The ‘ACT’ (Active Citizenship Training) Courses
Our country is a dynamic, multicultural centre of European culture - this is
particularly so for our capital city; London. Current issues around the world,
tension between communities in the UK and the fact that over 350,000 job seekers
from Eastern Europe have entered the UK in the past two years are all testament to
the need for promoting Active Citizenship training.
For British Muslims, the Active Citizenship agenda has taken on the form of a national
debate as younger Muslims, born and raised in the UK, struggle to reconcile the demands
of their parents’ traditional culture, their commitment to Islam, with their own cosmopolitan
experience in the west. Recent events have highlighted the urgent need for the British
Muslim community and particularly young people, to reach out and better understand the
advantages and challenges of living in an intercultural society. J-go has responded to this
need by developing a set of Active Citizenship courses, designed and tested to meet the
needs of CVS organisations, faith organisations, regeneration bodies, schools and Local
Authorities. The courses are variously bespoke to the requirements of teaching
individuals, teachers and tutors and organisations. They are:
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ACT 1 (Active Citizenship Training)
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ACT 2 (Active Citizenship ‘Training for Tutors)

ACT 3 (Active Citizenship ‘Training for Tutors and Organisations’)
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The ACT Now! Board Game
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The ACT Now! - Tutor Accreditation Certificate
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Electoral Registration Campaigns
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Making your Vote Count X – 1st Time Voting for Beginners

Introduction to E-Government
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FACT – Families Against Crime Together
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Cultural Fusion - Minority Communities Positive Outreach
The ‘ACT’ (Active Citizenship Training) Courses
ACT 1 (Active Citizenship Training):
These courses are designed to be delivered directly to beneficiaries, either for adults or
young people. There are two versions of the course, an adult version and a young
person’s version. For young people the age range should be 16 upwards and it is suitable
for schools, faith groups, community youth centres and young offender’s institutes or
public access within a particular area. The course can be presented as a summer holiday
or half term initiative or compacted to become a weekend or short residential course. The
adult course is suitable for presenting as an evening class over a period, an intensive
week or as a weekend residential. It is suitable for regeneration bodies working within a
particular area, Local Authorities or CVS organisations working to a grant regime.
ACT 2 (Active Citizenship ‘Training for Tutors’):
These courses are designed to be delivered to community and supplementary tutors with
the intention of enabling them to pass the knowledge on to young people they have
regular contact with in the course of their normal duties. The course is particularly
pertinent to the needs of the British Muslim community teachers to help ensure that the
young students and the community on whom they exert influence are positively inspired to
engage with, and respect the many other faiths and cultures that make up modern British
society and gain a clear understanding of UK and EU constitutional affairs.
The course includes creative non-traditional teaching methods appropriate to be used with
young people and supplements the information in the handbook with structured
discussions, role-plays, interactive educational games and field trips to Parliament, the
GLA and Lambeth Palace.
ACT 3
(Active Citizenship ‘Training for Tutors and Organisations’):
This course is designed to be delivered in partnership with, or on behalf of, small faith-led
organisations or community groups seeking to enable their community leaders and tutors
to learn the Active Citizenship agenda with the intention of passing on the knowledge on
to young people (as above in ACT2). However, this course comes with an added extra structured organisational capacity building, this being delivered in the course of providing
the project management administration for the ACT project.
The course helps small organisations to project manage and deliver the project with a
worked up Baseline Survey, Delivery Plan, Action Plan, Methodology Statement, Quality
Review, Budget Forecast, Cashbook, Audit and Final Report. The organisation will benefit
from this classic delivery approach and be able to use the same format for other project
management tasks in the future.
The ‘ACT’ (Active Citizenship Training) Courses
The ACT Now! Board Game:
The ACT Now! Board Game is a tutor led educational team game designed to make
learning the UK Active Citizenship Agenda fun and entertaining for groups of between 10
to 20 participants, which can be completed within a normal session timetable of two hours.
