and credit control, introduction to understanding and achieving personal learning goals, introduction to assertiveness and decision making, recognising skills for personal development . We are also running two lip reading classes for the hard of hearing.

All courses are funded by Humberside Learning Consortium (HLC), based at the Goodwin Centre, Icehouse Road, Hull, HU3 2HQ and the Workers’ Educational Association (WEA) based at the Mitchell Centre, Goodrich Close, Hull, HU2 0BQ

In addition we have been funded in 2007 and 2008 by the Heritage Lottery Fund to run projects around local history. Our first project was based on the maritime history of Grimsby and our second project based around the history of Cleethorpes seafront. Both projects cumulate in an exhibition of work including an enactment of the period performed by Foresights drama group. The drama is recorded on DVD for the exhibition which is held at the Fishing Heritage Centre in Grimsby.

Foresight is the only community centre in North East Lincolnshire and surrounding areas to offer such a wide and varied selection of courses and learning opportunities accredited and non accredited especially aimed at sensory impaired and disabled people their carers, family and friends. The centre is equipped with specialist equipment and software to enhance the learning experience. Everyone who wishes to access any course or activity held inside or outside of the centre undertakes an initial assessment to ensure that equipment and assistance is in place where necessary.

Foresight strives to improve individual quality of life, combat social exclusion and encourage personal development. The following quotes from student evaluation forms-

“Learning at Foresight is fun, it’s not too heavy and you don’t have to sweat over what you are doing if you get it wrong.”

“I’ve made new friends and have discovered I now have a social life.”

“Coming to Foresight has changed my life.”