Since the founding of TakingITGlobal in 1999, I have been incredibly inspired by my interactions with thousands of young change makers from all around the world. Through my Masters Research on youth-led action in an international context along with exposure to other studies and international conferences examining the role of today's generation of youth as change agents, I have gained an important observation. My observation is that I have seen the emergence of Six Archetypes of Youth Change Makers, which provide a glance at the roles young people are taking on in the process of creating change.
The Dreamer
The Dreamer is the driver behind new ideas. Dreamers are often the first to articulate a long-term vision for the future and think big. It is the sense of aspiration, optimism and imagination of dreamers that drive progress, innovation and change.
The Megaphone
The Megaphone is a vocal advocate for change. Megaphones are very focused on delivering the message and will campaign tirelessly and work hard to lobby for a message to be heard. They inspire action through their words and help to shift priorities on the agenda.
The Spark Plug
The Spark Plug is a catalyst and has a gift for networking and connecting people. The Spark Plug is able to foster collaborations and bring many different organizations and individuals together in dialogue, convincing diverse interest groups to come together for a common goal.
The Task Master
The Task Master is often behind the scenes making things happen and is sometimes the under-rated player within a group or organization. Often, it is the Task Master who literally keeps things together by turning ideas into manageable tasks with actionable timelines. Task Masters are practical, objective-oriented individuals.
The Sherpa
The Sherpa serves as a guide who provides mentorship, insight and training through peer education. Sherpas are natural educators with a strong interest in learning and sharing knowledge. Sherpas value hands on experiences and are able to draw upon the expertise and resources of those they encounter.
The Storyteller
The Storyteller is often the documenter of an organization and its projects, preparing short stories, interviews, blogs, webcasts newsletters and more. Storytellers become a vehicle for spreading inspiration and sharing of best practices through identifying patterns and strengthening movements through recognizing exceptional individuals.
I'd like to share a note of thanks to all of you who have been part of TakingITGlobal's V6 celebration of our online community relaunch!!
The event on Tuesday December 16th was a hit and attracted many members, partners, friends, staff, board members and supporters who shared in the spirit of celebrating our success! The theme of our event was “How do thriving communities form, grow, influence and sustain?"
Guests were invited to share their reflections of the theme on the wall. During my brief remarks, I shared my own inputs on how this question about thriving communities is what heavily influenced our decisions in the process of imagining and creating the new version of our website, and that it remains relevant as we move forward.
Tonight I joined a dynamic discussion about how to make TheStoreFront Community project self-sustaining...and I couldn’t help but flash back into the early days of when TakingITGlobal was founded and we had our discussions on what future directions we would take and how our ideals and dreams could be transformed into actionable plans. Of course, even after 9 years of having the ‘idea’ of TIG, the essence of having challenging strategic conversations still remains part of my current reality – however the energy in the room this evening reconnected me to the Fall of 2000, when we hosted meetings with invitations sent out to friends, organizations and those who joined our website from Toronto.
The dynamics of the room jolted from cohesive and interconnected to somewhat tense given the financial realities of the project. Earlier this year, a 1000 square foot store front space was established in order to serve as a support and communication network in the context of an urban village. Starting in January, the costs of rent will be doubled and the project in its current state does not generate enough revenue to afford costs of rent or administration. That said, an exciting range of events have taken place in recent months including a documentary with interviews of people in the neighbourhood, the inaugural BIG on Bloor Festival (bigonbloor.com/festival), the “b-l-o-o-o-o-r” design campaign including sales of well designed American Apparel t-shirts and bags, the “Everything Local” silent auction event and hosting of meetings, events and exhibits including the Afri Village Fest front window presence & photo documentation.
The project was made possible through a partnership between ThinkTankToronto, Business Improvement Area Office, and a group of students and faculty at the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD).
