About us

Lithuanian College of Democracy (LDUK), founded in 1997, is a voluntary non-governmental scientific association, seeking to promote the ideas of democracy in society and social innovation. The College organizes seminars, develops projects for the promotion of democracy, civic education and development, carries out programs of public education, organizes public debates, prepares research papers and publications in a cooperation with Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences.


Our mission is the initiation of positive social changes by performing fundamental and applied research as well as implementing related initiatives and programmes in the spheres of social development, education and children wellbeing.

Our vision is responsibility for pre-and-in-service training of social educators, social workers, leisure educators, animators, social, cultural and recreative activity managers, qualified specialists of social work and social law, as well as their capacity building, organising of seminars and conferences in the sphere of social communication.


The main activities are:

  • Initiation of a change in society. Civic education curriculum development through non-governmental organizations;
  • Development of civic leadership training projects for teachers, lecturers, social educators, child welfare professionals and non-governmental organizations as well as promoting usage of interactive methodologies;
  • Integration of the project “Citizen” into university civic education programs, network collaboration fostering  of children and the youth, education of capacity building to solve problems;
  • Collaborating with various Lithuanian NGOs working in the interests of the child, building a coalition and development of the “NGO Confederation for Children”;
  • Active participation in the protection and implementation of the child rights and ensuring the participation of children, drawing government attention to child and youth issues;
  • Publishing methodological materials, preparing research papers;
  • Developing national and international conferences on civic education and democracy issues.

Since 1997, Lithuanian College of Democracy has been organizing the project “Citizen”, which was renamed as the “Future Citizen” project in 2007. The project methodology is based on the Center for Civic Education (Kalabasas, USA). The U.S. teacher project “Citizen” was taken by Eastern and Central European countries and successfully implemented in more than 48 countries all over the world. The College in association with the Institute of Social Communication integrated the “Citizen” module to the teachers of social studies bachelor’s and master’s programs and prepared the social pedagogical training for teachers and lecturers coordinating this project.

In 2007, Lithuanian College of Democracy has successfully completed the project “Education of Citizenship and Democratic Values Applying Innovative Methods” under the European Structural Funds of the Single Programming Document for 2004-2006 Priority 2 “Human Resources Development” in the measure 4 ” Development of Conditions for Lifelong Learning”.

Also, Lithuanian College of Democracy organizes annual summer academies and camps for children and young people and runs social projects or initiatives each year, for example – “Youth and Media”, “Do not leave the child aside,” “Orange Star” and etc.

Lithuanian College of Democracy chapter children day care center “Navininkai“ was founded in 2006 and focus on providing complex services for children form social risk families. “Navininkai” is located in rural area – in Aukštadvaris town, which is about 40 km from the capital Vilnius.

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