Public Achievement

Comment by Harry Boyte on March 4, 2009 at 2:57pm

A new day for PA

Now may be an important PA moment, building on the remarkable work that all have been doing in the world wide network. In the US we have a new president with a community organizing background, whose campaign and vision have brought hope to many around the world.

I brought stories of Public Achievement into the Obama campaign last year, while serving as the national co-chair of the campaign’s civic engagement policy committee. We had many leading scholars and practitioners of civic engagement involved. Now there may be possibilities for new levels of support and visibility for Public Achievement.

The Center for Democracy and Citizenship is doing stories of the PA worldwide movement on our web site, at www.publicwork.org . We’re eager to feature stories about how people in your schools, cities, communities and country are using PA to bring about change. We also want to hear your thoughts about how the PA worldwide movement can flourish and grow in this new environment.

Harry Boyte

Comment by Dennis Donovan on March 5, 2009 at 10:20am

Hello Everyone,

This is going to be a very important tool for communication and learning throughout the Public Achievement world.

Dennis

Comment by Paul Smyth on March 9, 2009 at 4:51pm

Greetings folks from Northern Ireland - looking forward to interesting and fruitful conversations. Check out our site here, and my blog here.

Comment by Diane scovill on March 10, 2009 at 12:27pm

Hello from Loring Park in Minneapolis, Minnesota! I am faculty at Minneapolis Community and Technical College and part of their Center for Civic Engagement. I am blessed to be part of a group working to help create a neighborhood connection around the concept of Healthy Place, Healthy Community...we are part of the Utne Community Earth Councils.

Our group is "doing PA" through the Breakfast Club at the Center for Democracy and Citizenship at the Humphrey.

We are all busy re-building the "front porch" not only on the college but around the neighborhood, in order to find places to learn and act on our neighborhood strengths and shared concerns.

We have much to learn from each other and we have started this process through community conversations facilitated with student/community members and also a neighborhood survey.

If you feel a connection with the Loring Park Neighborhood and wish to build a model for community building that we can share with others while you learn and craft organizing skills, you can be part of this movement...please join us!

We will also be part of the MCTC Health Fair April 8th from 10-2:00 PM at the MCTC college cafeteria and the Civic Engagement Block Party...later in April.

I think this network is outstanding. I look forward to hearing what people have been up to, and I will invite my team to join.

Comment by Jessica Kendall on March 11, 2009 at 3:55pm

Hello My name is Jessica Kendall, and I am currently an undergraduate student at the University of Minnesota majoring in Sociology and minoring in Leadership. I am in a Public Organizing class, and have always had a passion for making my community a better place. I have past experience in Public Achievement here at the U, where I had a coach from the Leadership Minor dealing with the issue of poverty. This was such a positive experience, and even though it was hard in many ways to work as a group, and find common ground with many diverse, busy college students we ended up producing great achievements.

I want to talk about my current work now in Minneapolis Mad Dads. I just met with the president and founder of the Minneapolis Chapter this morning and I was so impressed by his (V.J. Smith) vision and passion for helping the youth and families in Minneapolis. It was great getting to know his story, why he chose to do the public work he does today, and why he works so hard each and every single day to make the streets of Minneapolis a better place.

I found it fascinating that there was so much history in a building which became theirs in 1998. There were pictures all over the wall, and cards, and other paraphernalia that were all gathered together. Mad Dads has obviously made an impact working with the community, and you can see this success with the pictures, and the stories that V.J. told and showed to us this morning.
I am excited to attend events, meetings, and ride the bus with this group of people who want to make Minneapolis a more peaceful place to be. I am excited to work with this organization and urge you to go to their website and support them. I love that I am working with an organization where I know they are making a positive difference in the youth. I have seen many drug dealers, homeless people, and people that just need someone to talk too. Mad Dads helps, listens and connects you to these resources so you can become a better citizen, a better parent, and a better person.

I am looking forward to posting more of my experiences with Mad Dads as I start to work with them more.

Jessica Kendall

Comment by Dennis Donovan on March 11, 2009 at 4:54pm

Dennis Donovan here. Good to hear from you Paul. We look forward to hearing more about what has been going on with PA in Northern Ireland from you, coaches, and the young people. Diane and Jessica, Thanks for sharing your experiences. Last night three PA 11 year olds from a Minneapolis public school and two of there teachers, and two young organizers from a Minneapolis neighborhood visited my organizing class. My students who are Humphrey graduate students and U of M undergraduates were sitting on the edge of their seats as the young people talked about their work. The younger ones were dealing with gangs and homelessness in Minneapolis and the young organizers talked about their work dealing with inequity issues in funding for parks in different neighborhoods in Minneapolis. I want to remind everyone of the power of the "public stage" in the development of public confidence in young people. Last night these young people told their stories in front of 30 people and were validated.

Dennis

Comment by Albert Kastrati on March 12, 2009 at 10:16pm

Hello,My name is Albert Kastrati. I am 17 year old ,a student from Kosovo
.I just want to say thank you to Mr Donovan for giving me the opportunity to be a part of PA group.Sir, I just want you to know that now I am a different man.You changed me.Thank you

Comment by Zena Richardson on March 14, 2009 at 6:34am

Hi, I'm Zena Richardson, a Principal Teacher in the Scottish Borders. I've been incorporating the PA approach into my teaching for the last 6 years and currently am finding that it fits perfectly into the new educational developments in our country - A Curriculum for Excellence, Mediated Learning, Active Learning and many more. The young people I work with are enjoying their freedom to choose and be creative and it's great to be part of an initiative on a government level that is pushing this. I'm currently working on 'Rich Tasks' which was developed in Queensland, Australia from 2001. I'm hoping to bring PA into this as well. Has anyone used them? I'd be keen to hear if you have.

Comment by anas on March 17, 2009 at 3:44pm

Hello from Palestine,
My name is Anas Sarabtta, a student in Palestine polytechnic university; I'd like to thank you for giving me this opportunity to join this group.
Am really proud to say that am involved in public achievement as a couch last year, it was like a window of opportunities for me and a source of motivation to go on , here in Palestine its called popular achievement and running by an organization called Quaker.
We started by learning the skills of being a couch and trainer, you can say that Am "discovered my self" and after few weeks I was nominated by Quakers to join the international forum "davos" in Dubai.
For me it was a challenge to make the change and feel the achievement I've been a couch for a group of 20 teenagers from both genders, but now they are 20 leaders in Palestine.

Thank you
Anas

Comment by Fares odeh on March 17, 2009 at 5:41pm

Its really hard to tell in this small box my all story , but I could share some of it ….
Im originally from a village called Yalo , which is located in the south-west of Ramallah , my Village were demolished and incur of Ethic cleansing by the Israeli authorities in 1967 , ,, and now I have bad feeling stuck on me in every where I go in every breath I take , feeling that you are refuge in your home in your land . but I still have other feeling also stuck on me in every bump in my heart feeling says ( one day we will return ) …
Many times I asked my self why I love this project and I always answer my self , that because it let me feel of my citizenship , this project tell us that we can make the changes in our community that we can think we can improve and we can be the leaders of our community .

I started as coach in public achievement in 2003 , its really gave me a lot of opportunities in my life , it create anew human in me and I loved it as brother , and here I’m work in the American friends service committee as youth program officer in west back , which is the public achievement part of it and I’m very happy now .

Thanks a lot

Fares odeh

Comment

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• 3
• …
• 5
• Next ›
• Page