CITIZENSHIP COMMUNIQUÉ

Citizenship Communiqué is a unique initiative of the Institute for Canadian Citizenship (ICC). This initiative is meant to engage Canadians on one of five citizenship topics: civic education, citizen engagement, public space stewardship, capacity building, and global citizen engagement. With this year’s focus being civic education, ICC will use its special online tools and a variety of programs and projects (existing and new) to reach out to both newcomers and established Canadians to engage in and reflect on this topic. By participating in Citizenship Communiqué, Canadians will learn more about Canada’s civic education and contribute their own thoughts on the matter. This year-long exercise will also help generate ideas for developing and improving Canada’s existing civic education models.

Civic education is the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to develop informed, active and responsible citizenship.

Institute for Canadian Citizenship

For these consultations, ICC will particularly target students, educators, government departments, civil society, research institutions, and ICC’s national network of committees, as well as its Circle of Advisors (experts in citizenship education and other topics related to citizenship), its Youth Network (youth from across Canada particularly interested in citizenship topics) and interested organizations.

In the fall 2010 ICC will publicly announce the results of its national outreach with these target groups. At that time, ICC will present several Best Practices Awards to Canadian programs that have adopted successful approaches in tackling civic education.

This “basket” of knowledge on civic education collected through the Citizenship Communiqué initiative will become a public domain stored at ICC’s online resource centre, which can be freely accessed and used by Canadians for developing civic education curriculum, programs, policies, research and work related to active citizenship. However, the goal of the initiative is much broader. The ICC will continue to build strategic partnerships with researchers, advisors, and organizations for the purposes of advocacy, mentorship and dissemination of best practices across Canada.

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What are some of the ways in which ICC engages Canadians
in citizenship?

Building citizenship – roundtable discussions with new citizens on citizenship topics;
Cultural Access Pass – free access to cultural institutions for new citizens;
La Fontaine-Baldwin lectures – annual lecture series on democracy and public good;
Volunteering/Internships at ICC – professional development for youth
Visit www.icc-icc.ca for more information on each of these programs.

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How can you become engaged in citizenship through ICC?

Visit our online resource centre – speeches, learning materials, more;
Sign up for ICC Newsletter – get updates on ICC work, hot citizenship topics, and more;
Nominate a best practice in civic education;
Join us on Facebook – conversations on hot topics in citizenship;
If you are a new citizen, register for the Cultural Access Pass – get free access to museums and galleries
Visit www.icc-icc.ca to learn more

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Contacts

For more information contact Fragile Gbego-Tossa, Manager, Program Design & Development at fgtossa@icc-icc.ca or call 416.593.6998 x 234.

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