About DEN

Democracy Education Network (DEN) is a registered charitable educational organization incorporated federally in September 1993 (Business Number 88604 4999 RR 0001). DEN is non-partisan and supported by donations from individual Canadians and foundations.

DEN was set up to address the need for Canadians, and governments and corporations, to develop democratic skills, especially in the areas of problem-solving and decision-making; to create meaningful opportunities for citizens to participate in making the difficult choices any community faces and to learn the skills to participate effectively in decision-making processes.

The objectives of DEN are:

• To undertake research into the institutional processes of Canadian governments and businesses, and into effective democratic decision-making processes;
• To train people in the skills of participating in these processes; and
• To develop and disseminate civic educational materials for various age groups.

As a charitable organization, DEN undertakes research into best-practice democratic processes, and public education efforts to help Canadians and their governments and businesses create and learn about these effective democratic processes.

DEN runs voter education initiatives during elections, and offers free active-civics course materials for teachers to use to teach key democracy skills, and customized workshops to teach these skills to citizen groups, and publishes research on best-practice democratic processes.

DEN also works in an ongoing partnership with Canada's leading democratic reform advocacy group, Democracy Watch, undertaking research and public education efforts that support coalitions of citizen groups that are calling, in strictly non-partisan ways, for key democratic good government and corporate responsibility reforms across Canada.

What are DEN's Projects and Initiatives?

Click here to see all of DEN's past and ongoing projects and initiatives.

Who is involved with DEN?

DEN's Coordinator and Board of Directors (see biographies) are assisted by students, volunteers, and Canadians across the country.

What are people saying about democracy education?

To see statements from prominent Canadians about democracy education in Canada, click here.

What do surveys of Canadians say about our democracy, governments and politicians?

Click here to see a list of national surveys undertaken since 2005 that DEN has compiled showing the attitudes and concerns of Canadians about our democracy, governments and politicians.

Democracy Education Network's Annual Reports

To see DEN's annual financial statements, click here.