Citizenship Education

Manitoba Grants for Innovation in Citizenship Education

Are you an educator with an innovative idea for teaching citizenship education?

One of the goals of education is to prepare individuals to participate as active and responsible citizens in a democracy. Citizenship education helps students to acquire the knowledge, values and skills to actively participate as citizens in their schools and communities. In addition, research shows that when students are engaged in citizenship activities as youth, they are more likely to continue to be active citizens as adults.

The Grants

Manitoba Healthy Living, Youth and Seniors wishes to acknowledge innovative classroom or school projects. The grants provide $1,000 to cover project costs that are not normally the responsibility of school divisions.

The grants are intended to:

encourage schools to develop innovative projects that build citizenship;
engage students in opportunities to explore and practice active democratic citizenship through hands-on activities or projects;
support and contribute to best practices in citizenship education.

Successful Proposals for 2011/2012

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Projects

Projects should engage students throughout all phases of the process, including planning and implementation. School initiatives may relate to one or more of the following:

civic responsibility;
social justice;
local, regional, national or global concerns;
human rights, equity and diversity;
youth voice in community decision-making or governance;
intercultural dialogue and understanding diverse perspectives;
environmental stewardship;
the democratic process.

Projects should have the potential to have an ongoing impact on a community. Although projects should reflect curriculum outcomes, preference will be given to projects that go beyond the curriculum to engage youth to be active participants in society.

Students will:

understand how the democratic process works in Canada at the local, provincial and national levels;
collaborate with others to establish and carry out group goals and responsibilities;
make decisions that reflect fairness and equality in their interactions with others;
negotiate constructively with others to build consensus and solve problems;
evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of solutions to a problem;
evaluate personal assumptions based on new information and ideas;
inspire and clarify questions and ideas in discussions;
articulate their beliefs and perspectives on issues.

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Eligibility

All English, French, and French Immersion programs in Manitoba public and funded independent schools are eligible to apply. Applications from early, middle and senior years are encouraged and each area will receive a minimum of two grants.

Twenty (20) projects will be selected; each project will receive $1,000 to support implementation of the project. The projects must be completed, and a final report submitted.

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Selection Criteria

The project:

must provide an opportunity for student voice;
must reflect democracy in the classroom, involving students in collaborative goal-setting and planning;
must involve experiential or hands-on learning;
should have a social action component that involves students in discussion, interaction or problem solving with the larger community;
may have a local, national or global focus;
must identify innovative ways of sharing results with educational communities.

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Applications

2011/2012 Grant Application ( 39 KB)

Applications must be received in our office by October 21, 2011. A selection committee including educators and department staff will review applications and successful applicants will be informed by the end of December.

Mail, fax, or email applications to:

MB4Youth
310-800 Portage Avenue
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3G 0N4
Fax: (204) 945-5726
Email: denise.gerrard@gov.mb.ca

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Successful Proposals

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Contact

For further information, please contact Denise Gerrard at 945-0901 or 1-800-282-8069 (ext. 0901).

Manitoba Education