Projects
To date, Democracy Education Network (DEN) has completed several projects, as follows:
2. Democracy Skills Civics and Citizenship Course and 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.