Available Workshops

EFC provides the following workshops:

Engaging in Canadian Politics

This civic engagement workshop offers a practical introduction to effective communication with Canadian politicians at the local, provincial, and federal levels for the purposes of applying the information students encounter in the classroom to their role as Canadian citizens. Students will be provided with a brief overview of the Canadian political and electoral systems before being taught the most effective ways to engage their elected representatives. Following this theoretical introduction students will be encouraged to use the methods taught to write a letter to a political representative at the municipal, provincial, or federal level on a topic of their own choosing.

For more information on this workshop, please contact Nicole Longpré or Aidan Findlater.

Intercultural dialogue on diversity: A tool in the fight against injustice

The workshop will occur in two parts: education and training. As part of the education portion of this workshop, participants will have the opportunity to gain a greater understanding of what intercultural dialogue is while working through a simulation activity of the United Nations policy recommendation process, which has been used in the creation of such documents as the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, that Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. As part of the training portion of the workshop, participants will have the opportunity to engage in peer-to-peer dialogue over a variety of social and global justice issues such as religious and cultural intolerance, youth violence, poverty, genocide and ethnocide prevention, and modern-day slavery presented within a cross-cultural context. This training will take both the form of a dialogue and a social justice-specific decision-making game that will encourage participants to use their knowledge of intercultural dialogue (learned earlier) and their own natural desire to promote peace to make the best decisions when approaching a given conflict.

This workshop is temporarily unavailable.

For more information on this workshop, please contact Sheridy Leslie.

The Power of the Pen: The Role of the Media in Sparking Positive Social Change

Journalists for Human Rights

Through exploring a plethora of Human Rights Crisis internationally and within Canada, this workshop, presented by Journalists for Human Rights, examines the role of the media in promoting human rights and sparking positive social change. From the genocide in Darfur and failure in Rwanda to the treatment of aboriginals in British Columbia and the socio-economic division in Toronto; this workshop examines the media’s current relationship to promoting human rights, and how it can be used to give a voice to the voiceless.

Participatory and interactive, this workshop provides students with a background on a select human rights crisis (chosen in collaboration with the teacher hosting the workshop), and interactive activities on the power of the media in such situations. This workshop can also be tailored to help students develop media campaigns that can be used as a class project or extracurricular activity.

Developed by the Student Engagement Team and Education Specialist at Journalists for Human Rights, the workshop can be adapted to complement a variety of courses and can be adapted to fill anywhere from 45 minutes to a full afternoon of class time.

For more information on this workshop, please contact the JHR High School program at highschools@jhr.ca and visit JHR at www.jhr.ca.

Train the Trainer Program: Empowering Canadian Youth in Human Rights Education

Journalists for Human Rights

In December 2008, the world will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a document that lays the standards for Human Rights Protections that have not yet been met. The Train the Trainer program, directed by Journalists for Human Rights (JHR), sets out to empower the next generation of Canadian leaders to raise awareness of Human Rights globally and to harness the power of the media as a tool for positive change.

With focus placed on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms; the International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the workshop builds student’s understanding of the relationship between the media and human rights, while developing their skills in participatory facilitation, conflict resolution, and creating media campaigns.

Developed by the Education Specialist at Journalists for Human Rights in consultation with Canadian Heritage, the Canadian Commission on UNESCO, and EQUITAS, the workshop can be adapted to complement a variety of courses and can be adapted to fill anywhere from 45 minutes to a full afternoon of class time.

For more information on this workshop, please contact the JHR High School program at highschools@jhr.ca and visit JHR at www.jhr.ca.