Statewide Program to Create Better Citizens to be Introduced at Oct. 3 Event Featuring Dewhurst

AUSTIN, Texas – Oct. 1, 2007 – The American Trustees Project, a statewide program to help young people become better citizens, will be introduced Wednesday, Oct. 3 at an event featuring Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst.

Educators and community leaders will gather at the Harry Ransom Center at 6 p.m., for the introduction of the project, an initiative of the Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Participation at The University of Texas at Austin.

To inspire youth and improve educational outcomes, the American Trustees Project has produced a unique collection of 12 short documentaries and a complementary set of online standards-based instructional material about ordinary citizens making a difference in their communities. Captivating footage encourages the viewer to discover how citizens are influential in the civic arena, what motivates people to change the world, and most important, how they can become trustees of their communities.

“We are making this free curriculum available to middle and high school teachers across Texas to help teach civics lessons in a way that puts lessons in the context of everyday life and in a format that appeals to today’s youth,” said Deborah Wise, director of educational outreach for the Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Participation. “We hope to expand the program beyond Texas in the coming year.”

The documentaries, which are available at the American Trustees Project Web site, are six to eight minutes each and feature ordinary citizens making a difference in their communities. These citizens include Cathy Bonner, the women’s rights activist who established the first women’s history museum; Barbara Brown, who at age 12 founded a motor oil recycling program; and Barney Flores, an immigrant farm worker-turned boxer who keeps young people off the streets and out of gangs.

Teachers in the Aldine, Austin, Dallas, El Paso, Fort Bend, Garland, Pasadena, San Antonio, Sherman and United school districts have been trained to assist them in using the free curriculum in classrooms.

In a national study, nearly one-third of high school seniors were found to lack a basic understanding of how American government works. In a separate study, the National Association of Secretaries of State showed young people lack understanding of the democratic process with many having never given any thought to the role of being a citizen.

The American Trustees Project is dedicated to increasing civic participation by providing quality educational content to young people using cutting edge, multi-media technology. The project includes a video library, lesson plans, training materials and teacher workshops. The project is an initiative of the Annette Strauss Institute in partnership with the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and additional funding provided by Humanities Texas. For more information, visit www.americantrusteesproject.org.

###

Contact:
Deborah Wise
(512) 471-7210
or
Erin Geisler
(512) 475-8071