About Us

GLADE works in the formal education and community sectors to ensure that people across Somerset find out about the connections we have with people and places overseas. We explore global issues and their local implications.

GLADE works with and delivers services to nurseries, schools, education and youth service providers, non-government organisations, teachers, youth workers, local authorities, businesses and the general public and their communities across Somerset and the South West.

Our areas of expertise include school partnerships, community linking, global youth work, sustainable living, fair-trade, child rights, diverse Somerset and multicultural Britain.

Global benefits

Global learning and development education is about recognising and understanding our connections with others around the world, through the food we eat, the items we use and the people we meet. It’s about valuing our individual capacity to create positive change and acting to make a difference. Through awareness and empowerment we can build a more just and sustainable future for everyone everywhere.

Local benefits

Global learning with a development education approach, encourages open-mindedness, along with critical and creative thinking. It’s about recognising and making connections at local level to make sense of issues and successes of our everyday lives. It’s about acquiring knowledge and skills that benefit individuals, families, employers and communities. Its about building behaviours, outlooks and values, that are essential for happy, healthy and successful lives where people join in with their communities.

Themes include:

• Global citizenship;
• Conflict resolution;
• Diversity;
• Human rights;
• Interdependence;
• Social justice;
• Sustainable development;
• Values and perceptions;

Originally set up in the early 1990’s as a result of a County-wide multicultural project, GLADE is a registered charity and one of a network of Development Education Centres (DECs) in the UK. Since 1993, we have been working with schools, youth and community organisations, local authorities and the general public in and around Somerset. We operate at a local level, as Somerset’s provider of global learning and development education services; promoting the positive results and impacts that bringing the world to Somerset’s schools and communities has.

The GLADE team of paid workers, Trustees and Volunteers include a range of education professionals, qualified teachers, youth workers and community development workers and the general public, with substantial skills and experiences. They are a source of considerable expertise in all aspects of development education and global learning.

Global Learning and Development Education is about:-

• Respecting people’s varied ways of life here and around the world.
• Understanding the factors that affect people’s lives and connect us all to each other
• Working for a fairer, more sustainable future for everyone.

“Global education is seen as a way of extending students’ views of the world by exploring their perceptions and connections. It helps them to recognise and think critically about different cultural, economic and political perspectives.” – Department for International Development

“Never doubt that a group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it’s the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead

“Education is the post powerful weapon you can use to change the world.” – Nelson Mandela

• Respecting and valuing diversity alongside taking action to increase equality
• Our individual roles as global citizens in reducing global poverty and power imbalances, and achieving the Global Goals for Sustainable Development ( Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
• Developing sustainable communities and lifestyles, including agency and rights
• Learning about the challenges our world faces and thinking critically about
  how to deal with issues such as poverty, inequality and sustainability

We have been working with and supporting schools, youth and community organisations, local authorities and individuals throughout Somerset since 1993.  In 2013 we responded to demand and now collaborate and provide support in 10 counties across the south west region. 

We believe that every person has the right to understand and responsibility to take part in the process of development and change that affects society.

So through its work GLADE develops knowledge, skills and attitudes for change in a global society.

• Knowledge and understanding of the economic, social, political, environmental and cultural issues that shape all our lives
• Identifying links and connections between the lives of people throughout the world, particularly between people in Somerset and people in developing countries / the Global South.
• Developing and exchanging skills of enquiry and critical thinking, and the ability to engage with different perspectives of the world and its issues.
• Developing attitudes and values that acknowledge rights and responsibilities in local and global communities
• Challenging preconceptions and stereotypes about people’s behaviour and lifestyles
• Increasing motivation to make a difference
• Opportunities for participation to achieve change for a more just society, now and for the future.

• Offering professional support and training to formal education; mainstream and special schools and their teachers, teaching assistants and teachers in training, foundation and early years settings, and those involved in home schooling.
• Offering support and training for leaders and workers in youth settings, including uniform groups, church groups and after schools clubs.
• Running workshops and activities for young people, in school and in youth group settings that help them understand more about the world and their place in it
• Offering talks, displays and exhibitions to community groups and churches that bring alive connections between local interests and global issues
• Providing loanable resources of collections containing everyday items from specific countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean that help people find out about issues that affect daily lives of people and have commonalities with daily life in Somerset.
• GLADE is governed by a Board of Trustees with day to day work being carried out by a team of paid workers and volunteers. GLADE People provides an introduction to the GLADE Team. GLADE produces an Annual Report.