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Nurturing active citizenship is a critical aspect of EPIIC's educational process. It is partly introduced through public service projects that EPIIC initiates each year.
Citizens' Panel
The Citizens' Panel provides a framework for non-expert citizens to deliberate on issues of public policy and affords students insight into and experience with a grassroots democracy project. It is based on the consensus conference pioneered in Europe -- an established institution in several countries that is underwritten by the governments and considered vital policy input.
In 1997, EPIIC, the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities and Public Policy, and the Loka Institute hosted Telecommunications and the Future of Democracy, the first Citizens' Panel in the United States. The goal was to offer the participants an opportunity to develop and publicize informed judgments on emerging telecommunications technologies and policies. A diverse range of panelists -- from an MIT scholar to a homeless woman -- met and deliberated over seven days, interviewing more than 20 experts in the field.
Game of Nations
Bosnian, Brazilian, Haitian, Iraqi, Russian, Somalian, Sudanese, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese soccer players -- new immigrants to Boston -- came together in 1998, at EPIIC's invitation, to form the World Citizens team. They played the Tufts University soccer team as part of the "Game of Nations" day that concluded EPIIC's year of studying refugees, migration, and global security.
Co-sponsored by EPIIC and Jewish Vocational Service, this day brought together Tufts students, members of the greater Boston community, and refugees and immigrants in the region for a day-long international festival of sport and music. [For more information, see Special Events in the 1998 Archives.]
Education Builds Bosnia-Herzegovina Foundation
As one of EPIIC's public service initiatives in 1998, the program co-sponsored, with Barnes and Noble, a matching challenge campaign for school supplies in support of the Education Builds Bosnia-Herzegovina Foundation that raised thousands of dollars.
The Education Builds Bosnia and Herzegovina Foundation is a nongovernmental, nonpolitical, nonprofit organization based in Sarajevo. It provides material assistance and scholarships for the youth of Bosnia and Herzegovina, primarily those children that were disabled, orphaned and internally displaced by the war.
Reactions Excerpt from a letter to former Tufts President John DiBiaggio from senior officers of the Boston refugee assistance community: "The Game of Nations was a ground-breaking event for refugees of Massachusetts. It honored the concept of public service in a remarkable way and we would like to thank Tufts for the vision and imagination of this endeavor.
"Jewish Vocational Service received praise from refugees -- Bosnian, Somali, Iraqi, Haitian, and others -- thanking us and explaining how important this day was psychologically. For refugees the concept of home is charged with war, ethnic cleansing and loss. In a significant way, the Celebration Day -- this concept of integration through the arts -- helped to recreate a new idea of home and helped to give life here more meaning and legitimacy."
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"Through the arts -- music, dance, art, sport, and cuisine
-- the Celebration Day gave refugees the rare opportunity to express
themselves in their own terms and take pride in their culture.
Assimilation is a difficult and multi-faceted process. Refugees
must learn about American culture, but just as important is American
understanding of the refugee's culture. This day helped to promote
multi-cultural understanding, to raise awareness of refugee communities,
to build individual and community morale, and most importantly,
to empower refugees to help themselves.