What is u3a?
Bedale and District u3a was founded in April 2009. It is a voluntary group, run entirely by members for members.
The ethos of the u3a movement is member-led learning. u3a members draw upon their knowledge and experience to teach and learn from each other for pleasure.
The wider u3a was founded in 1982 and the UK u3a movement's aims are:
• To learn together and teach each other
• To offer wide and varied activities and contacts
• To widen our knowledge, experiences, skills, activities, social contacts and friendships
• To develop self-confidence, raise self-esteem, improve health, enhance the quality of life and to aid others to do the same.
• To enable the learning of something new and to help realise a dream or ambition.
• And most importantly to enjoy the experience.
Membership is offered to those who are no longer in full-time employment or raising a family, where there is the opportunity to undertake learning for its own sake. There is no minimum age for membership.
From the start, the guiding principles were to promote lifelong non-formal learning through self-help interest groups covering a wide range of topics and activities as chosen by their members. Our founders envisaged a collaborative approach with peers learning from each other. The u3a movement was to be self-funded, with members not working towards qualifications but learning purely for pleasure. There would be no distinction between the learners and the teachers – everyone could take a turn at being both if they wished.
Nationally, there are over a thousand u3a groups involving over 400,000 members with a National Office in London.
View the national u3a website via u3a link above or go to http://u3a.org.uk
Bedale and District u3a is a registered charity - number 1182934
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