American Center for Civic Character
The American Center for Civic Character (ACCC) is a non-profit civil society leadership education initiative. Founded by William “Chip” Weiant, a fellow with Sagamore, the ACCC pursues the renewal and re-adoption of civil society first principles and putting these ideals back in the hands of society’s leaders. The program employs leadership tutorials to “build leading citizens” and advance civil society perspectives intentionally among government, business, faith, community, and education leaders. Through professional development workshops and assorted project resources, participants learn skills of building character and collaboration with the ultimate goal of creating an environment and culture in which civility and ethical behavior is valued and which leaders seek to pass on to the next generation.
The leadership ideas promoted by ACCC reinforce two key principles of a civil society perspective:
- Good citizenship building starts with adults modeling leading citizen principles (i.e., building character, collaboration, and community) to the next generation;
- All institutions are co-responsible with government to cultivate good citizens.
ACCC has been very active in organizing several successful projects to advance civic character:
- The Ohio Center for Civic Character
- The Better Business Bureau of Central Ohio
- The Ohio Collegiate Alliance for Character
In November 2008, ACCC received a Templeton Freedom Award for its Better Business Bureau Ethical Enterprising project and its Civil Society Advocacy Tutorial. The award, given by the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, acknowledges outstanding work by independent research institutes. To learn more about the award and its significance, click here.
Sagamore Institute
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