Programs and Events

August 9-16, 2003

Civitas Panama/Project Citizen

A delegation from the Florida Law Related Education Association Inc., and the Miami-Dade County Public Schools visited twelve elementary schools in the region of Chiriqui to see how Project Citizen in Panama is being implemented in the classroom.

Project Citizen is a civic education program for middle school students that promotes competent and responsible participation in state and local government. It actively engages students in learning how to monitor and influence public policy and encourages civic participation among students, their parents, and members of the community.

As a class project, students work together to identify and study a public policy issue, eventually developing an action plan for implementing their policy. The final product is a portfolio displaying each group’s work.

The Center for Civic Education in Calabasas, California, and a group of leading U.S. and Latin American organizations, joined as the Civitas Latin American Consortium (CLA) received a grant from the U.S. Department of Education to conduct a five-year cooperative civic education exchange program.

The goals of Civitas Latin America, a Civic Education Exchange Program, are to assist Latin America educators in implementing effective civic education programs in their countries, and to create civic education programs for students K-12 in the United States that will help them better understand the history and experiences of Latin American nations.

During their stay the delegation visited 10 elementary schools in the capital city including San Miguelito where the same project is being implemented thanks to the teacher-training seminars and workshops conducted by Civitas Panama members. The Florida delegation expressed their appreciation for the great support the U.S. Embassy staff has provided Civitas since its inception in 1996 and discuss program goals, future plans and activities.