NOVEMBER 10, 2022 -- Raising awareness and engagement in local democracy, Local Government Week (#LGWSK) will again be officially proclaimed in the province of Saskatchewan, for the week of November 14th to 20th. Please join us in recognizing and raising awareness about local governments. You can find more information on the Saskatchewan School Boards Association website: https://saskschoolboards.ca/advocacy/local-government-week/.
Local Government Week is a partnership between the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations, Métis Nation – Saskatchewan, the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association, the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities and the Saskatchewan School Boards Association. This is the fifth year that Local Government Week has been proclaimed. The call to recognize the week with a provincial proclamation emerged through discussions between the partner organizations as an excellent opportunity to recognize and raise awareness about systems of local governance. School boards are locally elected to bring community voice to publicly funded education, and Local Government Week helps to highlight the importance of grassroots-level decision-making. The work of local governments affects the lives of Saskatchewan residents every day. Locally elected governments represent the voices of the people they serve and provide connections and accountability to their communities.
This year, we are very excited to be launching at the start of Local Government Week an educational component for students. For the past couple of years, the partner organizations have been working with the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation (STF) Learning Centre and a committee of teachers to develop local government resources that support curriculum outcomes related to democracy, community and citizenship. The resource package is titled Who Governs Us – Who Governs the Land? The resources are targeted for Grade 4 and will be made available to all teachers in Saskatchewan to support learning about: the roles and responsibilities of local governments; citizenship and engagement in local democracy; and local governments as pertains to Treaty Rights, First Nations jurisdiction and recognizing the Métis Nation - Saskatchewan as a government. The resource is available on the website (https://saskschoolboards.ca/advocacy/local-government-week/) and will also be shared through the Ministry, STF Learning Centre and other organizations as a resource for educators.
One additional component that has been developed to complement the educational resource is a Speakers Bureau. The Bureau provides contacts within each organization, designed to connect teachers using the resources with local government representatives who would be willing and able to present and speak with the students and share first-hand accounts of their roles and responsibilities as locally elected representatives and leaders.
