About

Communitus was established in Sept 2014 by its director, Colin Neilands. It works to support and promote good practice in adult learning and, through collaboration, advocate for policy change to acknowledge and utilise its potential to fulfil many critical national and local objectives.

Colin had previously been the Director of the Workers' Educational Association (N.I.), an organisation with which he worked from 1991. From this background Colin brings many years of experience in community learning, community development, good relations, leadership and management.

Colin joined the WEA to set up its anti-sectarian education project (Interface) and was a leader in the development of good relations learning and the development of many learning materials and courses which went on to become core strands of WEA delivery - courses such as Us & Them, Us & Them Too and Principled Negotiation Skills. He served on the board of the Community Relations Council for 3 years and also on its European Committee which oversaw delivery of PEACE II funds.

Colin has always had a strong commitment to collaborative working, which was one of the successes of his work in good relations. Within the WEA he helped oversee the amalgamation of its community development and community relations strands into the Building Communities programme. In his years as Director he reached out to build new collaborations spanning lifelong learning and in 2010 helped found the Forum for Adult Learning NI (FALNI) to create a strong cross-sectoral voice for adult learning and advocate for its support.

This collaborative work has led to new contracts under the European Agenda on Adult Learning (convening the NI Impact Forum on Adult Learning) and with lEPALE - e Platform for Adult Learning in Europe.