By Matthew Aubry | Executive Director
ORG is so grateful for the support for our Citizen Empowerment Programs. We are proud to announce that campaign goal has nearly been met. Funds generously donated through the GlobalGiving” Giving Tuesday” Campaign, helped ORG to expand the geographic scope of our work to build skills of advocacy and participation with citizens in The Bahamas. The ORG team brought our civic education programs to the Islands of Bimini, Cat Island and Long Island, facilitating increased access to meaningful participation in governance.
Six sessions in total were held which engaged over 40 Bahamians. The in-person training sessions provided in The Family Islands focused on engaging youth and civic groups and were held in community based setting such as churches and schools. ORG offered information and resources on nation building and engaged the participants to talk about their community challenges and brainstorm ways to solve them together. The training also introduced ORG’s free online digital tools to the community members so that they might build on the momentum gained in the trainings. The feedback gained from the community has been very encouraging and supports ORG’s aim to bring civic education programs to communities in all the populated Islands of The Bahamas.
This project helps to reinforce ORG’s core belief - that Engaged citizens can play a critical role in making public institutions more transparent, accountable, and effective, and contributing innovative solutions to development challenges.Additionally, the experience and insight gained through this program has informed ORG’s development of the themes and formats of our next programs to help Bahamians to “Get Informed and Get Involved”. Challenging economic conditions, low levels of public trust in government, and the growing impacts of Climate Change are hitting Bahamians hard, particularly those in our most vulnerable communities. The issues we currently face are beyond solely government’s capacity to solve. Our hope for sustainable positive solutions lies in the meaningful involvement of everyday citizens in the planning and monitoring of issues like disaster preparedness, social support programs and improved education. Bahamians, particularly those from our marginalized communities, need the skills and opportunities to have a say in the matters that affect them and their communities. As this project concludes, ORGwill be seeking funding to help communities to build a cadre of Active and locally involved Citizens and to better understand the low level of public trust in governance that seems to be limiting the forward progress of our communities and our nation.
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