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Broadland Council Training Services (BCTS)
Post-16 Citizenship activity at BCTS
In 2006 the Culture t’ Culture programme was created to bring awareness of diversity and difference cultures to the students at BCTS.
Norfolk is a rural county with little ethnic diversity and understanding of different cultures. In larger cities there are many different communities living side by side, making understanding and acceptance of other cultures a day to day occurrence. The Culture t’ Culture project is an exciting opportunity to actively learn more about other countries and cultures.
So far, in the Culture t’ Culture project, the students have researched the countries of Kenya and Senegal. The topics researched have included population, religious beliefs and festivities. The students have used many resources such as the internet and books. An invaluable resource, bringing realism to the project, has been corresponding with students from these countries.
Group meetings regularly take place where the students can discuss what they have found out and share this information with the rest of the group. Ideas are brainstormed about what will be researched in the following weeks and other ideas can be discussed about ways in which the citizenship programme can be used to promote active citizenship.
The students have the opportunity to use their evidence to work towards an NOCN level 1 qualification in Understanding Aspects of Citizenship and Understanding Active Citizenship in the Local Community. The students can discuss the ways in which they wish to learn about these subjects and ways they can incorporate activities such as fund raising and helping the local communities.
Chris Souris recently applied for a big boost fund from The Prince’s trust for £4,500 for the Culture t’ Culture project. His bid was successful and was awarded an amazing £4,133. Chris said that the Culture t’ culture programme has taught him to understand the cultural differences and to exchange thoughts and opinions with others.
Citizenship coordinator's top tips for setting up post-16 citizenship activity:
- Empower the young people to take ownership of their projects, this way they will be much more enthusiastic, learning will be fun.
- Encourage your organisation to carry out active citizenship. If Active citizenship is part of the ethos of the organisation it will be much easier for the learners to gain the knowledge and tools needed to be good citizens.
- Explain to the management team in your organisation about active citizenship, explain your goals and reasons for doing the project. This way you receive much more support.
- Celebrate success stories and achievements how ever small praise good citizenship with in your organisation as often as you can.
- Try and ensure the activities are real and can have impact and make a difference.
How this organisation could help you:
We are very proud of the Citizenship program we are running at BCTS and we would be happy for any other organisations to come along to our sessions. We would be happy to share the information that we have collected so far. It would be great to join in with other groups perhaps pooling information and experiences. Our learners are very enthusiastic and have recently started a recycling project collecting cash 4 cans, the money raised from this will be given to our contacts in Kenya so that they can meet on a regular basis, this would be a great scheme to run with other citizenship groups. We are a friendly group always looking for new ideas and sharing information so please do not hesitate to contact us!
Contact information
Name of citizenship coordinator:
Sally Nderitu
Citizenship coordinator’s telephone:
01603 788950
Citizenship coordinator’s email:
sally.nderitu@broadland.gov.uk
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