|
To date, Democracy Education Network
(DEN)
has completed
several projects, as follows:
1. View
DEN
Publications
2. Democracy
Skills Workshops
(July 2000 - ongoing)
DEN's innovative workshops and
in-class
courses
which teach citizens the democratic skills needed to
engage effectively
with other citizens, governments and corporations to
solve societal
problems.
3. Citizenship
Education, Participatory
Democracy and Social Change Conference (2003)
On October 17-19, 2003, Democracy
Education
Network participated in and presented at this
international conference.
This conference was hosted by the Transformative
Learning Centre of
OISE/UT
and the Instituto Paulo Freire of Brazil. Visit www.tlcentre.org
for further information.
4. Citizenship Education in the
Commonwealth (2000)
DEN prepared a multi-country report and coordinated a
symposium on
citizenship education for the November 2000 conference of
the
Commonwealth
Ministers of Education in Halifax.
5. Ontario Consultation on
Constitutional
Issues (1998)
In 1998, DEN also helped design the high school curriculum
materials
for the Ontario government's consultation on
constitutional issues.
6. Federal Citizenship Promotion
Strategy (1996)
In 1996, DEN drafted the new citizenship promotion
strategy for the
federal government's Department of Citizenship and
Immigration.
7. Advising on Federal Public
Consultation
Processes (1996)
In 1996, DEN advised on the consultation process for the
federal
government's
National Forum on Health, and also advised on the public
dialogue
process
for The Society We Want project of the Canadian
Policy
Research
Networks.
8. Study Circles on Federal
Immigration Law (1994)
In 1994, DEN helped coordinate the public consultation on
the federal
immigration law policy. In the consultation, DEN used a
participation
process,
study circles, that had never before been used by the
federal
government.
Across the country in five cities in the summer of 1994,
1,100
Canadians
sat down in 60 study circles with their neighbours to
discuss their
opinions
about immigration in Canada. In addition, 2,200 students
discussed
immigration
issues in their schools. Both processes used a workbook
prepared by
DEN.
9. Other activities
DEN has held workshops for federal policy-makers on public
consultation,
and helped coordinate the 1997 international conference on
public
participation.
Partnership Projects (ongoing)
DEN is a member group of, and assists in the research and
public
education
activities of the Canadian
Community
Reinvestment
Coalition (which works on banking accountability
issues in Canada),
the Corporate
Responsibility
Coalition (which works on corporate responsibility
issues in
Canada),
the Government
Ethics
Coalition (which works on government ethics issues
in Canada), and
the Money
in Politics
Coalition
(which works on money in politics issues in Canada).
All of these ongoing projects are undertaken with the
organization Democracy
Watch as the main partner.
Future Projects
The Democracy Education Network plans to expand its
current projects,
and undertake projects in the following areas (as
resources allow) to
develop
further the skills of democratic problem-solving and
decision-making
throughout
Canadian society:
-
in-school democracy skills courses for both youth and
adults;
-
training courses for teachers on how to engage students
in effective
problem-solving
processes; and educating governments and businesses on
how to involve
citizens
in meaningful ways in decision-making.
|