My generation has a largely healthy approach to solving today's most challenging global problems. We realize that today's challenges are enormous, and so instead of searching for elusive revolutionary change in the entire system, we are taking small, measurable, concrete steps to make a difference.

I like to describe us as a "Teach for America" generation. We think our education policy is in shambles but we don't seek to transform the entire education system at once. We seek to better education classroom by classroom. The impetus for such small scale action comes from the hard reality that years of protesting inequalities in educational funding have not changed the fact that suburbs have great, well-funded schools and inner-cities have poor, inadequate ones. So, young people are taking matters into their own hands and improving schools one classroom at a time rather than trying to improve the entire system.

But this incrementalist approach has limits. Ultimately, even Teach for America (TFA) can only slightly enhance education for inner-city youth. As I've heard from so many young people who have joined TFA, TFA teachers make a difference but that difference is often hidden under the vast systematic inequality that is our education system.

Young people therefore need to take an incrementalist and a systemic approach--indeed, they need to combine the two. They should use small, measurable, concrete steps as a stepping stone toward wholesale change. Every year, for example, TFA gives thousands of young people a direct lesson in the dramatic inequalities of our education system. These young people need to leave the classrooms ready to channel their energy into the political system and to challenge the education system as a whole and demand revolutionary change.

This same approach of linking incrementalist and revolutionary change applies to so many issues. Students should take action to make sure their own universities have a clean energy policy, but they should not stop there. They should see that as a method of building up to national change. Ultimately, while local energy changes are positive, we need a new national policy to save us all from the growing threat of climate change.

Young people who want to make a difference should therefore see social entrepreneurship as a necessary, but insufficient means to social change. Being a social entrepreneur is not enough—the entrepreneurship should be linked to a broader political strategy. Because even if you’re a smart social investor, helping launch great new companies in developing countries, your efforts will not realize a just world as long as our trade and development assistance policies remain so unfair. Social entrepreneurship can make important social changes at the margins, but ultimately social entrepreneurship’s greatest good may be giving us an incrementalist approach to realizing revolutionary political change.

Oddly this was something that crossed my mind walking home only a few minutes ago. I was contemplating how we as the post war generation, AKA baby boomers, were persuaded into a passive role. "Finish your food" we were told as children "because there are children starving in Africa". We'd been given to believe that by making the most of our food, that somehow, this would make more available for those less fortunate. In turn we'd donate money to charities, feeling that this alone would solve the problems. A lifetime of experience taught us that however much we made available, they still weren't necessarily going to get any, as we created food mountains to maintain market values and never seemed to raise quite enough to tackle the problems with direct action. Compounded with new hostilities, it only got worse.

What I see now is something similar in the climate change movement. It's a passive approach making our lives more energy efficient by not doing this and that, for the benefit of the planet. Perhaps we feel inclined to follow the same direction, assuming that what we save will compensate for developing world consumption.

Activism is now the path I want to follow. Not by the conventional means of the nonprofit, but by targeting locations in crisis with a few economic smart bombs, with the aim of rendering social purpose from profit yeilding activity. Similarly, we might look at the global warming issue as I know others are doing and invest in technology - for example, making low energy lighting systems available to the developng world to replace the dependence on kerosene lamps while we attempt to change the paradigm for collaborative investment rather than charitable subsidy and the dependence on government funds. As we take a stance against corruption that has been all too often, par for the course.

It has begun, I hope the generation that follows can pick it up and see through what may not be completed in my lifetime.

I agree that our generation seems less concerned with immediate policy change than our parents did in the 60’s and 70’s. However, many young people today continue to have great passion for social issues impacting us today, often on a more global scale compared to the national scale of our activist predecessors. This passion which is today manifesting itself in small ways in dormitories and classrooms across the nation will soon become a strong political voice throughout the world.

