Pilot Program Commences 12 May 2026
An engaged citizenry is an essential component of a well-functioning democracy. Unfortunately, instead of an engaged citizenry, we have been witnessing citizens disengaging from democracy. Research has shown that:
a prevailing factor underpinning citizen disengagement with democracy is the lack of influence citizens have on addressing issues that they are concerned about,
the kinds of issues citizen’s most care about are wicked problems such as cost of living, climate change, the housing crisis, and mental health, and
wicked problems need to be addressed by taking a systems approach.
Community Capacity Builders’ Active Citizenship for Systems Change Program takes a New Civics and Action Civics approach to address democratic decline. This Program has been designed for community leaders who want to act upon their values, challenge systemic and institutional inequities, and create systems change to address society's most pressing problems. The Program takes a project based learning approach with participants taking a wicked problem of their choice through the program's four units. These units are:
In Unit 1 participants explore why citizens are turning away from democracy and how different approaches to active citizenship can address this democratic decline. During this unit participants have the opportunity to identify the values underpinning their motivation to address community issues and explore contemporary concepts such as ‘woke’ and ‘performative activism’.
In Unit 2 participants compare and contrast simple, complicated, complex and wicked problems. They differentiate social ecological wicked problems from human services wicked problems and explore the importance of centring lived experience when addressing wicked human services problems.
In Unit 3 participants visualise systems using systems thinking and explore the dynamics of complex adaptive systems. They identify the problem ecosystem for an issue that they are interested in, including systemic and institutional inequalities. Then they identify the solution ecosystem for that issue and undertake a system gap analysis for the issue.
In Unit 4 participants compare and contrast two systems social entrepreneurship approaches. They understand the need to focus on coherence when transitioning social ecological wicked problems, and systems alignment when transitioning human services wicked problems. They also identify system stewardship actions for creating the enabling conditions for system transitions.