Public Achievement: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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'''Public Achievement''' is a type of project that helps young people to build confidence and be able to take on responsabilities. It involves young people working in teams on a public work project of their choice. An adult coach, typically a teacher or university student trained in the process and concepts of Public Achievement, guides team members through the following stages: exploration and discovery; issue selection and development; problem research; designing a project; implementing the action plan and making the work visible; and celebrating. Throughout the process, the coach holds team members accountable, and creates space for reflection and opportunities for each team member to practice and refine their civic skills. The coach makes overt connections between the group’s work and civic and political concepts. Ideally, an experienced PA site coordinator provides mentoring and assists PA coaches in reflecting on their own learning.

Public Achievement was designed to give young people the opportunity to be producers and creators of their schools and their communities, not simply customers or clients. The goals of Public Achievement in its pilot project stage were to test whether young people could learn to have an impact on problems in their schools and neighborhoods in a serious way, to define this work in political terms, and to integrate civic education, including a rich vocabulary of civic concepts such as “citizen teacher,” into institutions that work with young people.

Through communication with Public Achievement participants, the [http://www.augsburg.edu/democracy/index.html Center for Democracy and Citizenship] identifies best practices and incorporates them into PA training and materials. The CDC produces training guides and instructional DVDs and maintains a [http://www.publicachievement.org Public Achievement] web site with a variety of materials to support PA teams, coaches, and site coordinators.

The first PA project was created in 1990 by the Center for Democracy and Citizenship, and it has since been copied in other countries.

==History==