A key driver and designer of the initiative is a former TakingITGlobal staff member, Ghazaleh Etezal who is currently 21 and worked with us as a graphic designer in 2006. As I connected with Ghazaleh this evening, it was amazing to see her in action in her role as one of the connectors and in hearing people reference her contributions of design, research and coordination for TheStoreFront. It was also great to chat with Ghazaleh this evening and hear her attribute TakingITGlobal as part of her inspiration for the project.
In many ways, the place based goals of creating community for TheStoreFront initiative are aligned with the global online community objectives for TIG. As explained on the website, TheStoreFront aims to be “the common space between two separate disconnected worlds of youth, institutions, neighbourhood NGOs, programs and services available within the BloorCourt and BloorDale Villages (Christie to Lansdowne on Bloor West).” On a conceptual level, it is intriguing for me to observe and be part of a conversation about how to grow and sustain a space that supports vibrant community engagement.
Some of the ideas shared this evening that are most interesting to me include:
- Having a paid membership fee (i.e. $10/month)
- Hosting regular meetings (weekly or monthly) for ‘members’ to attend which would serve as a social space, with topics of discussion
- Utilizing the space to feature the products of local artists (i.e. clothes, jewlery, artwork)
- Having a cafe space with organic chocolate & other organic snacks sold
- Renting out the space to community organizations for events/meetings
- Offering workshops to help meet needs of community members (i.e. English as a second language, or focusing on a particular craft/skill with guest speakers etc).
- Establishing a core base of volunteers (i.e. a partnership with the neighbouring Working Women Community Centre), to offer an experience for newcomers to Canada living in the neighbourhood which would help to ensure that core responsibilities are fulfilled (i.e. keyholders with people who are responsible for opening & closing up the space)
One concern that emerged from the discussions was the issue of timing and how challenging it will be to raise sufficient funds in time for the end of the year. There was some discussion on what the concept or project would be if it did not live in the specific space at 957 Bloor W – however most of the ideas generated were aimed at trying to keep the space alive.
If it ends up not being feasible to maintain the 957 Bloor W StoreFront space due to costs, my recommendation is to develop stronger partnerships with existing places designed for the community (i.e. local community centres, employment centres, libraries etc) and try to help revitalize existing spaces that are supported by the government and that have a history of serving the community. While I love the idea of transforming commercial spaces into being community driven and serving, it may be too challenging to develop a financially sustainable model at this current time due to current economic realities.
On a final note...I do hope that the financial challenges can be overcome and that a proven model can be developed, shared and scaled with other communities!
Here's a list of who came:
Night at the Indies / Meow Films: Gurbeen
Community Arts Collective / Daily Bread Food Bank: Jim
BIG and BIG Festival: Ann
People Plan Toronto: Ann
DIG IN: Donna / Ann
Torontopedia: Himy
Working Women: Diana / Jessica
BloorCourt BIA: Shelley
IF Theatre: Sara
Supportive, active, creative, engaged dedicated locals: Ryan / Michelle / Phil / Darcy / Leah / Leigh / Chatherine S / Craig / Camilo
Delaware Residents (Street Festival): Rosalie
Delaware Open Space: Darcy
Humanist Movement: Nick / Roberto
Sistering (past Chair): France
Green Party: Steve
Annex Lions Club: Monica
Wireless Toronto: Gabe
Concord Café: Genoveva
Christie Ossington Neighbourhood Centre: Tim
Dufferin Grove Residents Association: / Rob
Anarchist U: Christian / Maggie
Laidlaw Foundation: Ana
Globe & Mail: Nadja
Property Owner 957: Robert Markovits
Chemistry Branding (consultant and partner): Will
Jim Allen Photo: Jim
TakingITGlobal: Jennifer
[unconfirmed]
Freedom Clothing: Amanda
Parkdale Liberty: Jennifer
ArchiTEXT: Zahra
Long & McQuade: Jon
Toronto Poets: Jason / Hajile
Linux Caffé: David
Art for me
is a journey
into the unspoken, unknown, unwanted and unheard
realities of our shadows
and of our hopes.
