Active, public citizenship begins and is grounded in our everyday institutional environments - the places we live and work, go to school, volunteer, participate in communities of faith.
Citizenship links our daily life and interests to larger public values and arenas.
Through citizenship we build and exercise our power. Active citizenship is tied to an understanding of public life as diverse, contentious, and linked to, but distinct from, private and communal life. Thus the role of citizen can connect people across lines of difference for the purpose of governing and problem solving, drawing on distinct cultural identities and other communities. Public Work Public work is cooperative civic work that is visible and whose significance is widely acknowledged . Public work helps build our larger common pool of wealth and resources-our commonwealth.