The game is based on a simplified version of the information contained in the Home Office
sponsored textbooks ‘Life in the United Kingdom – A Journey to Citizenship’ and the
‘British Citizenship Test – Study Guide’ and has been developed and produced by J-go as
an original product, resulting from of our experience of teaching the Active Citizenship
agenda. It is available in two versions, one for suitable adults and the other, bespoke to
the needs of young people.
The game helps participants to gain an understanding of two thousand years of British
history, broaden their knowledge of local, regional, national and European Union
constitutionalism and learn about and engager respect for the many other faiths and
cultures present in the United Kingdom. The game also includes up-to-date facts and
figures about the British welfare, legal and social support infrastructure and is an
appropriate tool for preparing individuals for taking the British Citizenship Test.
The game can be used to enhance the quality of the teaching, training and guidance
provided to young people within a schools’ curriculum, used in youth clubs, by community
groups, young offenders’ institutions or as an engagement tool by organisations generally
or particularly concerned with engaging young people in Civil Renewal.
In its adult version, the game can help people for whom English is not a first language to
challenge common misconceptions and become familiar and knowledgeable about UK
Citizenship and history. As a recent survey found that 75% of adults in the UK were
unable to put major British historical events in context, the game can be used as an
entertaining way of refreshing individuals’ knowledge about British identity and as
preparatory tool for discussions on the meaning of social cohesion and Multi-culturalism.
The ACT Now! Board Game is available for purchase only from J-go as a ‘class size
version’ - large enough to be played by a tutor-led group of between 10 and 20
participants. The game comes complete with tutor instructions, a professionally printed
board, counters, cards and electronic team buzzers.
The ACT Now! - Tutor Accreditation Certificate:
The ACT Now! Board Game can be played ‘from the box’ following the instructions
provided with the product. However, the game can also be used as a powerful bespoke
educational product to help British Muslim community teachers. Helping to ensure that
young Muslims and the community on whom they exert influence are positively inspired to
engage with, and respect the many other faiths and cultures that make up modern British
society and gain a clear understanding of UK and EU constitutional affairs.
The ‘ACT’ (Active Citizenship Training) Courses
J-go’s one day accreditation course, held at our premises in East London, is designed to
help Muslim teachers and community tutors construct a community teaching syllabus and
curriculum, using the board game and other J-go products, to help young Muslims explore
the challenges and advantages of living in a multi-cultural society. The course includes an
introduction to creative non-traditional teaching methods appropriate to be used with
young people and each participant will leave the one-day course with original copies of
the ACT Now! Board Game, the Interfaith Poem Game and the Constitutional Role Play.
The game products come with tutor instructions and a student introduction, to enable the
tutor participants to run their own courses in youth clubs, faith schools and community
centres.
Electoral Registration Campaigns:
The foundation stone of citizenship is participation and registration as a voter at the age of
18 is the base line to becoming an adult active citizen. It is a shocking fact that the
majority of 18 year olds in the UK are not registered to vote. In inner-city areas and
deprived communities this is one of the ingredients of social exclusion, particularly for
young people. This product is suitable for large regeneration bodies who wish to empower
their local communities by helping them access the democratic process or for community
organisations, who are targeting a youth audience.
J-go can provide a voter registration campaign bespoke to your needs and your area’s
profile. We are experienced in explaining and motivating people to become actively
involved in the democratic process. For young people in the UK there is no ‘instruction
book’ on how to exercise your democratic rights. J-go’s approach is practical and
sympathetic to the views and attitudes of young people and we can inspire, motivate and
support young people to understand the electoral process and become active participants.
The product can be supplied as an estate wide survey and door-to-door campaign or as
an open day within the area, on its own or attached to a bigger event such as a summer
party or fun day.
Making your Vote Count X – 1st Time Voting for Beginners:
Registration as a voter is the first step in becoming an Active Citizen, but are you going to
use your vote? And do you know what you’re voting for? This unique, engaging short
course is designed to educate, motivate and empower individuals who are exercising their
vote for the first time, either as young people coming of age or as new UK citizens.
