Global Citizenship Ambassador Program

Nurturing tomorrow's global leaders and empowering students as Changemakers!

Students don’t have to look far to see that our world needs all of our help. They ARE ready to take action on issues they see and care about as empowered Global Citizens. Educators need the tools and resources to develop a generation of empowered Young Changemakers. This program provides frameworks such as Design Thinking, Systems Thinking, Digital Storytelling and more to meet these demands.

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Overview

Information on this page is provided by the innovator and has not been evaluated by HundrED.

Web presence

2022

Established

315

Children

2

Countries

Target group

Students basic

Updated

July 2024

Empowering a generation of Young Changemakers, who understand how to create change and solve real life issues in their own schools and communities- and have the confidence to do so. As empowered Global Citizens they have the ability to mobilise others to co-create a better tomorrow for everyone.

About the innovation

Why did you create this innovation?

With a growing awareness and demand for programs that are built on authentic Student Voice and Student Agency, as well as those that place students as problem-solvers at the heart of real-world issues they care about, there was an obvious gap in the educational landscape for a scalable program that anyone could join or run in their classroom or school, fitting into any educational setting.

What does your innovation look like in practice?

We support students as active and empowered learners, building their knowledge, skills and values to design and implement solutions to issues they see around them. Students join facilitated regular online sessions with peers nationally, guided through the stages of Changemaking, aligning projects to the SDGs and The Inner Development Goals.
Students learn about Young Changemakers and why it is important to take action.
Using Inquiry Learning and Design Thinking, the selection of issues, solutions and implementation decisions are all made by students, using Student Voice and Agency and developing Student Leadership.
Students create solutions, leveraging community connections and assets, creating content (posters, websites, social media) to educate others, developing Digital Citizenship.
While implementing projects, students use Critical and Creative Thinking, problem-solving real-life issues. One educator per school participates, building their capacity to facilitate Changemaker Ed.

How has it been spreading?

With the program in it's third year in Australia, we are aiming to launch it in the USA 2024/2025 school year. With many schools wanting to offer these kinds of educational experiences for students, a free online Self-paced Guide for Student Action Projects is now available to any educator globally to run the program themselves.
The program facilitator has been invited to several conferences since it has started to share the initiative with others, students were invited to present their projects at the Kids Conference 2024 at Melbourne University and several schools have a piece written by the student ambassadors in the Australian Council for Student Voice magazine, ReconnectED.

If I want to try it, what should I do?

Join The Global Citizenship Ambassador Program for facilitated sessions and peer to peer learning to build a generation of Young Changemakers in your classroom, school or district!
https://au.meglanguages.com/global-citizenship-ambassadors

Download the FREE, online Self-paced Guide: Student Action Program to run it yourself:
https://au.meglanguages.com/facilitating-student-action-projects/

Media

Students used creativity to design age appropriate resources for their peers about their issues - e.g. Dotti the Doughnut taught primary students about these terms at one Sydney Primary School.

Educational posters for school community were created by student ambassadors, which used a variety of techniques, including QR codes, linking to call to actions, websites they'd designed for more information, videos, etc. A grade 6 student designed this logo.

Students worked with outside experts to design suitable solutions to their issues e.g. Grade 6 students designed mental health conversation cards with local psyscologist after identifying through a survey their peer's needed opportunities to discuss issues they were experiencing.

Critical Thinking was an essential part of getting to the root cause of issues, before effective solutions can be identified. Students used a range of tools.

Students became content creators for real events they organised and ran in their schools. Poster designed for the student led, multicultural celebration at Yeronga Secondary in Queensland.

Projects had both a global and local focus, like Edithvale Primary Ambassadors who bought coffee from a women's collective in Peru and sold it locally, donating proceeds to local charities in need.

Projects align to the SDGs

Dallas Brookes Primary students were invited to present their project at the 2024 Kids Conference at Melbourne University

Implementation steps

Step 1: Learn about Young Changemakers and what being a Changemaker is about!

"You can't be what you can't see."
Students need examples of other young people of similar ages to themselves changemaking from their own country and around the world. This shows them that anyone can be a changemaker, provides inspiration and helps them see what Changemaking looks like.

Step 2: Choose your issue!

Choosing suitable and achievable changemaking topics sets the groundwork for young people to be successful in their endeavours. Using criteria that shows what success in this looks like is important. This builds the knowledge, skills and confidence in themselves as Changemakers.

Step 3: Identifying Suitable Solutions

Designing solutions that are effective and impactful take work. Using processes and tools such as Systems Thinking, Root Causes Analysis and GLocal mapping supports students to go beyond surface level solutions.

Step 3: Identifying Suitable Solutions

Designing solutions that are effective and impactful takes work. Using processes and tools such as Systems Thinking, Root Causes Analysis and GLocal mapping supports students to go beyond surface level solutions.

Step 5: Implementing Projects

Students first learn about, and then are asked to use Inclusive Leadership to get school and community buy in and ensure their projects are understood from a variety of perspectives. This ensures project designs and solutions inclusively represent the experiences of others. They use and develop skills such as Critical & Creative Thinking to problem solve and create engaging solutions and artefacts to support solution implementation.

Step 6: Educating Others

Students need to first educate others about their issue, and become the educators! Once they've identified their intended audience, they need to explain why their issue needs addressing, illustrating what the local and global impact of it is. For success, they must ensure their education campaign is engaging and uses suitable messaging and platforms for their intended audiences.

Step 7: Inspiring Action

Mobilising others to take action is essential for effective change to take place. Using a range of digital and other tools to communicate calls to action and persuasive language to inspire others to take action, students become true agents of change!

Step 8: Reflections and applying learning

Reflection is an important part of all learning. Reflecting on the skills, knowledge, values and attitudes they've developed through their project, particularly to the Inner Development Goals, students celebrate their project and personal successes, identify future recommendations and consider where they might applying their learning elsewhere.