The Learning for Well-being Foundation, formerly known as Universal Education Foundation, was established in the Netherlands in 2004 as an advocacy foundation, working in co-creative partnerships, to inspire people to listen more to children and young people and to take more responsibility and initiative towards their holistic development, enabling them to live in harmony with themselves, others and the world at large.

L4WB-F’s vision is Learning for Well-Being, which is defined as “learning to realise one’s unique potential, through physical, emotional, mental and spiritual development, in relation to oneself, others and the environment.” L4WB-F believes that Learning for Well-being is the process and approach needed for people and societies to thrive.

The operational offices of L4WB-F are in Brussels and Ramallah. The core team members and partners come from Europe, the Middle East and North America and are highly experienced professionals from the education, youth, health, mental health, culture, family policy and social sector working on research, advocacy, policy and training.

Over the past years, L4WB-F has been building relationships around the L4WB perspective with an array of organisations in the fields of education, learning, and child welfare. which were prelude to the explicit creation of a L4WB Community (formalized in a meeting in January 2015 in Caux, Switzerland). Through Learning for Well-being, L4WB-F and its parners, lead initiatives in the following activity areas: Measuring What Matters (Research and Assessment), Sharing What Works (Networking and Sharing of Good Practice) and Cultivating Capacities (Training and Capacity Development).

Priorities

Engaging Communities: Self-organised, multi-sector communities catalysed by Learning for Well-being

Cultivating Capacities: Individuals and organisations have the competence and tools to operate holistically and systemically.

Sharing What Works: Examples of good practice inspire a more fulfilling way of living.

Measuring What Matters: Developing holistic models for assessment of children and adults for use in multiple sectors

The Learning for Well-being Magazine

The Learning for Well-being Magazine, which is co-edited for the Foundation by Linda O’Toole and Jean Gordon, was launched because we felt a need for a forum where we could deepen and explore the principles and ideas that are important to Learning for Well-being through articles based on research, practice and experience. Each issue focuses on a particular theme related to the principles and practices of a holistic and systemic approach. The articles contribute to the theme from a variety of perspectives, which includes different disciplines, fields, etc. Hopefully this encourages readers to further explore the theme. It.is published online twice a year (March and September.)

Issue 4 dealt with Meaning and Purpose in All Our Endeavours. To date, many of the authors have been directly involved with the L4WB community, others belong to different networks we are part of, but we are always looking for ways to expand our pool of contributors, the themes, sectors and disciplines with which we engage, and our readership. In these first issues we have published articles and viewpoints by about 50 authors from countries in Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and the USA.