We are suspended in time
glimpsing in the mirror
of our future and our past
They flash before us and cause a jolt
of hope, of fear, of want, of release.
Our senses on overload
we admire and adore
our object of fascination
representing the idol we love
and demon we hate.
we forgive
we empathize
we heal
we bathe
in beauty
and bliss.
Sure, I'm aware that this "advice" might be published somewhere.
Sure, I'm aware that this "advice" could be used for the Obama-Biden administration staff selection process, which I'm interested in, so I'll go with a first person narrative.
In 2000 I co-founded the Global Youth Action Network, with a dream, much like Obama's platform, of empowering greater youth participation in politics. I believe that when young people are given a voice, a place to stand, or a voice, and are inspired and unencumbered, they are capable of great things. Many have called young people the "world's greatest untapped resource."
My advice to the administration is to set in motion a series of structural and political "opportunities" that open the door for citizens, and especially young people, to "participate" in greater and greater ways.
I helped Brazil develop its national youth policies. One piece of legislation requests that all high schools in the country create environmental councils. Picture students organizing to be stewards of their school, working together to map its carbon footprint and reduce waste. It's inspiring a new generation of environmentalists. Another policy, created by earlier creative legislators, requests that all schools have student unions and elections. They encourage democratic participation early on. Another "innovative" idea, in the laboratory of social technologies, which is Brazil, is the "Participatory Budget." Picture a city setting aside 1% of its annual budget, each year, to projects determined by consensus-inspired, citizen-led decision-making processes. Imagine dozens of young people getting together to determine whether their town should invest in a job training center or a music recording studio. They learn from each other in the process, and realize that "job training" serves a greater community. I saw it happen and that kind of deliberative process created more trust, ensuring that the Job Training Center was very successful, with lots of participation, doing much more than your traditional center could ever do.
Brazil is just one of many countries in the world with innovative social technologies that bring people (especially young) together in new ways. 45 of the 46 countries in the Council of Europe have "National Youth Councils." They provide a platform for young people to engage in the democratic process and deliver their political recommendations to national legislatures. Dozens of countries around the world have "National Youth Service" programs where "conscription" doesn't mean serving the army, but serving communities instead. Malaysia has National Youth Awards which recognize the extraordinary contributions of young people to their communities each year. The honor inspires many to choose community participation over materialism. My friend in Viet Nam runs a radio show where young people talk about their solutions for the country's problems. Another friend manages a Latin American network of young people who read newspapers, identify mis-representations of youth, and youth issues, and then respond by writing editorials and educating journalists. Another friend in the Gambia brings truck loads of city youth into the countryside. They connect with the land, the produce, the origins of their food, and commit themselves to an organic, independent future. The global food security alarms that went off earlier this year were silent in his backyard.
The world has a lot of wisdom and ideas to offer us, here in the USA. Many of these programs don’t cost a penny. All we need is the idea, or the visibility, or the convener, or the wave of the legislative wand. Maybe it's coming?
The Bush administration looked out into the big unknown world with fear and suspicion. This new administration doesn't. I think we should create a Presidential Commission on Youth and Intergenerational Partnership. I'd be happy to share my vision of what it could be… but who's ear do I have? Yours? Email me: jonah@youthlink.org (www.bridgingnetwork.org)
I'm now living in the USA, near Washington, DC. I'm a dad. My son is almost four. I helped build the Leverage Alliance (a network of young philanthropists) and then the Bridging Network (www.bridgingnetwork.org) to consult on young philanthropy.
In July of 2007 I launched www.ezintouch.com to help people with contact management and email marketing and in September of 2007 I became the chief system geek at Distributive Networks (www.distributivenetworks.com) to be part of the team that developed the technology for Obama's text messaging platform.