The course has two main elements, covering:
An introduction to the UK political system, an outline of the big national issues current
within the UK and Europe, a brief history of politics in the UK, a thumb nail analysis of the
manifestos of the main political parties and the representative forums of the local
Councils, Regional Governments, National Government and the European Union.
The ‘ACT’ (Active Citizenship Training) Courses
The course is also practically focused to enable beneficiaries to; Vote with confidence and
understanding, access their Councillors, MP or MEP through surgeries, email or
correspondence, understand the election results, join a political party or stand for election!
The product can be delivered in various forms; as a half day session, a full day session
and can be combined with a group visit to the Palace of Westminster.
Introduction to E-Government:
ICT literacy is a core skill for civil and community engagement in 21st Century Britain. The
e-Government agenda is slowly establishing itself across the UK and many individuals are
becoming caught on the wrong side of the ‘Digital Divide’. Confidence in being able to
access the Internet is fast becoming a basic requirement of Active citizenship and full
participation in civil society. Informed citizens are empowered citizens, an essential
element of a vibrant democracy.
This practical, short course combines learning about Active Citizenship and an
introduction to using the Internet as an information tool. The course demonstrates how
ordinary people can use the Internet to their advantage, by gaining information, making
contact with others, comparing prices and accessing local and national services. The
course can be delivered as an afternoon or morning session or as an all day event.
FACT – Families Against Crime Together:
This product can be bespoke to the needs of your local area. The FACT programme is
designed to tackle racism and extremism through structured discussions on the
importance of a mother’s positive influence and involvement in children’s upbringing,
particularly with regard to developing cohesive and just communities.
The programme engages the local Crime Reduction Partnerships and Safer
Neighbourhood Teams and outreaches to mothers in the area to participate in structured
local conferences, which will highlight areas and issues that parents may not realise affect
their children, which, if not checked, can lead to their involvement in negative activities.
The conferences will provide a platform that enables the mothers to share examples of
best practice in combating hate and race crime, and lend peer group support to deal with
individual problems that the mothers may be encountering.
The product aims to build the capacity of mothers to combat extremism and hate crime,
practically when expressed by their own children and link these often socially excluded
women into a local and regional support network. J-go prefers to work with local groups,
such as Tenant and Resident Associations or community centres , if appropriate and
ensure that these local groups are involved in the recruitment and outreach of the
programme and on completion, are also the beneficiaries of this initiative.
This product can link into local Police intelligence networks through the Safer
The ‘ACT’ (Active Citizenship Training) Courses
Neighbourhoods Teams and Neighbourhood Management initiatives. This can validate a
wider programme of combating hate crime and extremism and can be effectively
mainstreamed at the end of project into these local regeneration and renewal funding
streams, providing onward funding opportunities. Evaluations of all events by beneficiaries
and partners can be captured as part of the Project’s outputs.
J-go has extensive experience of anti-crime initiatives and this form of engagement and
can help local groups benefit from good practice, president from elsewhere. This
innovative programme is also attractive to certain funders and J-go can provide a flexible
service delivery, which can include making or advising on funding for this project.
Cultural Fusion - Minority Communities Positive Outreach:
Ignorance of other cultures is a breeding ground of racism. In our experience we have
found that once minority communities become more familiar to established indigenous
communities, communalities are quickly recognised, barriers are broken and neighbours
recognise neighbours, for who they really are – good neighbours in an intercultural
society.
This creative, fun initiative is designed to provide a local platform for minority communities
to showcase the best aspects of their culture, in an intergenerational celebration of art,
craft, music and poetry. The initiative can be delivered as an all day event in a local venue
or J-go can provide outdoor equipment and venues to create a ‘summer fun day’, within
the external environs of an estate or public space. This product can be bespoke as an
adult event or youth event or as an intergenerational initiative.
J-go works closely with resident communities and representative groups to delivery this
product. We can provide a complete package, including venue management, advertising
and outreach and event co-ordination on the day or work in partnership with a local group
to provide any one aspect of the product.
The ‘ACT’ (Active Citizenship Training) Courses