| Public Achievement (PA) is an initiative where young people and their coaches learn the skills to be active citizens in a democracy. Young people do real work that addresses social issues in their community. Their work has a positive public impact; it changes schools, communities, and society. Young people see themselves as citizens and co-creators of the world in which they live.
The young people choose to participate in PA, and they form small groups of students. The youth choose issues through a deliberative process where team action is real work that takes months to do. They use evaluation to learn from experience, including successes and failures. Groups usually meet at least once a week. The projects must contribute in some way to the public good.
Coaches are guides and facilitators, not leaders, mentors or directors. They debrief their PA meetings together as a team, and discuss theory as well as practice. Coaches help teams do their public work, learn from their tasks, and identify key concepts.
To learn more about the projects happening this year in Public Achievement, click on the group projects to the right.
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