At Historica Canada, we build awareness of Canadian history and citizenship. Our programs reach more than 10 million Canadians annually, which makes us the largest independent organization of our kind. While our headquarters are in Toronto, we also operate the Ottawa-based Encounters With Canada program. Our staff travels coast to coast to coast to meet participants and promote engagement in our activities. All programs are offered in both official languages.
We aim to create programs that appeal to all Canadians, although some specifically focus on youth. Our best-known offerings include the Heritage Minutes, a collection of more than 80 dramatized vignettes that recreate events of importance, accomplishment and bravery in our country’s history. The Canadian Encyclopedia, a free online resource, reached more than nine million unique visitors over the past year.It offers the largest collection of authored, accurate and continuously updated articles focused on Canada and Canadiana. Every year, Encounters brings more than 3,000 students to Ottawa for themed weeks focused on specific study topics. Our other programs include The Memory Project, through which veterans share their experiences online and in classrooms and community groups; Passages Canada, featuring newcomers to Canada discussing their views and experiences; The Citizenship Challenge, in which young Canadians answer the same questions as real-life applicants for citizenship; and Aboriginal Arts & Stories, which features submissions from Canada’s most talented young artists and writers from Indigenous communities. We also offer commemorative programs tied to historical anniversaries, such as the First World War or women’s suffrage. As well, Historica Canada regularly conducts public opinion polls and solicits feedback on a variety of issues of national interest. This fall, we will introduce a new program tied to the 2017 celebrations marking the 150th anniversary of Confederation.
The Board of Directors of Historica Canada includes some of our country’s most prominent citizens, drawn from a wide variety of fields and backgrounds. We are a registered national charitable organization, the product of the merger in 2009 of two existing groups: The Historica Foundation of Canada and The Dominion Institute. In the wake of the merger, our organization was known as The Historica-Dominion Institute until we formally changed our name in September, 2013.