Oh, I also just helped my Dad launch a bed and breakfast / vacation rental on his farm in Union, WV. Check out www.pynemountainfarm.com
Congratulations to Mali Bickley, Grade 5 teacher at W. H. Day Elementary School, Bradford, Ontario who wins over $10,000 in classroom technology and thanks for the mention of TakingITGlobal in your video! We are so thrilled that you are using TIGed.org in your classroom.
In a day and age when most do not agree on anything, from east and west, to conservative and liberal politics, to issues of race and geography, and amongst differing religions and faiths, I believe, along with the founders of Global Dignity, that dignity is the one thing that everyone in the world wants equally. Dignity can be the unifying force that brings us all together at a time when the world needs this more than ever.
On Monday, October 20th 2008, I, in concert with the co-founders of Global Dignity (www.globaldignity.org), His Royal Highness Crown Prince Haakon of Norway, Professor Pekka Himanen and John Hope Bryant, and several other Young Global Leaders (as associated with the World Economic Forum) conducted our first ever GLOBAL DIGNITY DAY 2008 in 30 countries, inclusive of every continent.
In this blog, I am sharing an update on Global Dignity Day in Canada. I have taken part in other Dignity Day events including one in Vancouver and another in Jordan that involved Her Majesty Queen Rania in Jordan. I am pleased to report back on Global Dignity Day in Toronto, Canada on October 20th, 2008! We reached 40 grade 9 students (14 years old) in a Leadership Course at Greenwood College (http://www.greenwoodcollege.com/)
I had about an hour to deliver the course for each of the two classes. We kicked off with having the students write what Dignity means to them on a sheet of paper that I handed out, and then it led into a group discussion and a brief presentation on the Dignity Principles. I found that most of the initial definitions people wrote down on defining dignity related to self-respect. My co-facilitator was a grade 11 student (Celine Caira) from the school who helped me to prepare for the event. Celine shared a story about what dignity means to her based on a recent encounter with a 14 year old girl that she met in a recent trip to India with her family. I shared a few personal stories and gave context on the work of TakingITGlobal.org and how we are growing a global community of youth making a difference. I connected the mandate of our website to the dignity principles. In helping the students further understand the meaning of dignity, I asked them to share their own examples of increasing or even decreasing the dignity of others. They were able to generate many strong examples of what dignity is NOT - which actually transformed the energy in the room to be more supportive (for example after talking about the negative impact of making fun of someone for who they are).
As a process note, it was very helpful to have the students read each of the dignity principles out loud and talk about what that particular principle means to them. There were certain words that they did not understand - such as interdependent - so I took time to explain the meaning behind the word.
The bulk of the interactive time was when I had the students break out into groups of 4-5 and develop their own ABC’s of Dignity. They had about 6-7 minutes and I was amazed to see how our their depth of understanding about dignity had significantly increased since I first entered the class. At first, in doing the ABCs, we started out as a full class discussion, but I quickly realized that it would be better to have them work in teams - and this was a very smart decision. Each of the group then had a representative read out their ABCs of Dignity to the class and they were all eager to hear about the different impressions and interpretations.
At the end of the class, I unveiled the ‘Dignity Flag’ which I prepared (a huge canvas with bright colours) with Celine and Caitlin (another student) prior to Dignity Day. The Flag stated ‘We Pledge to DIGNITY’ and the students were invited to put their name on the flag, along with a word that relates to dignity starting with the first letter of their name (i.e. Jennifer - Justice). They were eager to make their pledge and I noted that many of the words were difficult for the students to spell (which could lead to future vocabulary activities in their studies). The Dignity Flag is now being hung in the school and I am hoping that at the next school wide assembly, it will be shared by some student representatives with the entire school!
Thanks for the opportunity to work together!
