The Local Knowledge and Education Center (LOWE) is a modern method of educating adults, conducted within a local school, in the field of developing basic competences, enabling personal development and the development of the entire community. LOWE is a definition of a new role that schools can play in activating adults and the local community to develop skills that constitute the basis for lifelong learning, especially in disadvantaged areas far from large urban centers.
The first LOWEs were created in 2017-2020 as part of two pilot editions of the Grant Program of the Ministry of National Education. The Małopolska Chamber of Local Government Foundation, being the operator in both editions, created 35 LOWEs in 11 voivodeships (a total of 150 LOWEs were created throughout the country).
New initiatives and projects have been created around the LOWE idea, which aim to support LOWE in developing their activities, but also to strengthen the new role that schools running LOWE can play in activating adults and the local community to develop skills that constitute the basis for lifelong learning. The Adult Educator Academy includes activities aimed at developing the competences of LOWE staff. The LOWE Think Tank is a space for debate, reflection and exchange of knowledge and experiences of LOWE staff, representatives of central, regional and local authorities, independent experts, researchers, scientists and decision-makers of public policies in the area of educational policy and – more broadly – social policy aimed at improving adult skills, including skills important for lifelong learning and the development of local communities. The LOWE Folk University enriches its educational offer for adults with unique adult education methods developed during over 150 years of tradition of folk universities, based on the so-called Grundtvigian pedagogy.