ED Berman

Edward David (ED) Berman MBE, FRSA (born 8 March 1941 in Lewiston, Maine). Professor Edward David (ED) Berman, MBE, FRSA, is an American-born British community educator, social activist, children's poet, playwright, director and producer. He is considered the UK and Europe's first and leading social entrepreneur. In 1979, HRH Queen Elizabeth II awarded Berman an MBE for Services to Community Education and Community Arts, examples of which include City Farms, Instant Business Enterprise System (IBES), the Inter-Action Creative Game Method, Fun Art Bus I & II, the Community Media Van, FabLab on Wheels, the Father and Mother Xmas Union and, of course, Inter-Action, the umbrella organization for a range of innovative, creativity-based projects and community training systems. Later Berman saved the World War I ship, HMS President (1918) which became the charity's centre for fifteen years.

He became Founding Chair (2014) of Rhodes Scholars in Britain (RSiB) and a Trustee. Recently (2015) he was invited by MIT's Bits and Atoms to establish Fab Foundation UK. A Harvard graduate and Rhodes Scholar (1962), ED Berman is Inter-Action's founder (1968) and CEO. Currently, in addition to the activities above, ED runs international workshops/training courses in the Inter-Action Creative Game Method (IACGM) and Inter-Action Instant Business Enterprise System (IIBES).

ED Berman was born in Lewiston, Maine, on 8 March 1941 to Jack and Ida (née Webber) Berman. He attended Lewiston High School but despite becoming a regional and national debating champion, did not graduate. Instead he accepted the offer of a place at Harvard University at the age of 15, to study Government & Middle Eastern Languages and Literature. He was a resident at Winthrop House and graduated in the Class of 1961.

He then won a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Exeter College, Oxford University in 1962.^[1] ED was unable to finish his doctorate at Oxford in 1965, due to an unprovoked attack whilst researching in Istanbul, Turkey, which left him with a cranial blood clot, a badly damaged back and given a year to live. Unable to continue this research, ED moved to London.

Berman established Inter-Action in London in 1968 to explore new forms of creative and participatory programmes for the Inner City, and find new ways to motivate learning. The work is targeted at disadvantaged families and young people (especially young girls and young women in science and technology), children with learning disabilities and people returning to education or seeking training. It has been described as “the most exciting community education agency in Europe.”

Essentially, Inter-Action is involved in problem-solving work of a community development nature. It takes specific challenges and tries to develop practical projects and techniques which can be widely disseminated and used by others throughout the UK and Europe. The work with disadvantaged groups of young people (and adults) and especially girls/young women has been a major theme throughout the decades of the work of Inter-Action and now Fab Foundation UK.

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