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Shelly Robertson
Shelly Robertson is a 23 year veteran of personal and professional lifelong learning, shared teaching, learning, and responsibility, with a particular focus on youth empowerment and asset development. Shelly has taught in public and private PK -12 schools and at the university level.
Shelly serves as Public Achievement Manager for the Heartland Foundation's Healthy Communities initiative. She describes her work and the contributions of her S.M.A.R.T. expertise below:
The specific work of Public Achievement (PA) involves emPowering youth to engage in civic work and co-create a preferred future for their communities. Public Achievement’s core concepts help establish a common language and are used to bring understanding to teachable moments. My work involves partnering with local business and higher education to provide coaches to work with youth PA teams or a community center throughout the school year. I help recruit coaches and develop the training process for coaches. Being a QLD S.M.A.R.T. Coach has helped me in this role.
I am also responsible for evaluation, data collection and the continuous improvement of our work in Public Achievement. I often use tools from The Handbook for SMART School Teams for reflection and evaluation of our work. Our coaches use the QLD Framework for Shared Responsibility and the 5 questions to help students think critically and reflect on their current work and their vision for the community.
Terry and I have also been involved in developing and initiating the emPower me process, a strength-based approach in which at-risk youth are challenged socially and physically to identify their strengths and potential to build community. The process involves 3 phases of development:
- 5 day residential camp
- 12-18 weeks of Public Achievement
- Life Coaching
Our current emPower partners include the 5thCircuit Juvenile Justice Court of Buchanan County, the Heartland Foundation and Northwest Missouri State University.
Shelly is also a faculty member for the Annenberg Foundation's Rural School and Community Trust. She lives in Maryville, Missouri with her husband, Terry.