Our work is your work—the public work of building the commons.
We help organizations and communities of all types realize their civic mission, or as we call it, their enterprise ideal: their potential to grow and thrive while also tending the common goods and spaces they share with others. This unity of civic and productive effort is the essence of public work.
Public work is not charity. Nor is it “civic engagement” conceived as a discrete initiative or “extra” bonus. Public work is work that builds capacity—your own and that of your fellow citizens—to advance both individual and common interests. It is everybody’s work, and we support it in four major ways.
Enlarging Educational Horizons
K-12, vocational, and higher-education institutions occupy a unique place in the social matrix.
Nothing that a democratic society achieves—growth, prosperity, justice, beauty, or freedom—can be preserved or improved upon without our educational institutions. All, therefore, must find ways to meet immediate social and economic needs while also developing civic identities and capacities.
Additional Services
Contact us to discuss other services that foster learning, dialogue, and action to foster public work, including:
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public lectures
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participatory workshops
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curriculum design
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design of organizing processes to embed public work principles in institutions and communities
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design and facilitation of public deliberations
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training of public work organizers and facilitators
We need a breakthrough from left versus right in politics...The Public Work approach is perfect for our time because it transcends those stale categories and empowers ordinary citizens to take responsibility for solving problems and building a common life--a democratic, public life.