As stated above, we do see ourselves as part of the solution and each of us, personally, does our best to live up to our social values in day to day life. This might be by purchasing organic foods and fair trade products when possible, reminding our roommates to turn off the lights when leaving a room, or even planning to someday buy a hybrid car. While issues such as global warming and exploitation of developing countries are important to us, and we hope will someday be recognized and remedied by our nation's policy makers, we are primarily concerned with our own immediate action and those who we can influence.

Perhaps, our generation is focused on being a role model for social activism on a smaller scale. If we can each educate those close to us on a topic that affects the world, person by person, consciousness raising will occur.

This new consciousness may not be evident now, but as our generation continues to learn, grow, and educate each other, we will someday be a valuable political force in addition to a generation focused on the small ways we can all contribute to the benefit of our community and world.

The youth of today use a lot of technology as a normal part their lives. To engage them I suggest that NPOs and other orgs become more tech-savvy (yes beyond e-mail) to connect with the next generation.

Being a part of a generation accustomed to fast food, fast transportation, and quick turnarounds in general, I have to say that I’m partial to a do-it-yourself approach. It’s empowering to see immediate, if modest, results. Worried about healthcare for low income families? Volunteer at a local clinic and see the difference you make for overwhelmed nurses and families. Want to influence future generations? Mount a campaign to bring important issues to schools on ‘show and tell’ day, Earth Day, etc.

Of course, I also rally to participate in coordinated national efforts to influence government policy on issues of importance to me. It’s just sometimes, when you trying to effect change in the government, it’s like dealing with a black hole. Individual and small group efforts on the home front give me the encouragement to continue pushing for change on a macro scale. And ultimately, I think both concepts are complimentary. I see a wave of young people making a difference in their community, the culmination of their efforts creating a larger movement that provokes change on a greater scale.

It is easiest to engage someone at a local level, where, as stated above, individuals or community groups see the need for their help and the impact they can have immediately (river clean up, soup kitchen, painting downtown, etc). Hopefully local action inspires a broader, more far sighted view of what can be improved in the region, state, nation, or even world. I see action and activism as a staircase one climes, becoming more aware and emboldened each step of the way.

Long-term change that effects our nation, or even world, must either be mandated by national/international governments/institutions or taken on by some of the most powerful corporations in the world in order to have an impact in my view. My hope, of course, is that individuals who have climbed the staircase of activism will enter government or corporations to make these bold moves internally (clean energy business practices, health care, improvement in public education, etc). There is a danger of ignoring or being unaware of certain community needs when operating at such a grand scale that it is my sincere hope that when institutions with enough weight to throw around choose to do so, they seek the guidance of someone who has good intentions and an understanding of the people bold moves effect.

I think that young people should focus on community action, creating awareness about not only local, but also global issues. I think their individual impact will be greatest in educating peers and local action. However I hope these same young people become social entrepreneurs, run for political office, or work themselves into corporate structures where they can have a wider impact down the line. NGO/NPO's are not without a role as I see them as the ones that educate and empower individuals to take the initial local action which hopefully inspires further action locally or globally!

I hate to say it, but it seems like our generation is, like most generations, largely interested in seeming "with it." Back in the '60s, it was definitely with it to protest the government. Now, with disaffected images of apathetic, "cool," teenagers pervading our culture, I think it has become harder to be an activist and reach out to the mainstream. This is changing slowly (as, I think, a result of worsening global conditions) but we are not simply going back to the days when mass protests were cool. We are entering a new sort of activism where viral campaigns are most effective--bracelets, socially-responsible consumption, word of mouth. It's a time when people try to make a difference in their local communities.

I think this is a good strategy for effecting change at larger scales. Scales, like local and global, are mostly vague heuristics for specific social networks. Whenever it becomes cool for someone in a social network, however "local" it may be, to encourage people to look outside, build bridges, and be more mindful of their actions, it makes large ripples in other networks. Of course, if people have access to the highest, most global networks (i.e. multinational corporations, governmennts, etc.), they have a strong responsibility to increase equality and justice within that wide spanning network.

