Had an amazing conversation with Duane Melius www.wemakesense.org and Naomi Jane www.live4wd.wordpress.com last week; one of those conversations which is dangerous, because it has in it the infectious momentum of a good idea you find yourself powerless to resist!
Duane was a little frustrated. Expelled from school as a teenager he's a classic rags to (not-quite-yet)-riches social entrepreneur! In brief, he turned his life around when he cofounded Sense Magazine for young people. He's worked with young people and seen them take positive strides in life as a result of his projects. But his frustration came from knowing that there are other plenty of organisations keen to apply better models to their youth engagements but which did not know how to. I shared his enthusiasm and Naomi wasn't far behind (in fact, she was kinda leading the charge!). How could we combine our resources, experience and contacts to create a broader movement of improvement within youth engagement for social change?
And so began the arguments! What is “youth”? Is it a homogenous group or a group of overlapping tribes? How much of a strategy for engaging 20 year old university students can be applied to engaging 15 year olds who have dropped out of education? What is “engagement”? Is it inspiration, hand-holding, awareness raising, getting young people to do what you want, getting young people to do what they want? And what role do I play as the person working with young people? Am I one of them or do I lead them? Do I get them to lead themselves? What about mistakes? Do I let them make them?
Well, what if it’s all if the above?
We got excited!
We now are creating a practitioners model for engaging young people in social change. One that acknowledges the variety and homogeneity within youth, the spectrum of ‘engagement’ and the tension between adult leadership and youth empowerment. What do you think? As Social Enterprise Day dawns, join the discussion around how we engage this next generation.
The Commission for Youth Social Enterprise was created by 21 of Britain’s top young social entrepreneurs. The Commission helps organisations run genuinely youth-led programmes and equip young people to make a lasting positive impact on their world. The world is facing serious issues and challenges which directly effect young people. The Commission believes that youth-led innovation is the solution.
Mission statement: We are young people equipping future generations to make a lasting positive impact on their world.
Poignant and thought-provoking piece Matt. Well timed too given it's Global Entrepreneurship Week and Social Enterprise Day. So pleased to be on board, we're onto a good 'un! Follow the conversation on twitter with the following hashtags #GEW for Global Entrepreneurship Week and #socent for social enterprise. Let's get discussing and keep moving this 4WD! @missnaomijane
Naomi Jane 15:38pm 19 Nov 2009