ABOUT:
 

The Offis of the Public Good is a Guvernment Agency run by young people. It is a playful social intervention in which children reward the adult population for tiny small acts; a ‘caught you doing something good’, in a powerful reversal of social structures and power paradigms. The Offis of the Public Good is an office headquarters in which young people operate a government style bureaucratic red tape system, but this time with a surprising shift of tone. In a subversion of societally accepted and expected norms and roles, young people will be the ones doling out the praise and adults will be on the receiving end.

 

At the Offis, they are busily working away at desks, on typewriters, answering phones, shuffling papers, latching briefcases, sorting between in-trays and out-trays - an artistic performance of an "Offis". They wear an overwhelming amount of navy and shades of brown. But it is the content that comprises these ordinary, civic processes that brings delight. They are working their way through the steps of a nomination model. They can nominate directly, or distribute forms to friends, peers, family members to nominate others.

 

Each time a nomination comes in for an adult who’s done a good small thing, there’s a process full of glorious red tape. Papers go from table to table, checked and stamped and signed, and re-checked and re-stamped and re-signed. And then, green light, a phone call, a hooray, streamers go off, a certificate is sent. It is a transaction of sincere appreciation and congratulations between an adult who just went about life and a young person who said well done. 

 

The actions won’t be remarkable. They’ll be ordinary. They’re the boring, everyday things we get right without fanfare. But this time WITH the pomp and ceremony. It doesn’t make the news, it might make someone’s day. It's like a 1% version of Australian of the Year.