Youth organizing
Thursday, Feb 28, 2008
Listen...and be heard
Come one and all to hear, listen and share in a community discussion about what's really going on in the Twin Cities!
Youth organizers who call themselves SPEAC - Sustainable Progress through Engaging Active Citizens - spoke with over 200 young people from all over the metro area about what is important to them. They took notes, sifted through the information, and pulled out the themes.
On March 19, SPEAC invites you to find out what youth are saying about their communities, and to share your ideas about the next steps we need to take to bring the Twin Cities to a bigger and brighter future!
Youth Listening Session Hear-back, Wednesday, Mar. 19, 5 to 7:30 p.m., Hope Community, 611 E. Franklin Ave., Minneapolis
For more information or to RSVP, contact Kristy Clemons at Kristy@hope-community.org or 612-435-1683.
Wednesday, Feb 20, 2008
"Green" civic organizers achieve success on local project to improve water quality
Jenny Morris, a transplant from Missouri and recent graduate of the University of Minnesota, was looking for ways to connect with and be more involved in her new community, and develop her skills as a leader.
Through the Citizens League, a Minnesota policy organization that aims to promote the common good, she joined a handful of other young adults to form an environmental action group. Dennis Donovan, an organizer at the Center for Democracy and Citizenship, helped connect Jenny's group with high school students at St. Bernard's school in St. Paul who are learning how to make positive change on issues they care about - like water quality - using the Public Achievement organizing model.
In an interview with Ellen Tveit, Jenny talks about her work with the team at St. Bernard's. She describes some of the challenges they faced - from identifying a clear goal to overcoming bureaucratic hurdles - and the skills they learned on the way to achieving success.
Jenny looks forward to putting her new skills to use - along with the many relationships she's built - in a professional capacity: she recently took a job at the state capitol working for a legislator who chairs an important and powerful legislative committee.
Friday, Feb 15, 2008
The Voices of Second Shift Youth Commission
We invite you to learn about the St. Paul Second Shift Youth Commission, a group of young people from across the City of St. Paul who know they can make a difference in their communities. Listen here to the fifteen minute story on what motivates the different teens to do what they are doing.
This audio report was funded by the Surdna Foundation and was produced through a collaboration of the St. Paul Second Shift Youth Commission and the Center for Democracy and Citizenship at the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs.
Tuesday, Feb 5, 2008
Hip hop film gets Public Achievement teams thinking and talking about race, social class and power
At InterDistrict Downtown School (IDDS) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Public Achievement is part of the ninth-grade civics curriculum. Danielle Peterson, Minnesota organizer for Public Achievement and an experienced PA coach, is working with social studies teacher Molly Keenan to co-coach two ninth-grade teams as they develop skills to be powerful, active citizens.
In this fourth interview in a series, Danielle describes a film she screened to get students thinking and talking about race and social class and power.
Friday, Feb 1, 2008
Taking inventory of the community before doing public work
At InterDistrict Downtown School (IDDS) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Public Achievement is part of the ninth-grade civics curriculum. Danielle Peterson, Minnesota organizer for Public Achievement and an experienced PA coach, is working with social studies teacher Molly Keenan to co-coach two ninth-grade teams as they develop skills to be powerful, active citizens.
In this third interview in a series, Danielle describes an exercise she uses to get students thinking about the community context in preparation for choosing the issue or problem they want to work on.
Tuesday, Jan 29, 2008
"I can have a voice in my community"
Clayton Rask is a senior majoring in communications studies and a member of the men’s golf team at the University of Minnesota. He is from Otsego, Minnesota.
When I signed up for an independent study class in community organizing this past fall, I thought that I was getting in over my head with something that I had no idea about. When our class first met, we were told that we could work on whatever we wanted within the community. When I found out about the Warrior to Citizen Campaign, I became really intrigued because some of my friends are serving in the military right now.
I joined the Warrior to Citizen Campaign working group, and agreed to serve on a sub-committee that is developing a coin to give to Minnesota veterans as a symbol of appreciation for their service (in the military, coins have special meaning). The coin will also create a way for businesses to honor the service of veterans through discounts and special offers.
Friday, Jan 25, 2008
New Hampshire students are having an impact on local decision-making, and they're not waiting until their 18th birthdays to do it
When the chair of the local school board’s budget committee was removed for not following Robert’s Rules of Order, students at Monadnock Community Connections School (MC2) in Surry, New Hampshire, seized the opportunity to educate themselves and others about how decisions are made at the community level, with the goal of making the democratic process more transparent, understandable, and accessible.
Thursday, Jan 24, 2008
Spinning the fresh wax as part of Public Achievement
At InterDistrict Downtown School in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Public Achievement is part of the ninth-grade civics curriculum. Danielle Peterson, Minnesota organizer for Public Achievement and an experienced PA coach, is working with social studies teacher Molly Keenan to co-coach two ninth-grade teams as they develop skills to be powerful, active citizens.
In this second interview in a series, Danielle describes an exercise she uses as part of the reflection process of Public Achievement.
Friday, Jan 18, 2008
Break dancers demonstrate the power of young people
It started with six young, Latino, at-risk break dancers. They came to the Longmont Youth Center every Wednesday afternoon, and met with Jennie Gershater and Brie Anderson, two graduate students from Naropa University in the nearby town of Boulder. Brie and Jennie incorporated the therapy of dancing with the young people talking about themselves, their lives, and issues they were facing, from pressure to join gangs to drug use to problems at school.
Brie and Jennie were also learning about and trying to incorporate the principles and tactics of coaching Public Achievement.
