It was a special year for CIVIX as we marked the 20th anniversary of the first Student Vote program and the beginning of our work over two decades to strengthen democracy through civic education.

What began with Student Vote has blossomed into so much more, from budget consultations and meetings with elected representatives, to teacher training and digital media literacy programming – both in Canada and abroad (Celebrating 20 Years).

This success has been made possible by the generous support and partnership of many individuals, groups and institutions, and we are sincerely grateful.

This year, we are particularly proud of our work in Canada to help teachers facilitate high quality discussion in the classroom, and the development of new resources to empower students with the knowledge, attitudes and skills to participate constructively in political discussions – habits that are more important than ever these days.

Related to our strategic priority to become a leader in research and knowledge sharing, we also produced our first state of civic education report, Civics on the Sidelines, the first of its kind in 55 years. This report will be released publicly in January.

Outside of Canada, we delivered the largest parallel election ever held in Latin America for the Colombia regional and local elections in October, engaging nearly 250,000 students. We also built off the momentum from our first Student Vote program in Chile in 2022, to create a variety of programming to support the skills of active and informed citizenship among Chilean youth.

You can learn more about our recent work in our 2023 Highlights Report.

We’re excited to bring many more democracy education projects to life in 2024, and wish everyone a happy and healthy holiday season.