Welcome to the American Trustees Project

The American Trustees project is a compelling new way to teach young people about civic participation, and it uses film to provide students with an experience that goes far beyond your average classroom activities. The short films help students understand the possibilities when we share the responsibility for our world. Captivating footage allows the viewers to discover how citizens can be influential in the civic arena, what motivates people to change the world, and most importantly, it helps them to uncover how they can become trustees of their community.

Mission

The American Trustees mission is to motivate a new generation of youth to become actively involved in their communities and, at the same time, teach them important lessons about democracy and citizenship with real life examples of civic entrepreneurship.

To achieve our mission, we:

• Collect and communicate the stories of civic entrepreneurship;
• Create captivating content for young people to communicate a message of engagement;
• Provide education and training on how to use the curriculum and web materials; and
• Ensure public access to information.

American Trustees Online

The website includes several types of information about our Trustees.

The Films

In our Video Library, you can gain access to all of the videos with a brief description of the American Trustee.

Lesson Plans

The website also includes lesson plans to accompany the films. Each American Trustee will have at least one lesson explicitly associated with his/her contribution or teaching point. You will also find lesson plans that require you to watch multiple videos.

About American Trustees

The American Trustees project is an initiative of the Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Participation at the University of Texas at Austin. The Institute is dedicated to actively involving young people in their local communities. We work to engage people in the political process, teach them about the nation’s democratic heritage, and encourage them to take leadership roles.

The goals of the institute are (1) to conduct cutting-edge research on the ways in which civic participation and community understanding are undermined or sustained, and (2) to develop new programs for increasing democratic understanding among citizens.

The American Trustees project is supported by Humanities Texas, the LBJ Library and the College of Communications at the University of Texas at Austin.

Special Thanks to:

Humanities Texas
LBJ Library

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this website and media product do not necessarily reflect those of Humanities Texas and the National Endowment for the Humanities.