Special appreciation goes out to Kim Samuel-Johnson who is part of the World Economic Forum community and was a former Global Leader for Tomorrow. Kim helped bridge the connection with Greenwood College and hosted the Dignity Day planning meetings. I would also like to thank Caitlin Samuel-Johnson and Celine Caira, who are the Grade 11 students that helped me in preparing for Dignity Day. Here is our team photo taken at one of our planning sessions! Also, closing reflection from Celine, “Seeing the way Greenwood students responded to Dignity Day gives me hope that one day we will live peacefully with global dignity”.
I am incredibly energized from my experience at World Blu Live in New York last week – what a dynamic group of thinkers and leaders in the area of organizational democracy.
While at the conference, I delivered a presentation in the section on ‘NEXT’ – where I was asked to share examples of democratic and inclusive practices at TakingITGlobal. After providing an overview of the mission, vision and programs our organization offers, I talked about the value of the WorldBlu Scorecard process and how it has provided an opportunity for our core team to improve our internal communications and processes as a result of the feedback from the surveys. TakingITGlobal has been recognized in both 2007 and 2008 on the WorldBlu list of Most Democratic Workplaces. Here are a few quotes from staff members who completed the scorecard:
• “TakingITGlobal is a unique organization not only in the work it does that inspires, informs and involves members, but in the way the organization functions, which is equally inspiring for its team.”
• “This is a genuinely democratic organization with an informal yet effective management system in place. Hierarchy is virtually non-existent. It is idea driven and riding the very crest of the tech-wave. Intellectual blossoming is only one of the benefits of working here”
In my presentation, I talked about how we have created evolving visualizations of or organizational model including an earlier version of a tree. For those interested in understanding this model, here is a description that I wrote in 2003 as part of a mid-term paper that I wrote as part of my Masters course on Management in Turbulent Times. Through the roots, the organization is grounded in its core vision and values. The trunk is where much of the administrative support and technology development occurs, which all helps to nurture the growth and development of TakingITGlobal’s key program areas which are depicted through the fruit. In the diagram, the red fruit symbolize the core areas of engagement which address the various key gaps. These areas focus on engaging key stakeholders that work to support youth such as international and youth-led organizations, educators, local communities etc. The online community which is placed at the centre of the organizations activities and focus, highlights the nature of its core program. The yellow circles which connect to the online community are nodes which are drawn in a way that illustrates each of the various online community components (Action, Community, Opportunities, Expression, Voice), and how they are organized in a way that transcends the notion of a tree/organism. The research and sourced projects are ‘low-hanging fruit’ which provide support for other program areas. The overall framework is best explained in the context of a living system because it is one that needs to be able to respond and adapt to changes in external environments. In contrast to the purpose of most organizational charts, this structure does not exist to support people at the top of a hierarchy, but rather, to serve and support the growth and development of key program areas (‘fruit’) which are supported, nurtured and grounded in the shared vision (roots). The issue of survival is one of great importance to living systems, as it is to TakingITGlobal. In order for organizational objectives and ideals to be achieved, a sustainable and healthy ‘system’ must be maintained.
Another important part of our organizational culture includes teambuilding activities which have ranged from bowling and indoor beach volleyball, to taking part in a ropes course. One of the challenges for our organization is the difficulty in having teambuilding activities that are inclusive our staff and volunteers who are based in different parts of the world and often in different time zones. When Philip Rosedale, Founder and Chairman of Linden Lab, spoke at the conference, he talked about how they utilize Second Life to conduct meetings. Here is a photo of their board room and the various personalities that emerge through the avatars developed! Organizational practices that have been inspired by discussions with other WorldBlu Democratic Companies include the As and Os weekly emails that all staff send out to an 'As and Os' mailing list - each focused on objectives for the upcoming week and accomplishments from the past week. Additionally, we have a monthly Above and Beyond Award based on a staff voting system and a 'kudos' tool where you can send comments through an online system to other staff that are archived on our intranet. For ongoing knowledge management and sharing of information, we have developed an intranet and are constantly using collaborative tools such as wiki's.
