The article analyzes the experience of patriotic education and civic consciousness of youth in the United States. The author shares his experience of training under the programme "Civic consciousness development of youth in the context of educational reforms" of the US Agency for International Development (USAID). It has been found that the main course of civic education syllabus in the USA is the formation of political culture, legal awareness, the culture of interethnic relations, work motivation, awareness of moral values, the understanding of freedom, the culture of interethnic relations, the development of work motivation, fostering in children respect for work and realization of its role in people's life. Civic education in US schools is performed in four ways: as a school subject; as a form of interdisciplinary activities in education; as a form of extra-curricula activities; as a way of school life which develops democratic behaviour. The article analyzes the role of public organizations in civic education of youth and defines the lines of their activities as well as a problem of low efficiency of civic education in Ukraine caused by the following reasons: conventional perceptions that civic education does not require special attention; the lack of concurrency in civic education curriculum implementation; the lack of consistency in training and professional development of civic education teachers, in sharing positive experience, coordination of activities and monitoring.