The Development of a Social Work Program for an Islamic Day School in Southwestern Ontario

The Development of a Social Work Program for an Islamic Day School in Southwestern Ontario Abstract This article examines the evolution of a social work program for an Islamic Day School in London, Ontario, Canada. The Muslim Resource Centre for Social Support and Integration (MRCSSI), and London Islamic School (LIS) developed A Safe Space for Children (SPC) school social work program after extensive community consultation and feedback from leadership and school teachers revealed the need for mental health supports for students. A program implementation and evaluation design was developed by the MRCSSI in collaboration with the LIS and accepted by school administration and community stakeholders. The overarching objectives were to provide students with counselling services; develop school wide interventions, connect students and their families to mental health community resources while also providing ongoing professional development opportunities to teachers on issues relating to student mental health issues. The development of SPC its rooted in literature that reveals that this population is vulnerable to the stigma related to mental health, issues of acculturation, racism, and discrimination. The establishment of a social work program situated in a faith-based school that offers an overall understanding of cultural values and spirituality, aligns with best practices in social work. The project was grounded in a participatory democracy approach integrated with the civil society perspective, constructivist and critical race theoretical frameworks that guided the assessment and program design. Key Words: Canada, Children, Islam, Mental Health, Muslim, Participatory Democracy, School Social Wor

Experiences of school democracy connected to the role of the democratic citizen in the future: A comparison of Swedish male and female upper secondary school students

  Purpose: The aim of this study was to explore the link between upper secondary school students’ experiences of school democracy and their future role as democratic citizens, focusing on a comparison between men and women.  Design/methodology/approach: The data derives from a questionnaire conducted to all last year upper secondary school students in Kronoberg county, Sweden. A hypothesis based on the theory of participatory democracy was tested through a four-step multilevel regression analysis.  Findings: The result show no direct effects from experiences of school democracy on the intention to vote, neither for female nor for male students. Instead, the most important factor for civic virtues and behaviour seems to be the personal trait of ambition, which is more prevalent among female students.  Research limitations/implications: More research on different ways to realize democracy in classroom connected to promotion of citizenship is needed, and so is research on how to encourage students’ ambition which is shown to be beneficial

Public Spending, By The People: Participatory Budgeting in the United States and Canada in 2014-15

From 2014 to 2015, more than 70,000 residents across the United States and Canada directly decided how their cities and districts should spend nearly $50 million in public funds through a process known as participatory budgeting (PB). PB is among the fastest growing forms of public engagement in local governance, having expanded to 46 communities in the U.S. and Canada in just 6 years.PB is a young practice in the U.S. and Canada. Until now, there's been no way for people to get a general understanding of how communities across the U.S. implement PB, who participates, and what sorts of projects get funded. Our report, "Public Spending, By the People" offers the first-ever comprehensive analysis of PB in the U.S. and Canada.Here's a summary of what we found:Overall, communities using PB have invested substantially in the process and have seen diverse participation. But cities and districts vary widely in how they implemented their processes, who participated and what projects voters decided to fund. Officials vary in how much money they allocate to PB and some communities lag far behind in their representation of lower-income and less educated residents.The data in this report came from 46 different PB processes across the U.S. and Canada. The report is a collaboration with local PB evaluators and practitioners. The work was funded by the Democracy Fund and the Rita Allen Foundation, and completed through a research partnership with the Kettering Foundation

From skepticism to mutual support: towards a structural change in the relations between participatory budgeting and the information and communication technologies?

Until three years ago, ICT Technologies represented a main “subordinate clause” within the “grammar” of Participatory Budgeting (PB), the tool made famous by the experience of Porto Alegre and today expanded to more than 1400 cities across the planet. In fact, PB – born to enhance deliberation and exchanges among citizens and local institutions – has long looked at ICTS as a sort of “pollution factor” which could be useful to foster transparency and to support the spreading of information but could also lead to a lowering in quality of public discussion, turning its “instantaneity” into “immediatism,” and its “time-saving accessibility” into “reductionism” and laziness in facing the complexity of public decision-making through citizens’ participation. At the same time, ICTs often regarded Participatory Budgeting as a tool that was too-complex and too-charged with ideology to cooperate with. But in the last three years, the barriers which prevented ICTs and Participatory Budgeting to establish a constructive dialogue started to shrink thanks to several experiences which demonstrated that technologies can help overcome some “cognitive injustices” if not just used as a means to “make simpler” the organization of participatory processes and to bring “larger numbers” of intervenients to the process. In fact, ICTs could be valorized as a space adding “diversity” to the processes and increasing outreach capacity. Paradoxically, the experiences helping to overcome the mutual skepticism between ICTs and PB did not come from the centre of the Global North, but were implemented in peripheral or semiperipheral countries (Democratic Republic of Congo, Brazil, Dominican Republic and Portugal in Europe), sometimes in cities where the “digital divide” is still high (at least in terms of Internet connections) and a significant part of the population lives in informal settlements and/or areas with low indicators of “connection.” Somehow, these experiences were able to demystify the “scary monolithicism” of ICTs, showing that some instruments (like mobile phones, and especially the use of SMS text messaging) could grant a higher degree of connectivity, diffusion and accountability, while other dimensions (which could risk jeopardizing social inclusion) could be minimized through creativity. The paper tries to depict a possible panorama of collaboration for the near future, starting from descriptions of some of the above mentioned “turning-point” experiences – both in the Global North as well as in the Global South

