Active Citizens – Project Background
Posted on: September 29, 2010
The British Council Kosovo are launching the Active Citizens programme In Kosovo from this October 2010.
Active Citizens can also be followed on Facebook
The British Council seeks a world where we are to be globally connected and locally engaged. The Active Citizens programme aims to encourage participants to realise their potential and exercise their responsibility in order to understand how to interact, engage and influence change within their local communities. They learn and act together to address community level issues and in turn influence global change. The African Philosophy of ‘Ubuntu’ which is to be understood/translated as “I am, because you are, because we are,” is a key feature of the Active Citizens programme.
Active Citizens will aim to increase the contribution of participants (motivators) who are already involved in local community projects by training them through a series of modules within a workshop environment. The programme will assist the growth of Active Citizens through the training workshops provided, enforcing a collective sense and ability to develop responsible attitudes towards sustainable development, values for working effectively with difference and cultivating project planning and management skills.
The Project fundamentally aims to stress the importance that small local, community issues, if addressed correctly and managed sustainably, can provide the opportunity for improvement and/or change. Participants will understand that numerous community Social Action Plans (SAP’s) in various countries Europe and worldwide leads to the possibility of global change. The global, cross national aspect to the programme is represented with the community exchange that occurs at the closing stages of the project. Successful Active Citizens will have the opportunity to visit a UK community to learn their techniques and share ideas, concepts and methods that aim to implement sustainable change.
Active Citizens was launched in 2009 and is currently running in 20 countries in Europe in addition to countries in both Africa and Asia.
In Europe the ambition is to:
- Build a network of 120 community leaders and master trainers, 1800 Active Citizens Motivators who will in turn build networks with 100,000 community members participating in SAP’s (Social Action Projects), workshops and exchanges.
- Another 10 million will be reached through on-line social networks and media based projects.
The Global Citizen
- Strong sense of local culture and history.
- Knowledge and understanding of local community.
- Project and business planning and management skills.
- Demonstrated sense of responsibility towards global sustainable development.
- Value for, and works effectively with, difference.
Kosovo Calling 
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