USAID Seeks to Increase Youth Civic Action in Primorye
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| Youth discuss ways to encourage civic education and participation in Primorye. |
On March 4-5, 2009, the Center for Civic Initiatives Development conducted a conference to share experiences and results from its USAID-funded project to increase civic education and participation among youth in Primorye, Russia. U.S. Consul General Thomas Armbruster welcomed the more than 100 participants representing youth organizations, human rights NGOs, academia, and the government, who discussed the social partnership between society and the authorities and different approaches to increasing youth involvement in civic action.
The interactive civic education methods presented at the conference elicited great interest among the educators in attendance, while the students were excited to share the results of their local projects such as “Dialogue: Authorities and School” and “School of a Citizen.” Through these efforts, the students acquired new understanding about youth rights and gained skills in project management, problem solving, and debate. These activities have also resulted in the creation of social development bureaus, the introduction of project development courses in the Institute of Pedagogy’s curriculum, and commitments of financial support by local administrations for youth civic initiatives.
At the end of the conference, the participants agreed to continue to promote civic education by collaborating with authorities, preparing student manuals, and incorporating civic education in the extracurricular activities of educational institutions and NGOs. The Center for Civic Initiatives Development, a Russian NGO formerly known as the Russian-American Center, implements USAID’s Civic Competence of Youth project in five regions of the Russian Far East: Primorskiy and Khabarovskiy Krais, and Kamchatskaya, Magadanskaya and Sakhalinskaya Oblasts.
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