I think Hammad is right that part of the resistance to protesting is that it's viewed as very uncool these days. That's why ONE and LiveAid have been so important in trying to redefine the coolness of mass demonstrations. To give young people a little credit, though, I think coolness connects to effectiveness and so even discourages those who are not cool from going out.

Here's what I mean: to those who know me, I am anything but cool. But if I protest, I'd like to go out with other moderates like myself and demonstrate for a cause I believe in. Because protests are uncool, they have increasingly become the tool of the radical. And so many protests take a very aggressive view on issues, one that is much more extreme than I believe in. This draws me away from the protest because I no longer think it's an effective way of sharing my voice.

Hi Seth After my experience with Music For America and The People Choose 2006 I know first hand that today's youth are one of the most volunteering and active generations since the 60's - maybe more so. I think that individual action is a good place for young people to be today. It will give them the experience to work on policy change later on.

Are there opportunities that are being missed? Probably, but it doesn't matter. What is importnat are the opportunities they are making use of, and there are plenty of those.

Both are good ways to go. The reality is that corporations control majopr portions of our world, so we have to insure that they behave responsibly. And, as we all know, corporations are legally and structurally amoral - they only have one goal, making money. Everything else is cost to be reduced. By bringing idealistic young people ino the private sector that can change - as it must if we are to survive.

I think that it's important to be able to think locally, such as mentoring a youth, or teaching in a school, but to also think of an individual act of kindness in one place, at one time, as part of the actions of many people in many places. World problems are complex and will take many actions of many people over many years, just to make a dent in some of these. Until we can visualize the complex blueprint of solving a problem, we can have many actions, and they may make a huge difference to the indiviuals affected, but they won't make much of a change in the issues facing the world.

I've written before about building "networks of purpose". Here's a link to a pdf on my web site that illustrates what I mean by this. http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/Partner/CC/Presentations/collaboration/Building%20a%20Network%20Focused%20on%20a%20Common%20Goala.pdf

I have led a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program serving a small group of Chicago teens since 1993. The http://www.cabriniconnections.net program is a place where volunteers can use their time, talent and leadership skills to help us help a small group of teens stay in school and move to jobs.

However, when we formed Cabrini Connections, we realized that one more program serving a few kids in a city with more than 200,000 living in high poverty, would not make much of a global impact. That's why we created the Tutor/Mentor Connection (http://www.tutormentorconnection.org). By collecting information about other tutor/mentor programs in Chicago, and around the world, and organizing events (http://www.tutormentorconference.org) that draw people together to learn from each other and build the relationships necessary for collaboration, we could focus on the entire system of supports needed to help kids move from poverty to careers. By using the internet, we can connect with similar groups in cities all over the world.

Thus, I feel it's possible for any of us to act locally, but still take actions that draw people together for more complext problem solving. Such actions ultimately help each of us locally have more of the resources and ideas it takes for us to be effective in our own local efforts.

One way to be a local-global actor is to use a blog to write about where you volunteer, and why you volunteer. If you link with others in your city who do similar work, your blog connects your network with your program, and every other program that you link to. Anyone can take this step. The result will be a larger network of people working to support the cause you're involved with locally. I blog this at http://tutormentor.blogspot.com

There's a vibrant conversation that's been going on since the '90s about the power of technology, financial covergence, travel, and more to shrink time and space and make the world a smaller place. I agree that these same features also allow a more obvious and easy ability to connect the local to the global if we only reach for that goal. We can all connect via blogs, micro-finance, field work, and much more easily than ever before. A small group of people anywhere with the right communication strategy and idea can win over support worldwide.

Seth, could you elaborate on: "A small group of people anywhere with the right communication strategy and idea can win over support worldwide." Interesting statement!

I've been working under this belief for a number of years and although I've not changed the world yet, many people around the world are now aware of my work, and are using my web site as a resource.

