FDR runs a ‘School for Democracy’ at Kothapet (Hyderabad) for imparting focused training to public-spirited citizens especially women and youth committed to the cause of democracy and thus nurtures their ‘active citizenship’. The School started functioning in March 2007 and till date, several thousands of citizens across the State (and several, even from outside AP) have gone through various customized training programmes. They all are now understandably proud graduates of ‘FDR’s Democracy and Leadership Training Programme’.
This facility runs periodic residential and non-residential training programmes to selected participants on various topics including democratic principles and processes, empowerment of citizens through genuinely empowered local governments, instruments of accountability such as Right to Information (RTI) and Citizen’s Charters, judicial and police reforms and for youth opportunities for growth, education and employment reforms, etc.
Focused programmes were held at this facility towards:
- Enhancing the participant’s understanding of governance reforms, normative and practical aspects of active citizenship and concepts of citizen-centered governance.
- Strengthening their leadership and communication skills for advocating citizen-centered governance and
- Providing capacity to these individuals so that they would conceive and lead citizen’s awareness building activities at the grassroots levels, targeted at achieving desired governance reforms.
These training and capacity building programmes are customized for various categories of participants such as urban and rural, senior citizens and youth, and women participants – with separate modules for each. Participants include members of like-minded civil society organizations including Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs), students of leading colleges and universities in AP and India, etc. Each module is designed and implemented as a training programme or workshop, generally lasting 3-4 days. The successful trainees are expected to become active and successful in public service in their towns and villages. They are also expected to serve as opinion makers and successful propagators of the philosophy of citizen-centered governance and necessary reforms in their localities/communities. The trainers for such programmes are drawn from a standing pool of resource persons and subject experts, with distinguished speakers invited from outside, depending on the nature of the training event.
FDR has also partnered with Centre for Civil Society (CCS) in its initiative – iPolicy for Young Leaders, with the aim of promoting liberal ideology among youngsters.
A Leadership Training Programme for New Political Culture Leaders has also been launched by the FDR with the objective of improving the understanding of participants on the role of:
- Taking the New Political Culture into all sections of people.
- Formation of New Political Culture leadership at different levels.
- How to make New Political Cultures Agenda as Peoples Agenda.
- Specific Responsibilities to Leadership
The 2-Day Training Program included sessions by experienced trainers as well as group discussions.