Draft:Association for Community Colleges

Association for Community Colleges (ACC) was a European, non-profit, and non-governmental member organization. The ACC was founded on 11 August 1999 and dissolved 19 December 2021..

The ACC advocated for forming a European transnational public sphere by means of European civic education, taking inspiration from the residential Nordic Folk High Schools’ education system and - within this system - the delivery of the international courses run at Højskolen Østersøen (Folk High School Østersøen) in 1997-98

The establishment of ACC can be traced back to the alumni and staff of Højskolen Østersøen's "minority courses" held in 1997 and 1998. These individuals, having either attended or facilitated these courses, came together to form the organization. Insofar, the ACC was keen to promote a model for schooling traditionally attributed to N.F.S. Grundtvig, while ideologically the ACC was based on the philosophy of Jürgen Habermas.

The association's main office, known as the ACC International Programme Office, was located in various places in Denmark, including Højskolen Snoghøj, Højskolen Østersøen and Falstersgade 44 in Aarhus. These locations served as the central hubs for the association's activities throughout Europe.

The ACC had members in almost all European countries. In 2004, the ACC had more than 400 members, and in 2006 ACC had more than 600 members

The name
“Although there is a direct link with the Danish folkehøjskole (Folk High School), and the original experience of the founders of the ACC comes from it, there was an attempt to move away from the misleading folk concept and the equally problematic English translation of højskole, high school. The title Community Colleges was proposed by Anne Marie Morris, principal at the Rødding Højskole.” Hence, Association for Community Colleges (ACC).

The name similarity with Anglo-Saxon institutions, seems to be coincidental, as the “[t]he founders were not aware that “community college” was already a well-established concept in for instance the United States, where it stands for something different. This does create some confusion now and then.”

The vision
The context of the educational policy ideas and activities emerging in the ACC was the ever closer and wider European political cooperation, particularly as this process condensed in EU institutions and in the continuous EU enlargements after the Fall of the Berlin Wall.

ACC's starting point was that the European political community would have to supplement itself with a European civic education dimension if the community was to continue to be viable and legitimate. Hence, the ACC advocated for forming a European public sphere by means of European civic education.

This was the frame of reference, when ACC's founders caught sight of the form of school known as Folk High Schools in Scandinavia– or Community Colleges as became the term within ACC: the founders saw this form of school as a possible advantageous component in a future, post-national, and European civic education infrastructure.

The mission
The means to confirm and spread the vision was i.a. to prepare for and carry through more Community College Courses replicating the course delivery, founders knew from Højskolen Østersøen; each group of course participants in community college courses resembled a sample European public sphere.

Through its lifetime, ACC and its Committees carried out Community College Courses for mainly young Europeans all over Europe – in Latvia, Denmark, Romania, Italy, Slovenia, Hungary, Netherlands, Germany, Greece, and Spain. The single Community College Course was always a project in its own right, and it was formulated and presented as an independent project. However, it would also always be means for promoting ACC’s further vision.

The project Youth 2002 became a major showcase for the vision of the ACC, as the idea of making Denmark’s EU Presidency combined with Danish exceptional subsidies a vehicle for the vision materialized. Youth 2002 brought together 1,000 young people from all over Europe for a two-week course at 13 residential Folk High Schools in Denmark. Together, they developed a proposal for a European constitution. Youth 2002 was implemented by the Association for Community Colleges (ACC) in collaboration with Nyt Europa, Folkehøjskolernes Forening i Danmark (FFD), IUC-Europe, Dansk Ungdoms Fællesråd (DUF), Ask Højskole, Askov Højskole, Brandbjerg Højskole, Egmont Højskolen, Esbjerg Højskole, Højskolen Østersøen, International People’s College, Oure Idrætshøjskole, Ry Højskole, Rønshoved Højskole, Skælskør Folkehøjskole, and IT-Folkehøjskolen Snoghøj.

An artefact in campaigning for ACC’s final vision was the Act on European Community Colleges, a simulated EU Act disseminated around the turn of the year 2001. In a related development, the EU-supported First European Community College (FECC) project sparked discussions in Denmark regarding the location for the inaugural institution of its type, concurrent with the Danish Parliament's deliberations on a pilot program to permit funding under Danish legislation. Additionally, the Co-citizenship EQF was created in response to the established European Qualifications Framework (EQF).

Miscellaneous

 * Up to 2012 ACC was an independent chapter of Association for World Education (AWE)
 * Up to 2012 ACC was a member of the European Association for the Education of Adults (EAEA)
 * ACC was an alliance partner of European Alliance for the Statute of the European Association (EASEA)
 * ACC played an active role in NECE (Networking European Citizenship Education), when it was established by the German Federal Agency for Civic Education of the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community.
 * ACC achieved the “Outstanding Achievement in Global Work Award” of the Organization Development Network (ODN) in 2004

Publications

 * ACCENT - Community Colleges for Europe! ISSN: 1603-5135 (publisher)
 * This is just a beginning. ACCENT December 2003, no. 1.
 * Youth proposal for a common European Constitution. ACCENT December 2003, no. 2.
 * European Love and Other Challenges of Enlargement. ACCENT July 2005. No. 3.
 * A European Demos. ACCENT April 2006. No. 4.
 * Campaigning for Community Colleges: Annual 2000 of the ACC. ISBN 8791372003 / EAN 978-87-91372-00-1 (publisher)
 * Schools for Europe: Annual 2001 of the ACC. ISBN 8791372011 / EAN 978-87-91372-01-8 (publisher)
 * Youth 2002.Annual 2002 of the ACC ISBN 8791372038 / EAN 978-87-91372-03-2 (publisher)
 * Bridging Community Colleges: Annual 2003 of the ACC. ISBN 8791372046 / EAN 978-87-91372-04-9 (publisher)
 * Learning and living together: Annual 2004 of the ACC. ISBN 8791372054 / EAN 978-87-91372-05-6 (publisher)
 * Europe, Let's focus: Annual 2005 of the ACC. ISBN 8791372070 / EAN 978-87-91372-07-0 (publisher)
 * Periods of Reflection. Annual 2006-7 of the ACC. ISBN 8791372089 / EAN 978-87-91372-08-7 (publisher)
 * Das Haus - La Maison - The House. Edition 26, XI/2000 (editor)
 * Journal of World Education. Spring 2003, vol.33., no.1. ISSN 0904-3063 (editor)
 * Journal of World Education. 2001. Vol.31, no.3. ISSN 0904-3063 (editor)
 * European Songbook - 44 songs from all over Europe. Collected by Naomi Woltring. ISBN 8791372062 / EAN 8791372063 (publisher)