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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:
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in-school democracy skills courses for both youth and adults;
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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.
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