“Active Citizens” is a social leadership programme launched by the British Council that promotes intercultural dialogue and social responsibility around the world. Through its programme, Active Citizens brings together people with different beliefs and perspectives to learn from and share their experiences with each other. They train participants in the skills and knowledge needed to affect social change in their communities.

“Active Citizens” is a social leadership programme launched by the British Council that promotes intercultural dialogue and social responsibility around the world. Through its programme, Active Citizens brings together people with different beliefs and perspectives to learn from and share their experiences with each other. They train participants in the skills and knowledge needed to affect social change in their communities.

Activity: Structure and Needs

First, one has to get in touch with the closest British Council. Through them, one can apply for a 5 day training to become an Active Citizen facilitator. Once completed, one can conduct their own Active Citizen program with the following online toolkit: https://www.britishcouncil.org/active-citizens/how-active-citizens-works/toolkit. The toolkit is structured in six sections:  introduction to the programme, social development themes, preparing a workshop, delivering a workshop, post-workshop activity, workshop activities. Participants in the program go through 4 different modules: Identity & culture, intercultural dialogue, local & global community and Social Action/social Enterprise start-up planning.

Objectives: Impact and Focus

The impact of Active Citizen is vast: since 2009, the program has been conducted in no less than 54 countries and as of today, more than 210 000 people have been trained to be active citizens. The final goal of this program is to bring people from different background and beliefs together and open their views up to diversity and new perspectives; the mean to achieve that is through dialogue, sharing and discussing experiences and views. Once they have been trained they can pass on their new skills to the people of their own communities.

Field Data: Examples and Sources

1.) Active Citizens – British Council – Auckland, New Zealand

The British Council has partnered with close to 700 organizations around the world willing to train their members/volunteers to become Active Citizens facilitators and make a change in society as inclusive actors of tomorrow. As of today, about 800 social actions have been launched around the world thanks to the work of Active Citizens. Here in New Zealand, the Active Citizen program was launched by Splice, and supported by the British Council of Auckland