Monday, Jan 7, 2008
A day on, not a day off
Two weeks from now on Monday January 21st, we will celebrate Martin Luther King Jr Day with what will be for many a day off of work or school. In 1994 Congress passed the King Holiday and Service Act, designating the King Holiday as a national day of volunteer service. Instead of a day off from work or school, Congress asked Americans of all backgrounds and ages to celebrate Dr. King's legacy by turning community concerns into citizen action.
Learn more about MLK Day and how to make it a day on at http://www.mlkday.gov/
Wednesday, Jan 2, 2008
The power of young people in Tirana, Albania
In August 2006, Dennis Donovan and I were invited by the Educational Society for Malopolska (MTO) , based in Poland, to attend a meeting with over 200 Public Achievement participants from 10 countries in Eastern Europe. Young people, and school teachers and other educators, met near Tetovo, Macedonia, to share stories and lessons, build relationships, and begin creating a learning community for future work. Even if those hadn’t been the stated goals, I think they would have happened naturally because there was so much excitement about what had been achieved through Public Achievement, and so much hope for what was possible.
Ardita Korriku, a 17-year-old from Tirana, Albania, was one of many powerful young people we met (pictured below with her teacher, Genci Ago).
Thursday, Dec 6, 2007
Getting started with Public Achievement: self-interest
At InterDistrict Downtown School in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Public Achievement is part of the ninth-grade civics curriculum. Danielle Peterson, Minnesota organizer for Public Achievement and an experienced PA coach, is working with social studies teacher Molly Keenan to co-coach two ninth-grade teams as they develop skills to be powerful, active citizens.
In an interview, Danielle described an exercise she uses to help students articulate their self-interest and understand the role of self-interest in doing effective public work with others.
Thursday, Nov 15, 2007
Michelle Obama talks with youth organizers in Minneapolis
Michelle Obama, wife of presidential candidate Barack Obama, visited Hope Community, a Minneapolis organization that started in 1977 as a shelter for the homeless. In response to a community ravished by a crack-cocaine epidemic in the early 1990s, Hope Community expanded their housing focus to include civic engagement.
Danielle Peterson, Minnesota organizer for Public Achievement, works with youth organizers at Hope. She said that an important part of what they do is teach young adults to think differently about the role they play in public policy and community organizing.
Read "Obama talks shop with community organizers" in the November 14 Spokesman-Recorder.
Monday, Nov 12, 2007
Podcast: Youth commissioner develops life skills for making change
The Center for Democracy and Citizenship sat down with Alexandra Young, an 18-year-old high school senior at St. Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists in St. Paul, Minnesota, to discuss her involvement with the City of Saint Paul through its Second Shift Youth Commission.
Young is part of the 18-member Youth Commission that represents each neighborhood in St. Paul. The multi-generational approach to civic engagement provides leadership opportunities for youth, such as Young, who want to make a change in their community.
We invite you to hear how participation on the Youth Commission has changed Young's views on local and national elections and civic participation:
Monday, Oct 22, 2007
Public Work Institute: Powerful People Building Healthy Communities
On Saturday, October 6th, the CDC hosted a Public Work Institute entitled: Powerful People Building Healthy Communities at Minneapolis Community and Technical College. This institute was a part of the Center's initiative called Minnesota Works Together.
The goals of the day were for participants to learn something that would enhance their own public lives, build relationships across communities, and commit to a specific action in their communities. The day was a success with participants coming from many different groups: Second Shift Youth Commission- St. Paul, SPEAC from Hope Community, ISAIAH, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis Community and Technical College, African Network for Development, Jane Addams Schoo for Democracy, St. Bernard's School, and the Minnesota Legislature.
Kari Denissen from St. Paul's Second Shift Commission facilitated a role-play with participants.
Activities of the day included a thought-provoking role-play about power, work on Public Achievement, a session with youth documentary filmmakers, a power mapping session, a youth organizing meeting between Second Shift Youth and SPEAC, a session on Warrior to Citizen campaign, and a meeting of citizen environmentalists.
State Representative Kate Knuth facilitated the citizen environmentalist session and used the strategy of power mapping.
Participants walked away from the day having committed to several actions: SPEAC and Second Shift are going to reconvene and further their collaboration; many participants at the Public Work Institute committed to having one-on-one discussions with people in their communities and new people they met; some people committed to further involvement in the Warrior to Citizen campaign; and others are going to talk about Minnesota Works Together.
Monday, Oct 15, 2007
Hope Community trains youth to organize for change
Danielle Peterson, the Minnesota organizer for Public Achievement with the Center for Democracy and Citizenship, combined forces with Hope Community’s youth and young adult program coordinators Chaka Mkali and Dhop to create programs for youth organizers in Minneapolis.
Dhop, who works with youth ages 14 and under, has a daughter who was attending Inter District Downtown School in Minneapolis where Public Achievement was a part of the schoolday. Through Public Achievement (PA), students chose an issue that most interested them and worked with coaches to develop strategies for change.
“She had PA on Tuesdays,” Peterson said, “and she would always tell her dad on Monday nights, ‘We can’t be late. We’ve got PA tomorrow morning.’ So Dhop started getting interested.” As a result, youth programming at Hope changed to incorporate this PA model.
Read more in this news story from the Spokesman-Recorder.
Saturday, Oct 6, 2007
Powerful People Building Healthy Communities
A Public Work Institute, hosted by the Center for Democracy and Citizenship
Saturday, October 6, 2007
9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Minneapolis Community and Technical College
1501 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis
Map and Parking
There is no cost to register for the event, but RSVPs are requested to cdc@umn.edu by Monday, October 1. For more information, contact Kristin Farrell at 612-625-0142.
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