Here are a few thoughts that stayed with me after listing to the diverse array of presentations (http://www.worldblu.com/live/schedule.php)
- Bill Shannon, Chief Wisdom Officer at DaVita talked about how their company is oriented around a village-like culture. They have regular town hall meetings, the office of the CEO has a 'Mayor' sign on it and executive employees have a 'uniform' which is designed like a superhero style costume. Considering the large size of the organization, they are able to maintain an atmostphere of community.
- Rodney North, Vice Chair and Answer Man of Equal Exchange focused his talk on the importance of governance and how their company entitles each employee to one vote and one share. This shared sense of ownership creates shared accountability. They believe that the role of a company include the aim of training better citizens.
- Alexander Kjerulf, Chief Happiness Officer and Author talked about how everyone can achieve happiness at work and that it starts with the simple act of how you say 'good morning'. He shared the '5 Levels' - starting off with 1 being a mumble, 2 saying good morning with no eye contact, 3 is good morning with eye contact and a smile, 4 is good morning with eye contact, a smile and a question about how they are, and level 5 includes everything in level 4 plus physical contact through a handshake. The best part of this session was being part of a transformation of energy in the room when we tried out each of the levels.
- Mike Ferretti, CEO of Great Harvest Bread Company talked about the high levels of customization and localization in their franchise model and shared a powerful diagram that includes about 6 concentric circles highlighting various spheres of their competition.
- Brett Jackson, CEO of Generation Think Tank shared his experience in being part of the first 10 employees at Crocs and some of the negative impacts of the hyper growth experienced by the company.
- A personal highlight of the WorldBlu experience was outside the conference venue at at Carnegie Hall where we watched an awe inspiring performance of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra who played in absolute harmony without a conductor!
- Other insights included learning about a simple practice of having an anonymous question/suggestion box where the CEO can respond to what is submitted during staff meetings, several comments on the importance of expressing appreciation, and the significance of having a results-focused workplace. Also, there was discussion on the concept of scarcity and how it is in your mind - as as the concept of abundance. It is important to choose your views carefully. On the last day, someone observed me taking notes based on my notes, he called me a 'concrete random' essentially based on a matrix model where the y axis includes concrete + abstract and the x axis includes sequential and random. I thought it was interesting to have my thought process being analyzed on the basis of my notebook!
My final highlight of WorldBlu live was listening to Bill Taylor, Founding Editor of Fast Company Magazine, who talked about how important it is for those of us to stay connected and ‘stay in the game’. A very special thank you goes out to Traci Fenton, Founder and CEO of WorldBlu for putting this event together and for her vision and dedication towards promoting and supporting organizational democracy in the workplace. Here’s a photo with Traci, Bill and I.
At the beginning of my presentation, I asked the audience to think about the following question: "What contribution can young people make to addressing global poverty?" People sent in text responses via their mobile phones. I was really impressed with the responses and followed up with Matt McKenna at Red Fish Media who sent along the list of text messages for me to post on my blog:
- Volunteering
- Money.
- Communication
- Conserve conserve conserve
- The ability to connect
- Be more selfless
- Promote conservation
- Spend some time walking in their shoes
- Spend less volunteer more vote democrat
- Micro investments and localglobal involvement can be very impactful.
- Just getting involved in one key focus and acting against it
- Teach
- Provide education and employment to the poor
- Start recycling cheaper use of electricity fewer car trips etc.
- Consume less in developed nations.
- Social networking can bring countries and people much closer....
- After graduating college young people can pay it forward by volunteering in impoverished nations.
- First become aware. second start donating .
- Start education programs
- Young people can connect across cultures via the web to create greater awareness at a personal level.
- Create friendships to harness Energy.
- Improve knowledge of the burdens poverty places and spur collective action to take ownership of the problem and make a difference.
- Organize create opportunities for each other and for adults
- Set an example Start a business and employ other young people.
- Mentoring and outreach
- Since poverty is rising in North America young people can get directly involved by working in soup kitchens halfway houses etc.
