Public Achievement

Location: National

Young people want to shape the world around them. Through Public Achievement, they have that opportunity. Through Public Achievement, people of all ages work with others to meet challenges and solve problems. They learn from each other the meaning of citizenship and democracy. Ordinary people do extraordinary things.

Highlights:

Public Achievement is a youth civic engagement initiative focused on the most basic concepts of citizenship, democracy and public work. Public Achievement draws on the talents and desires of ordinary people to build a better world and to create a different kind of politics.

Our work is anchored by a few core ideas.

Everybody can do citizen work
All people—regardless of age, nationality, sex, religion, income or education—can be powerful public actors.

Citizenship isn’t easy 
Democracy is messy and sometimes frustrating, but when you work hard with others you can accomplish extraordinary things.

We learn by doing
The most important lessons of democracy come from doing public work and finding ways to cooperate with people who are different and may disagree. We learn from each other when we solve problems together. This is the kind of politics that everyone can do, not just politicians.

The Center for Democracy and Citizenship works to promote public work and the ideals of democracy and citizenship.

Links:

• Public Achievement - http://www.augsburg.edu/cdc/publicachievement/index.html
• Public Achievement - Core Elements - http://www.augsburg.edu/cdc/publicachievement/1_2_core.html
• Public Achievement - Articles and Papers - http://www.augsburg.edu/cdc/publicachievement/3_1_study_article.html

Submitted by Shawn Strader on: Friday, September 23, 2011 - 3:30 pm

Tags for this entry:
democracy, participation, civic engagement, community outreach