KCCP Training Program of a Democratic Teachers Corps

During the school holidays in March 1998, the Krasnoyarsk Center for Community Partnerships (KCCP) and the U.S. non-profit organization Educated Choices Heighten Opportunities, Inc. (ECHO) will conduct the second session of their intensive training program of a democratic teachers corps in the Krasnoyarsk Krai and Khakasia. Administrators and teachers from 13 schools will be attending this week-long training. Participating schools are from Krasnoyarsk, Zheleznogorsk, Sosnovoborsk, Podgornii, Divnogorsk, Minusinsk, Bolshoi Ului and Bograd, Khakasia. The education department of the city of Togliatti also will be attending.

The aim of the session is to give schools the skills, materials, and support to realize their potential as local community resources centers which are the focus of grassroots civic activism on the local level and which address education and non-education needs of local residents.

From March 24th to March 29th, training participants will examine issues such as mutually beneficial partnerships between schools and their micro-raions and will study topics connected with schools being effective local resources resource centers - for example, needs assessment, development of a non-commercial organization, strategic planning, fundraising, and working with volunteers.

This March session is part of a larger year-long training program entitled "Intensive Training Program Of A Democratic Teachers Corps In The Krasnoyarsk Krai And Khakasia." The goal of this program is to give regional educators the skills, materials, experiences and support for the democratization of their schools and classrooms. The first training session was in November 1997 and at that time participants studied perspectives on democratic pedagogy, including how to integrate the values and practice of a democratic civil society into the education process. The conducting of the training program is made possible through grants by the National Endowment for Democracy and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.

Regarding the focus of the March training session, Albert Decie, director of KCCP, said "Schools can and must play leadership roles in their local communities. Schools have a unique position in their local communities, a position which gives them the potential to become local community resource centers. Schools can expand their focus and transform themselves into extended-hour learning, recreation and social centers for local residents of all ages and needs. In these school-centers, local residents and professional educators can work together to address community challenges, including the expansion and improvement of educational services. The center's March training gives schools the skills, materials, and support to play this crucial community role."

Last updated:    April 1998

A print version of much of the information contained in this NIS Third Sector Organizations section can be found in the The Post-Soviet Handbook (Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1999).

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