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Participant elements (these can be adapted to participants of all ages)
- Youth choose to participate.
- Youth participate as teams
of 6-8.
- Youth choose issues through a deliberative process.
- Issues
are grounded in participants' passions, values, and interests;
- Team
actions are real work – they take place over
time (several months or longer), involve many
steps, and have identifiable
results or products.
- Young people use evaluation
to learn from experiences, including successes and failures.
- Teams
meet formally at least once a week.
Project elements
- Projects
must be legal
- Projects must be non-violent
- Projects must contribute in
some way to the public good
Coach elements
- Coaches are guides and facilitators, not leaders,
mentors, or directors.
- Coaches debrief their Public Achievement
meetings as a team; the coach time commitment is typically
about
3-5 hours
a week.
- Coaches discuss theory as well as practice.
- Coaches help
teams to do their public work, learn from their tasks,
and identify key concepts through
their work
(e.g. democracy,
public work, and citizenship).
- Coaches participate
in training sessions that involve skills, methods, site
orientations, and
theory.
- A coach coordinator supports and supervises
the coaches’ work;
creates an accountability structure; and works
in partnership with the site coordinator.Site
elements
- Sites see Public Achievement as a way
to implement or pursue core mission and values.
- Site coordinators integrate Public Achievement into the
site culture; coordinate logistics;
help teams
continue their
work
all week; and make the work visible.
- Sites
see themselves as leaders in the emerging civic renewal
movement to strengthen
and invigorate
democracy.
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