International conference "Democracy Schools: the ways of civil society development in Russia", on 12-14 October, 2001 in Saint- Petersburg. The Conference brought together more than 80 student leaders, school teachers, and professionals from St. Petersburg and Northwest Russia and international specialists in the field (Dr. Charles Heberle, TDW program, Dr. Kirill Lavrov, UNDP - Russia, David Siffkin, U.S. consulate, Dr. Dmitry Rabkine, IRPN, Auri Berg, Global Informational Intership Project, Sergei Stafeev, Centre of Community Networking and Informational Policy Studies. The participants of the conference rotated between four workshops which addressed the following topics: The school as a resource center for the local community /Sergei Naumov, program "Debates" of Soros Foundation/ New information technologies for the civil education of students /Auri Berg, GIIP/ Lessons of peace and tolerance, /Kirill Lavrov, UNDP-Russia/ Citizen Skills, /Charles Heberle, The Democracy Works/ Each workshop simulated different communication techniques including debate, role-plays, and both guided and open discussions. These open and democratic techniques are very unusual for Russian schools and the students responded very positively to being treated as equal participants during the conference. The second day was dedicated entirely to an organisational-activity game "How to build a democracy in secondary and high school". Five Groups were given the task to come up with and write a grant proposal for a model 'democracy building' project for schools, e.g. PR-company and school' newspaper. They were then asked to choose a representative to argue their case as well as a member to join the budget committee. Together with two international experts (Dr. Charles Heberle, TDW and Dr. Sergei Stafeev, CCNS) the committee judged each group project by the representative's presentation, explaining aloud both its strengths and weaknesses. The point was not only to allow for criticism, but also to demonstrate to the group members how important it was for them to have chosen a good representative. The winner group was suggested to rewrite the project in application form and to submit it to the Program for funding. Special attention was to be paid to the role which new informational and communication technologies (ICTs) can play in the growth of regional school networks, and in building relations between those schools and local communities. At the conference was presented the experience (volunteering, technical and organisational assistance) gathered in a number of developed countries in Europe and North America, experience of creating informational training centres for local communities in high schools, experience of partnership with local citizens and schools, and also in fundraising. On the last day of the conference the participants took the decision to establish the Regional Network of the Democracy Schools in Saint-Petersburg and Leningrad region. The participants have elected the Steering Committee which prepared the plan of practical work of the Network for the next year.

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