WHO ARE WE?
Gandalf Cultural Association is a non-profit organization established in 1987 and composed by two dozens of volunteers cooperating in giving equal learning opportunities for children, young people and adults in the working class district of Vallecas, Madrid. This is made through all-year-long courses and activities.
OUR MISSION
We work with population at risk of social exclusion at several age steps (children, young people, adults, and old adults) so they can develop their full potential, gain formal and non-formal qualifications and sociability, improve their employability, and enjoy a healthy leisure.
OUR VALUES
- Permanent, collective learning: Every participant is a subject of knowledge and vital experiences that are valuable for others.
- Full participation as a right and a duty of any democratic society and a self-improvement mechanism for the association so everyone can have a feeling of belonging. Participation is encouraged in the organization of the activities, in the choice of each one’s path in the association and in the entity’s life and formal institution.
- Accountability: education and learning for and within the individual and collective responsibility by encouraging a critical thought and awareness, a permanent consideration of the democratic society’s principles and an analysis of the exclusion-promoting factors.
OUR PROGRAM FOR ADULT PEOPLE
Our activities of non-formal education for adult people are inserted in four pillars:
SOCIO-EDUCATIONAL: Our socio-educational activities for people over 18 years-old with learning difficulties are based on improving their learning skillset, their specific knowledge and their motivation. They are serving the principles of taken them back to the formal education system and increase the employability and general skillsets. We offer courses such as:
- Training for obtaining the compulsory secondary education diploma.
- Spanish as a second language (for migrants).
- English as a second language.
- Basic information technologies.
FORMATION: We offer a course for the state-sanctioned program in instructor in leisure time and recreational activities for those interested. It promotes among participants both capabilities and attitudes to obtain the diploma.
PARTICIPATION: We offer several activities for increase the participation of the adult people in the community life by taking advantage of the available resources and our background in the community-building arena. In this area, we offer:
- Periodic tours in a Madrid’s number of venues and its surrounding area.
- Organization of the Book Day events.
- Participation in the district’s Christmas parade.
- Participation in the reading events of the Association of Adult Education Entities.
- Workshop within the Madrid regional government’s Science Week.
MENTAL HEALTH: We understand health education as an instrument that serves the community to increase decision-making processes for individual and collective welfare. As such, we offer permanent courses for people over 45 years-old without cognitive impairment.
dozens of volunteers cooperating in giving equal learning opportunities for children, young people and adults in the working class district of Vallecas, Madrid. This is made through all-year-long courses and activities.