A project led by Tom Harrison and Andrew Peterson of the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues (JCCV) at the University of Birmingham aims to support meaningful participation and engagement of character development researchers and leaders from Latin America, Africa, and Asia in the Global Character Alliance (GCA). The GCA is an emergent initiative that seeks to foster global collaboration among leaders of organizations dedicated to enhancing character research and education. It aims to advance knowledge, promote best practices, facilitate joint projects, and support policy advocacy to strengthen character development worldwide. The GCA secretariat will be based at JCCV.

Recognizing disparities in global character development research funding and support, this project facilitates equitable participation by supporting the leadership of three regional partners: the Africa Character Development Association (Africa), Dandelion (Latin America), and the Centre for Character and Citizenship Education Singapore (Asia). These organizations will be founding members of the GCA and will play a central role in advancing character education within their regions and contributing to the global alliance.

Funding will be used for regional network-building activities, travel and participation at relevant events, buy-out of individuals’ time to lead character development initiatives, and provision of small research awards to stimulate academic discovery. Key outputs will include three seats on the GCA executive board, regional conferences, expert webinars, and peer learning opportunities.

Although this is not a research project, the JCCV team will collect data on member experiences via surveys with organizations in each region, feedback gathered following conferences and webinars, and annual interviews with regional leads to gain insights into their experiences within the alliance and the impact on their practice.