I firmly beleive that with the Internet and desktop publishing anyone with an idea can post that idea on a web site, then market that idea throughout the world. If the idea is good enough, and presented often enough, in a wide variety of ways, the idea can be adopted by others, and can lead to big and small change.

I launched the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993 with just seven volunteers. Our primary purpose was to operate a youth program in one area of Chicago. We started with 5 teens. The youth program (http://www.cabriniconnections.net) has served more than 500 youth and engaged more than 600 volunteers since then. Operating such a program with the inconsistent funding non profits receive, would be a huge job for anyone.

However, when we formed our organization we realized that one more non profit serving a few more youth in a city with more than 200,000 youth living in high poverty, would be great for the few youth we serve, but would not do much to change poverty in Chicago.

We realized that there were other programs also serving youth, but no one had a master database, and no one was leading any kind of consistent marketing to help existing programs get the resources they need to grow from good to great, and now one way leading an analysis to identify neighborhoods where there were no programs, and to draw people together to fill those voids.

We decided to fill that void and began to build a team to do this. We launched a first survey in 1994 and hosted a first conference in May 1994, inviting the people who responded to the survey to be workshop presenters at the conference. We started sending out a newsletter, using desktop publishing to create it, so we could share stories about what each program was doing, and point to research that showed why such programs were needed.

We grew our database from 300 people in 1993 to over 12,000 by 2000, but could only reach about 10,000 people three times a year with our print newsltters. Then we were introduced to the Internet.

We launched our first web site in 1998 and have rebuilt it a couple of time since. We've recorded more than 150,000 visits and more than a million page view to the http://www.tutormentorconnection.org site since then and we've been able to find ways to express complex ideas using the growing visual tools that are available to us.

Last summer I had a BBC writer email me who said she was writing because in talking with a friend from Australia, my name came up.

I've never had a staff of more than 2 full time people working on the T/MC, but have recruited many volunteers, and have actively used the Internet to reach out and share ideas, while using my web site to try to illustrate complex problem solving that will take many years, and many people, working in many places.

If some of these ideas become adopted by other people (eg. Spider and the Starfish concept of decentralized organization), they can revolutionze the way non profits are supported, and the way services are distributed in places where they are needed.

While my solution may or may not be world-changing, it illustrates how one or two people can create an idea and persistently share it to build a world wide following. If we can begin to teach kids in grade school that they have this power, and teach them critical thinking and problem solving and ways to use the internet to collaborate and learn, some of them will change the world.

Some of you may remember Marshall McLuhan's aphorism, "The medium is the message." What it refers to is the way that environment changes us; a stage play has a different rhetoric from a television show in large part due to differences in where they're performed.

I wonder if we need to think about the effect of a political environment on our agenda for social change. Working with social enterprise & NGOs, we naturally gravitate toward adaptive localized groups. Engage the state, however, and pretty soon the state itself becomes the solution. Does the optimal political strategy for social entrepreneurs focus on substantive ideals or procedural reform?

I think the potential of the internet and social enterprise is that people with enlightened self interest will identify problems that they want to see solved, and will use the tools that are emerging to bring people together to solve these problems, without involving government bureacracies in the process.

I read an essay by Jack Kemp when he was running for president which said if the rich people would just do what they should be doing, the poor people would not need to be making so many laws to try to legislate doing the right thing. His point ways that laws don't make people act better. There has to be an "enlightened self interest". Margaret Mead wrote many years ago that it only takes a few people to change the world. In a book titled "Jesus CEO" the author described what a few uneducated people who had pretty poor networks were able to do to influence the world. Imagine what such leaders as these could do with the elearning, communications and collaboration tools that are now available.

