Bringing the MDGs to Life (Public Engagement)
Southern Alberta
2007-2012

This project was supported by:

PROJECT GOAL:
To educate and engage over 30,000 students in South Central Alberta on the Millennium Development Goals, poverty issues and give opportunities to explore global citizenship through theatre based education.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
In the year 2000 the United Nations created the Millennium Development Goals to ad-dress the needs of disadvantaged people and to halve the global population that live in poverty around the world by 2015.

Bringing the MDGs to Life focuses on introducing the Millennium Development Goals to students of all ages in an engaging and innovative manner. Through the use of process theatre and nine-foot-high puppets students are lead through a participatory workshop that has them explore the underlying issues of poverty such as, stigma, opposition, op-pression and dignity and how the fulfillment of the MDGs can make a profound differ-ence in peoples’ lives.

Our workshops use theatre games and interactive techniques to create dialogue around students’ roles as global citizens. We want students to be challenged, to learn, to gain new perspectives, and, most of all, to have fun in the process!

All of our workshops are sponsored by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and are offered to schools free of charge.

The workshops we offer can be tailored to meet individual classroom needs:

1. Bringing the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to Life
Students will explore the MDGs and links between them, and will gain an increased awareness about international issues and ways to become involved.

2. Perceptions of Poverty
Students will explore their attitudes about issues surrounding poverty in Canada and overseas and create ideas about how to make a difference.

3. Giant Puppets Bring Giant Change (paired with #1 or 2)
After completing an MDG/Perceptions workshop, students need a stage—a way to get the message out!  Here, students will create their own play and perform using our giant 9-foot puppets!

4. In Their Shoes - Poverty Simulations (can be paired with other workshops)
By creating paper bags for pennies apiece or creating rules and competing for limited resources, students will gain increased perspective and understanding of the realities of poverty.

5. Development on the Ground
Students will learn about the realities of overseas development work.  They’ll discuss, watch videos and learn about previous CAUSE Canada projects that have been imple-mented (literacy, HIV/AIDS, socio-economic reintegration of persons affected by war, and others) and talk about globalization, barriers and how to bring change to our world.

**for teachers**
Professional Development: A New Way to Approach Social Studies
Through professional development workshops focusing on connections between proc-ess theatre and the social studies curriculum, teachers will walk away with ready-to-use classroom techniques!

EXPECTED OUTCOMES:

• Increase involvement in development of 10,000 individuals.
• Increase knowledge of development issues of 20,000 individuals.
• Increase awareness of development issues of 30,000 individuals.
• Raise the profile of the Millennium Development Goals and global poverty issues in towns and cities throughout southern Alberta, including Calgary, Red Deer, Lacombe, Banff, and Canmore.
• Empower students to become involved in global activism and social change.

TIMEFRAME: 5 years

2011/12 BUDGET: