YouthMovements.org Strategy
Vision: Effecitve and meaningful intergenerational partnership and youth
participation in global decision making.
Strategy: Expand, connect, evaluate and recreate the following
success stories globally.
Questions and comments to: jonah@youthlink.org
Part 1. Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
COCKTAIL FOR YOUTH EMPOWERMENT
1. Collaboration among local youth organizations
2. Weekly posting of local activist events and opportunities
3. Intergenerational, interfaith retreats
4. Youth statements, awards, and conventions plus a citizenship competition
5. Bridging traditional philanthropy with youth activism
INTERNET SOLUTIONS FOR YOUTH EMPOWERMENT
6. Shared resource database
7. Democratic vs. corporate media plus peace and justice media
BRIDGING INTERNATIONAL YOUTH EMPOWERMENT
8. Pluralism and peace education
9. Connecting global to local
10. The World Assembly of Youth and the UN Youth Unit
11. Globally active communities
12. Pitch to foundations, individuals and other partners
14. Destiny
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The following research urges cohesion among youth movements around the world
for the creation of a shared Internet portal and a World Youth Council that
stands on the grass roots support of global youth activism. As a cocktail
for youth empowerment the research encourages 1) weekly meals and conversations
for youth activists and allies in cities everywhere, 2) collaborative weekly
e-newsletters of local youth events and opportunities, 3) weekly retreats for
youth and allies to move beyond professional boundaries and develop personal
relationships, 4) collaboratively built youth platforms/statements, 5) awards
and recognition for youth activism, 6) democratically created youth leadership
councils, 7) conventions and forums for youth to dialogue with business,
non-profit, and governmental leaders, 8) school led activism and citizenship
project competitions, 9) and youth led, transparent philanthropy
foundations.
As an Internet component the research encourages the creation of a portal
for youth activism connecting 1) an open shared resource database and 2) a for
youth/by youth news center supporting free, transparent democratically
empowered media coupled with 3) syndicated for youth/by youth peace and justice
media.
As a cocktail for supporting international youth collaboration the research
supports 1) international schools and student exchanges coupled with service
work, 2) peace education 3) interfaith community building coupled with service
work, 4) online international collaboration and community building, and 5)
youth led, issue focused international conferences to facilitate greater
organizing.
The document concludes by 1) outlining collaborative projects for youth
organizations, 2) recommending conversations with the World Assembly of Youth
and the UN Youth Unit, 3) engaging existing global communities in
youthMovements.org, 4) arguing for foundation supported local to regional to
global gatherings, and 5) reviewing and linking to groups seeking world
democracy.
COCKTAIL FOR YOUTH EMPOWERMENT
1. Collaboration among local youth organizations
In January 1998
2. Weekly posting of local activist events and opportunities
In 1998 Amy Wagner of Youth Activist ~ Youth Allies (a project of the Wagner
Foundation) hired a few high school activists. They made site
visits to dozens of youth organizations in
3. Intergenerational, interfaith retreats
In 1997 the Interfaith Center of New York began organizing
intergenerational, interfaith retreats in the suburbs the city. The
retreats, still ongoing in 2001, celebrate diversity, introduce organizers
(young and old) to each other and interconnect networks. In 2001 youth
organizers began to hold retreats every weekend improving the opportunities for
more people to build relationships with activists and expand the
community. Retreats are especially effective because the participants
move beyond professional relationships and develop personal ones. In NYC
the initiative has become one of the best ways to inspire new activism and
build trust between groups.
4. Youth statements, awards, and conventions plus a citizenship competition
In 1995 Peter Raducha was frustrated with the absent voice and activity of
youth in problem solving. He joined the Foundation of America: Youth in
Action, connected with groups of young people and organized several
programs: 1) awards for young people who made a difference in their
communities, 2) a survey asking youth to identify problems in their communities
and suggest solutions, a 3) youth council to analyze the responses and build a
youth "Platform", and finally 4) to organize a convention and present
the "Platform" to leaders. The initiative was very successful
winning many articles in the media and two hours for 11 young people to
dialogue with US President Bill Clinton. http://www.youthlink.org
In 1997, Ashoka fellow, Luciana Martinelli wanted to engage more young
people in solving community problems. With friends, she founded the
Instituto Proacão in
5. Bridging traditional philanthropy with youth activism
William Wimsatt, Gita Drury, and Kofi Taha, a group of celebrated youth
activists in the United States, teamed up to create a new kind of
foundation. With experience ranging from book authoring, hip-hop music,
and prison reform, to fundraising and social entrepreneurship grant making -
they drew from a large network. They gather money from foundations and
individuals for redistribution into grassroots youth activism - a landscape
where neither foundations, nor wealthy individuals have much experience.
For youth/by youth philanthropy will be more effective, provide more creative
program support, be more transparent, and develop less bureaucracy. http://www.activelement.org
THE FIVE BUILDING BLOCKS DETAILED ABOVE TOGETHER CREATE A SYSTEMIC SOLUTION
FOR NEW PROBLEM SOLVING.
INTERNET SOLUTIONS FOR YOUTH EMPOWERMENT
6. Shared resource database
In 1995 Ami Darr observed it was too difficult for people seeking social
services to locate them. He created a shared resource database on the Internet
allowing non-profit organizations to post job and internship opportunities,
contact information, mission statements, and other resources. He
supplemented the database with a mailing to announce new jobs and resources to
interested subscribers, for free. Five years later 21,000 organizations
from 152 countries have posted information to the site matching resources for
millions around the world. 12,000 people visit the site daily. It
has become the central place on the Internet for listing non-profit
resources. http://www.idealist.org
7. Democratic vs. corporate media plus peace and justice media
In November of 1999, Matt Arnison of
In 1995 Anuradha Vittachi was frustrated by the absence of main stream peace
media and by peace groups operating in isolation around the world. With
the funding from family connections and support from British Telecom she
started a peace and justice news center on the Internet connecting with
relevant partner organizations around the world. http://www.OneWorld.net is now one of the
leading providers of social change news.
BRIDGING INTERNATIONAL YOUTH EMPOWERMENT
8. Pluralism and peace education
In 1962 Kurt Hahn founded a boarding school in Wales, UK. Today 300
students from 90 different countries participate in the two-year program at
Atlantic College - the oldest of 10 United World Colleges. Today 25,000
alumni make up a global community of people dedicated to peace and justice
through action and personal example. In January 2001 Michael Knagenjelm,
Board member of UWC, organized a group of European corporations to pay tuition
for North African students to attend the Red Cross Nordic United World College,
in Norway. These corporations see UWC as an opportunity to invest in
international cooperation and future opportunities within developing
countries. Michael asserts that this story can be recreated and the
result will be more globally minded young leaders, educated from corporate
funding, demanding corporate responsibility. The UWC system is a leader
in peace and justice education. http://www.uwc.org
In 1999 Cora Weiss and the Hague Appeal for Peace organized the largest
international peace conference in history - on the 100 year anniversary of the
1899 HAP. Ten thousand participants, from 1000 NGOs, from more than 100
countries formed nine issue specific coalitions including the Global Campaign
for Peace Education. Today several countries have ratified their
education policies to mandate peace education and dozens of resources have been
created and shared around the world. http://www.haguepeace.org
In 1988 Peter Copen feared the cold war tension between Russia and the
United States. He organized teleconferences to support collaboration
between schools in both countries. Shortly thereafter he used the
Internet and founded the International Education and Resource Network, www.iearn.org . Today thousands of
schools in 95 countries collaborate through the Internet on projects to show
young people that they can make a difference. In 1994, to supplement
virtual community building IEARN organized conferences to support face to face
community building. Today the gatherings continue, online and offline, to
build a globally cooperative family.
In 1998 Ebrahim Patel was frustrated by the absence of youth participation
in interfaith community organizing. Working with the United Religions
Initiative and other groups he co-founded the Interfaith Youth Corps to fuse
youth leadership with the interfaith network. Today the IFYC consults
with many faith organizations and leads advances within the movement. http://www.ifyc.org
In December 2000 the Global Youth ACTION Network brought the UWC, the HAP
Youth Network, IEARN, and the IFYC together for the first time.
International diverse student communities, movements for peace education,
Internet based youth collaboration, and youth led interfaith organizing
together form a tripod of international youth empowerment. This cocktail
of solutions integrates diverse people, diverse ideologies, and diverse
technologies to perpetuate a culture of peace. Partnered with corporate
interest to build a cooperative global community this tripod will grow, will be
sustainable, will become a vital part of educational systems and will diversify,
pluralize, interconnect and internationalize institutions.
9. Connecting global to local
In 1995 Benjamin Quinto entered the United Nations and began organizing to
create a Global Youth Assembly. He discovered other groups with a similar
vision and founded the Global Youth ACTION Network to encourage collaboration.
In December, 2000, GYAN gathered several dozen youth organizations, adult
allies, and representatives of Internet networks. The attendants
committed to work with each other and to facilitate cohesion within youth
movements around the world. Six parallel initiatives resulted:
a. Local gatherings and meals for diverse youth organizers and allies
b. Global reunions twice per year
c. A shared advocacy and education campaign
d. A shared magazine to chronicle youth organizing and leadership
e. A collectively created portal connecting databases and resources relevant
to youth activists
f. A vision statement and a call for the creation of a world youth council
to be supported from the grassroots energy of youth networks covering the
planet
This PDF document describes the meeting MOWsummary2000.pdf
10. The World Assembly of Youth and the UN Youth Unit
The World Assembly of Youth is the oldest network of National Youth Councils
in the world. Headquartered in Malaysia it analyzes youth research and
policies with outreach to millions around the world. http://www.worldassemblyofyouth.org
The United Nations Youth Unit is responsible for coordinating youth programs
within the UN system, reporting youth statistics, and analyzing youth
policies. It has a static list of youth organizations on its web site
with links all over the world. http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unyin/
Both of these groups are interested in dynamic databases listing youth
organizations and are talking with the Global Youth ACTION Network about
collaboration.
11. Globally active communities
Fast Company Magazine
In 1995 Alan Webber and Bill Taylor founded fast company magazine.
Meeting a demand to chronicle social businesses their glossy magazine turned a
profit in 2 years; it normally takes 5. The most celebrated part of Fast
Company is the readership. In more than ninety cities around the world FC
readers have gathered, creating a "Company of Friends" or
"cells." The largest is located in New York City. A free,
active discussion list among the readers has become a fertile place to match
clients and to fundraise support of local causes. Dedicated to progress,
the readership is young, and a breeding ground of for-profit/non-profit
partnerships. http://www.fastcompany.com
The global community of Fast Company cells reflects the activity of many
other global communities that are allies to youth movements.
International communities with 500+ members include:
Boy Scouts, World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, YMCA, YWCA,
AIESEC, Free the Children, United World Colleges, Camp Rising Sun, Seeds of
Peace, Children's International Summer Villages, Legacy International, Pioneers
of Change, IEARN, Common Futures Forum, Global Youth Connect, Model United
Nations, Youth for Environmental Sanity, International Youth Parliament, Asian
Students Association, American Field Service, Alliance for a Responsible and
United World, Bahai Youth Councils, World Assembly of Muslim Youth, Roots and
Shoots, International Student Movement for the United Nations, Youth Employment
Summit, Young General Assembly, Emerging Leaders Program, Volunteers for Peace,
Cross Cultural Solutions, Junior Chamber, European Youth Forum, United Nations
of Youth Foundation, European Youth Forum, Asian Youth Council, European
Students Forum, National Unions of Students in Europe, Asia-Europe Youth
Co-operation, and the Sierra Student Coalition.
Kindred international communities with 500+ members that are not
youth-focused include: MENSA, Doctors without Borders, Peace Corps, Habitat for
Humanity, Oxfam, International Indian Treaty Council, Legion of Good Will,
United Universalist Association, Pax Christi, Institute for Noetic Sciences,
Rotary Clubs, Lions Clubs, Kiwanis Clubs, World Bank, Fellowship for
Reconciliation, Inter American Development Bank, Trust for the Americas,
International Youth Foundation, OneWorld.net, Institute for Global
Communication, Association of Progressive Communication, Green Peace, Amnesty
International, Red Cross, Ashoka, Healthy Cities International, Moral
Re-Armament, Servas, Fast Company etc.
Each of these communities like Fast Company fills a different niche and
offers a different type of expertise to support youth activism. Our
challenge is to create a technology and a system to invite their participation
and cohesion.
The technology strategy linked at the top of this document describes a path
to facilitate the collaboration between technology groups.
12. Pitch to foundations, individuals and other partners
Many "outside the box" youth organizers have participated in
international youth communities. International diversity is a vital
component of creative and innovative activism.
Activism in isolation often leads to stagnation and "burn
out." Every activist needs a "network" to draw from for
intelligence, referrals, advice, consulting, resources etc.
Many global service organizations (such as the Hague Appeal for Peace Youth
Network) and pioneering Internet resources (such as idealist.org) offer
compelling, vital programs, connections and resources. Too often they
lack diverse participation and do not have truly global reach.
The four points above demand for a gathering of regional Latin American
organizations with pioneering Internet resources and global service
organizations.
Latin American youth participants at the gathering will enjoy: 1)
international community, diversity, and knowledge, 2) development of stronger
networks, 3) and new relationships with groups that can provide radically new
forms of support. Participants representing global service organizations
will 1) discover new opportunities for collaboration, 2) opportunities to share
resources and reduce duplicate effort, 3) and ways to avoid
"competition" and "territoriality" in youth work. The
overall result will be a more globally cohesive community of youth activists
and allies.
GYAN with partner organizations is planning a Latin American conference
between June 4th and June 10th to advance these success stories and this
collaboration.
Each group will introduce itself and share stories. Free time and
working groups will permit each group to build relationships with potential
partners.
In preparation for the gathering this document will be distributed to all
participants. Each group will be invited to introduce themselves and
contribute content for document expansion. Representatives of most
organizations described above will be invited.
The six parallel collaboration initiatives will be developed.
14. Destiny
When Einstein passed away he recommended two strategies for solving global
problems: a world youth parliament and a global spirituality.
Gregory R. Smith, child prodigy and humanist, urges and describes the
creation of a United Youth Congress - kindred to a World Youth
Parliament. The concept has many names.
http://www.gregoryrsmith.com/unitedyouthcongress.html
The United Nations is not a democratic institution. The people of the
earth call for an alternative. The Global People's Assembly works towards
a vision of that alternative. It sprouted from CAMDUN (Campaign for a
More Democratic United Nations) and is a global collection of local
communities/assemblies that talk about issues and solutions from a local to
global level. Simultaneously they work on projects to exercise
solutions. Finally, they gather face to face every two years to advance
their work. http://www.ourvoices.org
The World Federalist Association, like the GPA, works on global issues to
strengthen the world - specifically the creation of global institutions and
policies such as the International Criminal Court. They hold a vision of
a World Federation. http://www.wfm.org
Finally, there are a number of other groups that vision a world
democracy. Among them are the World Government of World Citizens, the
International Registry of World Citizens, the United Planetary Federation, the
World Constitution and Parliament Association, and the World Citizen
Foundation. The WCF has the most integrative vision with a document (Global
Coalition for World Democracy 2010) that is endorsed by world leaders of wide
diversity ranging from both wings of the political spectrum. http://www.worldcitizen.org
A globally cohesive youth movement, sourced from pluralistic and
international understanding, will carry forward and implement the visions of
these groups - creating a world that works for all.