As part of this week’s International Development Week celebrations, Minister of International Development Harjit S. Sajjan announced a new partnership with AKFC to bolster global citizenship education in Canada.
International Development Education and Awareness (IDEA) is a $6-million, five-year program that will inspire Canadians, especially youth aged 12 to 18, to become more active and engaged global citizens.
“The more Canadians understand about international development and the more ways they find to get involved, the richer our work and our communities will be,” said Minister Sajjan as part of the announcement.
IDEA will serve as an important pillar for equipping young people with the values, skills, attitudes, and sense of self-determination necessary to be agents of change in their communities and globally. The program aims to reach 1.3 million youth and 5,000 educators from coast to coast to coast.
Programming will reach youth directly through digital campaigns, school programs, youth-focused events, and experiential learning opportunities. IDEA will also equip and empower educators to incorporate global citizenship themes into the classroom, through curriculum resources, professional development, and mentorship opportunities.
IDEA is the newest chapter of AKFC’s decades-long experience in engaging Canadian audiences on global development topics, including a range of activities tailored to educators and youth. For example, IDEA will build on an existing suite of materials for educators, such as curriculum resources and professional development programming. It also builds on achievements from AKFC’s International Youth Fellowship program, which has launched the careers of more than 500 young Canadians, and the award-winning Together exhibition which visited schools across Canada, reaching a total of more than 80,000 Canadians of all ages.
To design IDEA, AKFC led an extensive consultation process with key audiences, including educators, youth, and NGOs within the global citizenship education ecosystem.
“IDEA will empower young Canadians to play their role in building a more peaceful, prosperous, and pluralist world for everyone – today, and as they progress through the next phases of their lives, education, and eventual careers,” said Khalil Z. Shariff, Chief Executive Officer of AKFC. “We are delighted to be partnering with the Government of Canada to deliver this program to teachers and youth across the country.”
IDEA builds on more than 40 years of partnership between AKFC and the Government of Canada, which has improved the lives of millions in some of the most challenging regions of the world.
Learn more by visiting the program page.
Read the full press release here.