I think a key piece of work that has to be done relates to institution-building . Personal choices about where we shop, invest, etc. are important but we also have to support and build institutions that have more power than we do as individuals, in order to truly affect policy. We have to have lots of tools in the toolbox and work both within and outside "the system": we can protest, get involved in international advocacy including UN work, vote, educate ourselves and others, participate in social enterprise...

And we have to prepare to be engaged for the long haul. Nothing will change overnight, and lots of the work that has to be done is slow and steady. We have to start thinking about cycles, about planting seeds for the future. Very little will happen right away, but if we imagine ourselves as activists over the next 50 years, well, that's a long time, in which we have the potential to actually turn things around.

I really started being active politically around the WTO meetings in Seattle in 1999. I spent a few years narrowly focused on protest and working outside the system. But now I've worked for the past 6 years at MADRE (www.madre.org), a 25-year-old institution that advances women's human rights internationally, and it's here that I've learned the power of NGOs, the power of longevity and historical memory and working inside as well as outside the system. I think we have to find and build solid institutions that allow us to channel our individual passion into something larger than ourselves, that allows us to move mountains we can't move alone.

I think Vicki has hit on a powerful idea above when she says "I think we have to find and build solid institutions that allow us to channel our individual passion into something larger than ourselves, that allows us to move mountains we can't move alone." This is exactly how so many young people feel. While we're unlikely to be found at protests these days, young people are very likely to be seen starting or joining global civil society organizations. There's a sense among us that the best way to create change is to setup a lasting, sustainable organization that can constantly keep the issues we care about in the public and policymakers' eyes. We are rethinking what it means to be part of global civil society--and in the process helping to remake the methods of social change.

I think it's important that those trying to venture into social change really consider how they can measure the outcomes of what they're doing. This is a great virtue of business that more non-profits should replicate. I see so many organizations (including the US government) tailoring their work to how they can prove they're doing good to their audience, and this isn't what I'm saying. Rather, the work should be done according to the goal but in a way where its efficacy can be measured. With the environment, this is most clear-cut...How much are we conserving (on the personal or institutional scale)? How efficent are our lives and the energy systems that surround us? With other issues like poverty alleviation or the education system, it may have been more difficult in the past to measure their progress, but with innovative new methods to combat these problems, like microcredit and the success of non-traditional charter schools (see an example at http://www.achievementfirst.org/) it's possible to measure.

In order to measure something you need a theory of change, then a list of actions that would lead to such change if they were repeated over and over for a long enough time, by enough people. A few years ago I was introduced to the concept of on-line documentation of actions, or Organizational History and Tracking Systems (OHATS).

I encourage you to review the OHATS summary at http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/OHATS/Intro_OHATS.htm and then visit the Tutor/Mentor Connection OHATS, which is a link on the same page. You can review a documentation screen that we've been using to document actions we've taken, or comments we've received, since 2000.

We've not had funding since 1999 (one year grant) to do the update and development of this system, but you can review more than 900 documented actions posted since mid 1999. You can also review a pdf report that illustrates how these actions can be analyzed. I think that any group of people who have a common purpose, can use on-line systems like this to report what they've done to achieve the goals we're talking about. Someone just has to provide the talent and time to set up and manage such a system.

In almost every discussion I get into about things on a level like this I can't help but think of the lyrics to this song by: Bad Religion called "the Answer"

"The Answer"

"Long ago in a dusty village full of hunger, pain and strife a man came forth with a vision of truth and the way to a better life he was convinced he had the answer and he complelled people to follow along but the hunger never vansihed and the man was banished and the village dried up and died at a time when wise men peered through glass tubes toward the sky the heavens changed in predictable ways and one man was able to find that he had thought he found the answer and he was quick to write his revelation but as they were scutinized in his colleagues eyes he soon became a mockery don't tell me about the answer because another one will come along soon don't tell me about the answer I've got ideas too but if you've got enough naivete and you've got conviction then the answer is perfect for you an urban sprawl sits choking on its discharge overwhelmed by industry searching for a modern day savior from another place inclined toward charity everyone's begging for an answer without regard to validity the searching never ends it goes on and on for eternity"

Hi, I walked home 3 miles through unmarked woods as part of nuclear defense planning when I was 6. In retrospect we laugh at the effort. I know what I want to see in online social communities, I know where I want to put my money that I set aside for a social cause. I am a social consumer, but I am skeptical about organizations.