Government Transparency: Six Strategies for More Open and Participatory Government

Offers strategies for realizing Knight's 2009 call for e-government and openness using Web 2.0 and 3.0 technologies, including public-private partnerships to develop applications, flexible procurement procedures, and better community broadband access

Deepening Democracy in Buffalo by Honoring Prior Commitments (And a Legacy)

The waning years of the 2010s and the opening weeks of the 2020s have been rife with headlines, editorials, academic articles, lectures, and book titles lamenting a “crisis of democracy”. Among other things, the concerned authors and observers participating in the discourse cite foreign election interference; the global rise of populist authoritarians; the exorbitant financial costs of electoral politics and the attendant subordination of policy to wealth and corporate interests; increasing social and cultural cleavages and polarization; sharply rising inequality; the ongoing erosion of public trust; and a host of other factors as both causes and consequences of the present weakened state of democracy in and beyond the United States. Not surprisingly, in light of these trends, strengthening democratic institutions and expanding democratic participation are among the highest priorities included in proposals to combat intersecting social, economic, and ecological problems from local gentrification to global climate change. With that in mind, this policy memo highlights two opportunities for the City of Buffalo, New York to answer these urgent calls to deepen democracy. Both opportunities—promoting worker cooperatives and the use of participatory budgeting—have already been experimented with in Buffalo, and have received meaningful resource commitments from the City in the recent past. Earlier progress on those fronts is part of the legacy of former Delaware District Council Member Michael J. LoCurto, who championed both causes through legislation and advocacy. Honoring that legacy means renewing prior commitments to these causes and ensuring that they become lasting fixtures of local governance

Teachers of Secondary School as democracy coaches: study of their conceptions during their initial formation

This study has been developed within the framework of a European Erasmus + project called ELEF†. The aim of this project is to develop, implement, evaluate and replicate innovative democratic learning environments. With this purpose, the Democracy Coaches are trained as agents of citizen participation and generators of democracy, both in educational centres and in informal educational settings. In this context, and during various training sessions, the Democracy Coaches work with the knowledge and skills they need to acquire. This paper focuses on the study and analysis carried out on the concepts expressed by these teachers of secondary education during their training. In order for them to become democracy coaches in the formal educational field, we address concepts such as democracy, citizenship and the most appropriate teaching-learning methodology for illustrating these concepts and competences, bearing in mind that they should educate citizens with full awareness of their rights and duties

Wspieranie pedagogiki demokratycznej? Budżet partycypacyjny w Lizbonie

Social participation is a tool to strengthen peoples’ autonomy and ability to decide upon public issues. It is also an educational and learning tool. In recent times, new forms of social participation have emerged such as the participatory budgets. These foster democratic participation and contribute to more transparent and efficient ways of governing. The participatory budget of Lisbon is an interesting example of municipal social organisation and participation involving learning. The main research question of this article is as follows: how is the participatory budget of Lisbon fostering social learning? Data collected by the use of semi-directed interviews and documental analysis showed that social learning occurred through peoples’ commitment and involvement in local public political issues. However it did not boost the development of an effective democratic participatory experienceU czestnictwo społeczne jest narzędziem wzmacniającym autonomię i zdolność decydowania o kwestiach publicznych. Jest to także narzędzie uczenia innych i uczenia się. W ostatnim czasie pojawiły się nowe formy partycypacji społecznej, takie jak budżety partycypacyjne. Wspierają one demokratyczny udział i przyczyniają się do bardziej przejrzystych i skutecznych sposobów rządzenia. Udział w budżecie w Lizbonie jest interesującym przykładem miejskiej organizacji społecznej i uczestnictwa w takiej edukacji. Główne pytanie badawcze tego artykułu przedstawia się następująco: jak budżet partycypacyjny w Lizbonie wspiera społeczne uczenie się? Dane zebrane przy użyciu częściowo ustrukturyzowanych wywiadów i analizy dokumentacji wykazały, że społeczne uczenie się pojawiło się dzięki zaangażowaniu ludzi w lokalne kwestie polityczne. Nie zwiększyło jednak znacząco doświadczenia w zakresie skuteczności demokratycznego uczestnictwa

Improving democratic governance through institutional design: civic participation and democratic ownership in Europe

In this article we provide a conceptual and argumentative framework for studying how institutional design can enhance civic participation and ultimately increase citizens’ sense of democratic ownership of governmental processes. First, we set out the socio-political context for enhancing the democratic governance of regulatory policies in Europe, and highlight the way in which civic participation and democratic ownership is given equal weight to economic competitiveness. We then discuss the potential for institutionalised participatory governance to develop and their prospects for improving effective and democratic governance in the multi-layered European polity. The article concludes by outlining a research agenda for the field and identifying the priorities for scholars working in interaction with civil society and governments