Resources
📘 Applied civic education for local government
The "Heroes of Change — citizenship education and child participation in decision-making" handbooks guide pupils through learning about local government, all the way to realizing their own ideas for the environment around them.
The target group is children in grades 5–12, and the training resources are adapted for pupils in grades 5–8 and 9–12 respectively. The resources include materials for teachers and guidance on how to organize the child participation process in practice for facilitators and teachers.
The handbook contains five modules that walk through the stages of the process at school. Every step and resource described has been tested in schools. Each module has a short introductory part explaining its goal and tips based on prior experience. The program starts with civic education, continues with developing pupils' ideas and advocating for them.
"Heroes of Change" Handbook — grades 9–12
🗳️ School participatory budgeting
Participatory budgeting with students is one of the most popular educational methods for developing civic attitudes from an early age. It is applied in New York, Arizona, Boston, Paris, Berlin, Krakow, Warsaw, Gdansk, Sofia, Skalitsa, Estonia, Portugal.
Through it, children change their school or kindergarten environment according to their own ideas, take part in democratic processes, vote from a young age and see the result of their vote.
Dive into our resources that guide you through the process.
Guidelines for coordination teams
Guidance on how to organize the team that will run School Participatory Budgeting at your school. In the guide you will find different models for recruiting participants, distributing tasks in the team and onboarding training. Developed by SocLab, Poland, under the "School Participatory Budgeting — a tool for democracy in school" project.
Decide Together
A practical guide on how to involve students in the process from the very beginning. Lets you start school budgets in a few short steps — from presenting the idea to drafting the Election Code and the rules of their budget. Requires 3 to 4 class periods. Developed by The Small Steps under the "School Participatory Budgeting — a tool for democracy in school" project.
Digital course for teachers
"Civic budgets for students" introduces the basics of the process and guides you from planning to implementation across 8 steps. Contains applied guidance and templates you can adapt and use. Participants receive a certificate upon completion. The course is developed by an international consortium under the "School Participatory Budgeting — a tool for democracy in school" project.