I like Kiva.org but, the journalist there don't always respond to posts made by kids who want to know more about then businesses that are funding. Maybe this exchange needs to have a financial exchange. People love stories and unfortunately they don't like needy, hurting people. There's a world of opportunity for story-tellers around the world to be editors. Actually, I was hoping I could get a good deal on beads, soap, fabric and feel like I could actually meet this person. Maybe they could recommend a place for me to stay and eat when I decide to go globe trotting. I'd like to click on their village and learn a little more about the local issues and political direction. Especially as I got to know them better, I might adopt a village. I want to be able to connect with the individual, but I want to invest in the well organized project that are connecting the world.

Has anyone looked at the money in pension funds. Everyone my age is limited by what it arrange by their plan. I don't have the option or information or vote to know which corporations are doing a piece of work I'm interested in. Sure I could hunt down something and feel good, but I want my money to be a vote. While I may rationalize that Walmart is a state of the art retail transportation machine fueling global change, I don't want them to dominate my social mix. So who's really investing in Care.org, doctors without borders and why should I vote for them. How do I get them included in my plan?

Yes there are days that I want to talk to the battered, beaten and bruised. I want them to know that these things pass and the wounds will heal. There is something about biology that screams for us to continue living in spite of the pain. There is no doubt in my mind that well-intended people will send children into the woods and never bother to learn of the consequences, I know people thrive when they learn to trust themselves.

I agree with what many people who have posted said, however I want to go back a bit… In response to Jeff Mowatt’s point made above, I agree that we do need to think about active and smart approaches to issues in developing countries, and change the paradigm for collaborative investment rather than charitable subsidy and the dependence on government funds. However, these changes need to work within the infrastructure of the countries, societies and cultures and where we hope to work. History has shown us that to work effectively in the developing world and have a positive impact, we need to be able to work WITH them, in a capacity in which THEY feel comfortable. Otherwise, we are attaching our notions, and using our models of success to solve or ameliorate a problem, but not necessarily fixing it, nor are we actually helping them.

With regard to working within the system, we may want to focus on creating a state infrastructure more conducive to promoting nonstate social enterprise. This new op-ed from the UK raises some interesting points: http://society.guardian.co.uk/futureforpublicservices/comment/0,,2049170,00.html

I am new to this community by way of introduction I will tell you what I do as an individual to interact with other individuals and institutions attempting to add in the efforts to tune our world, our economies and our cultures towards harmony.

I am what I would consider a social entrepreneur . I am a musician and a teacher I have developed a workshop in which students build their own bamboo pan flutes and begin to play music on them. While building their flutes students practice active listening skills and problem solving skills. My background is in teaching problem solving and other life skills to emotionally handicapped teens. My workshops are designed for success and appropriate for students from five to ninety-five years of age. I will be traveling over the summer with the intention of developing a network of organizations and a community of individuals interested in making music from the woods around them. I will be traveling through Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York .

Sharing this process of tuning a musical instrument and making music on it is how hope to make a difference. If this interests you then you as an individual can help by contacting me or telling someone you think would be interested. My email is sagerb@earthlink.net put flute workshop in the subject line to get my attention.

I have worked with an organization with 60,000 activist young people ages ranging from 15 - 30 fighting for progressive candidates. I was blown away - and overrun at times - with their energy and dedication. Part of the result of their work was a 22% increase in the youth vote in 2006. So I know what you mean. However, I also work with an inner city organization tht gets far fewer young activists even for their issues of police brutality and poverty. How do we reach these kids and help them get involved and engaged?