| Topics: Youth Public Achievement Provides Youth Training for Citizen Politics Public Achievement is the youth and politics initiative of Project Public Life, part of the Center for Democracy and Citizenship, at the University of Minnesota. It provides training in citizen politics for many youth organizations, and publishes a practical guidebook, Making the Rules, for youth teams that wish to make changes in their communities. This guidebook grew out of the Twin Cities 1989 Youth and Democracy conference, and has been refined through discussions and trainings with over 1000 youth from across the country since then. Case study plus. Goal: The goal of Project Public Life--and thus of Public Achievement--is to redefine politics as the everyday public work of citizens. We do this by developing practical concepts related to people's on-going work within organizations and institutions. Collectively, the concepts are called "citizen politics." Citizen Politics: Citizen politics is the on-going, active work of citizens based on a broad set of principles--respect for diversity, an awareness of the "big picture," and the expectation that people can learn to negotiate a public world that is linked but distinct from private and community life. Citizen politics is not a specific ideology or set of "correct opinions." The principles of citizen politics provide the conceptual framework for the work of Public Achievement. Public Achievement: Public Achievement is an exciting opportunity for young people to become effective players in our democracy. Working in existing youth organizations with trained coaches and organizational leaders, young people address issues that directly affect their lives in year-long projects. In the process they learn that politics is found in the day-to-day action people take to solve problems around them and to make changes in their communities and their lives, while seeing the connections to larger issues and arenas. Through Public Achievement, young people learn to become serious, life-long citizens by: - defining a community or school problem and identifying their stake around that problem;
- mapping their environments in order to understand the relationships they need to develop to solve the problem;
- working with a diversity of other interested participants to solve the problem;
- developing strategies to take public action and following through with their plans;
- evaluating their work and roles to further develop their capacity for political action.
Also through this process, youth organizations like schools, religious congregations, and comunity groups learn to integrate a citizenship approach into their work with young people. Furthermore, coaches—usually teams of college students and organizational leaders—learn the concepts and skills of serious citizenship. They not only teach these ideas to their teams, but practice them in working with their teams and institutions. Making the Rules: A Public Achievement Guidebook—for young people who intend to make a difference is a 93-page guidebook for teams of young people who want to make changes in their communities. It was developed in conjunction with more than 1000 young people across the country. It is also available in print for $10 from the Center for Democracy and Citizenship. The latest edition was written by Melissa Bass, who is also an editor of CPN. Towards a New Theory and Practice of Civic Education: An Evaluation of Public Achievement, a 31-page critical study by Melissa Bass, Center for Democracy and Citizenship. More Information Center for Democracy and Citizenship
Humphrey Institute
University of Minnesota
301 19th Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Phone: 612-625-0142; fax: 612-625-3513 | 
