Over the past decade, the autonomously owned and managed community-based organizations constituting the adult and community education (ACE) sector in Victoria, Australia, and the Victorian government have embarked on a partnership to create lifelong learning opportunities for adults. After extensive consultation with stakeholders in the ACE sector, Victoria's Adult, Community, and Further Education Board adopted a holistic view of lifelong learning and learners and proposed a series of future directions for ACE that are based on the proposition that ACE is learner centered, has education at its core, is community owned and driven, values and promotes diversity, is adaptive and responsive, and is innovative. After nine social and economic changes that have posed challenges for ACE were considered in the context of the inherent strength and culture of ACE, the following were identified as the strategic directions for ACE: widen participation in ACE through policies recognizing, responding to, and affirming the diversity of Victoria's population; augment the learning structures of ACE that will give expression to the best of lifelong learning in community settings; create self-renewing learning societies through community ownership of ACE; and apply public funds flexibly to extend opportunities and improve the quality of outcomes in ACE. (MN)