More than 250 young people from thirty-one countries gathered in Washington, D.C., July 15–17, 2007, to showcase an international civic education program called Project Citizen. Empowering a New Generation for Democracy: The International Project Citizen Showcase was the culmination of months of work by students to create public policy proposals addressing problems in their communities, from Vancouver, Washington, to Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
“From Poland, Ukraine, and Russia, to South Africa, China, and points in between, young people have used the lessons of democratic citizenship taught by Project Citizen to improve their lives and communities,” said Charles N. Quigley, executive director of the Center for Civic Education. “Our goal is to share these Project Citizen success stories—the results of America’s ten-year investment in the program.”
In Project Citizen, participating students identify a public policy issue that is important to them. Students then gather information about the issue, discuss alternative solutions, propose their solution, and create an action plan to implement it. Projects featured at the showcase addressed issues such as a lack of potable water, inclusion of disabled students in regular classes, neglect of historical monuments, and violence in schools.
Classes from the following locations participated in the showcase: Argentina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, the Czech Republic, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Estonia, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Kosovo, Lithuania, Mali, Montenegro, Northern Ireland, Panama, Peru, Russia, Senegal, Slovakia, South Africa, Thailand, Ukraine, the United States (Washington and Florida), Venezuela, and the West Bank and Gaza.
