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Description
Civic education in Bulgaria has become a compulsory subject for 11th-graders only during the 2020-2021 school year. There are several initiatives supporting civic education. However, there is a growing need of developing and disseminating civic education materials and the gaps in school education in this field have been identified by surveys such as PISA and ICSS. The majority of the school students who have completed their secondary education prior to the inclusion of civic education as a subject have not been covered by this field. The project aims at creating an environment for systematic and targeted civic education for young people (aged 18-30), who are members of vulnerable groups (LGBTI, the Roma, the deaf) and volunteers of civil society organizations, as well as training good will ambassadors (facilitators) to hold training workshops with leaders (active citizens) and promote a change of national/local policies and rules through support of campaigns. The platform consists of four modules: Module 1 – History of social movements across the world and in Bulgaria; Module 2 – Fundamentals of law and legal instruments to fight discrimination; Module 3 – Active citizenship skills; Module 4 –Campaigning. The young people will study the training modules online, supported and encouraged by facilitators. The training course will end with a plan for a campaign developed by the participants in the training platform. After a contest, seven campaigns will be approved for implementation. The online platform may be used in part or fully as a teaching aid for teachers and trainers of formal and informal civic education of school—age learners. LeaderLandia platform will contribute in this way to improving democratic culture and civic awareness (thematic priority No 1) through the development of a platform and training modules for civic education (specific objective No 3).
Summary of project results
"Leaderland" directly contributes to the improvement of democratic culture and civic awareness through the development of a platform for civic education. The platform was created in direct response to the need for active, empowered, and engaged leaders within the LGBTQI community, the Roma community, and the deaf community. It also aims to enhance legal skills within the civic sector as a whole through planned special activities for communication and work with NGOs.
A digital platform was developed with four training modules: 1) Social Movements; 2) Basics of Law and Legal Tools for Combating Discrimination; 3) Active Citizenship Skills; and 4) Campaign Building. Forty subtitled training videos were published on the platform. Eighteen facilitators were trained, and seven campaigns were implemented within the project.
More than 100 people were trained on the platform, and an online seminar reached over 60 teachers across the country who were interested in the platform and its use in the educational process.
Beyond Sofia, the project reached local activists in Plovdiv, Vidin, and Sevlievo. The quantitative results show a 100% impact on the target groups with the themes of the supported seven initiatives, which focused their activities on the Roma, LGBTQI+, and deaf communities.
The following initiatives were supported: "Poster Workshop" before the "Not One More" march in Plovdiv; "Look Before You Go" - an informational campaign against traffic accidents; "Queer Sofia Portal" about LGBTQI+ stories and memorial places in Sofia; "New Policies for Future Mothers" - a campaign that reached 440 women in Sofia; "Healthy Culinary Workshop" at Nikola Yonkov Vaptsarov Secondary School in the village of Drenovets, Vidin region; "Feeling" - a campaign to paint an electrical panel with students from a special school for hearing-impaired students in Sofia; "Cultural Canvas: Initiative for Conscious Street Art" - five street art interventions and a visual-anthropological study within the Women''s Market area in Sofia.