Maytree’s Civic Literacy Toolkit

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Author: Toby Davine

Posted: June 17, 2014

Categories: Digital Media (videos, infographics, digital stories) / Food in the News / GoodFoodBites

With up to three elections taking place in some ridings over the next five months (provincial, federal by-election, and municipal), there’s a lot of election chatter going on. It can be a little overwhelming: hundreds of hopeful candidates, countless pamphlets, evening phone calls, nosey pollsters, and mid-walk canvassers every way you turn.

I can distill the experience into 17 syllables:

Election season
Lawn sign tapestries abloom
Still undecided

In times like these, it’s helpful to have a refresher on how our democracy works and how elected officials make decisions on our behalf. Luckily, Maytree has developed a Civic Literacy Toolkit for “training residents on how governments make decisions, and how residents might impact those decisions”.

Maytree teamed up with community-based organizations to create these wonderful resources. They are great for organizations interested in sharing knowledge about understanding decision-making. The resources include:

A Slideshow

Illustrations on How Government Works

How-Government-Works-legal-portrait

And How to Make A Deputation.

How-to-Make-a-Deputation

For more resources, including more detailed information, handouts, and exercises, visit Maytree.

Sustain Ontario is also creating resources for municipal elections, which take place October 27th across Ontario, so that we can influence municipal candidates to make food and farming a priority in their region. Stay tuned for more information and read on, brave voter!