Christine McDermott, Paul Dixin, Anton Nath,                                                        Tony Jeffs
Mary O'ketcho Dicks, Sasha East

Community Development Pathway of the Youth & Community Foundation Degree

Christine McDermott, Paul Dixin, Anton Nath, Mary O'ketcho Dicks and Sasha East are the first group of students to successfully achieve the Foundation Degree in Community Development from Ruskin College. There was another student who qualified (Kati Wood), who was unable to attend the graduation. All the students did exteremly well and a special award was gained by Sasha East for her outstanding achievement throughout every single module. The certrificates were awarded by the Principal Audrey Mullender and Tony Jeffs whose books are invaluable to the students on this programme.

The course was developed by Richard Bryant who is still supporting the students 2 years after his official retirement. It is a pathway within the Youth and Community programme and as the validation for the Y&C was due in 2008, it meant that we had to obtain re-validation for the Community Development, but unfortunately due to long term staff illness we were unable to proceed with the validation subsequently, we are unable to offer this course at the moment.

There have been many changes to the course since its validation in 2005, and the remaining 7 students are due to graduate within the next two years. Currently the programme coordinator (Bal Gill), is responsible for ensuring that these students progress and achieve their Foundation Degree.