Drawing the Threads Together
This issue of the Changemakers Journal profiles four
strategies of social invention, fresh problem-solving
ideas largely shaped and sustained by the hands and
minds of young people. While individually the four
organizations and their leaders focus on concrete
local challenges, collectively these programs offer
models that can be copied in many other situations.
Surprise – something disarming – is often at the heart
of how young people can change patterns of behavior and
topple cultural assumptions. For youths motivated to such
service, that infectious, impetuous energy, even impatience,
can alter traditional practices and attitudes that can damage
and even devastate community and personal development. The
vignettes demonstrate the substantial change that has begun
to transform historically intractable situations around the world.
"Classic" social entrepreneurs begin as critics of
oppressive conditions. They see a need for change and then
must build consensus around innovative (and perhaps provocative)
plans. The work is difficult and often tiresome, as cynics and
opponents invariably throw roadblocks in the way. Young people
working for social change can find the path far less complicated;
their very youth often makes them immediately effective because
they are not perceived as threatening. Their compelling sense of
justice, of right and wrong, engages others.
Young people understand this idea right away.
The engagement, the passion, the energy: they are
the scaffold of young purpose. "Get with the program."
Do something, anything – or try something else, quickly.
Make a difference and do it now. This is your life; how is
it going to be? The Journal stories answer these questions
resoundingly for four leaders of four organizations in four
countries. But there is more, and it is central to the Changemakers inquiry.
Some vignettes focus on young people who have been
ignored or beaten, disenfranchised, disillusioned, left
without social responsibility or purpose. Against this
background the self-propelling leaders of social invention
forge ever onward, trusting that they will find (in their
volunteers, their students, their cohorts) those changemaking
qualities that transcend outrage and horror that we might
expect to be utterly dispiriting.
Something else: Young people have a tremendous capacity
to teach their elders. While all learning takes place
along a two-way street, every day the youths demonstrate
risk-taking and take practical steps that challenge every
square inch of the status quo. There is learning to be had
in such examples. At the same time and so often, in so many
cultures, young people demonstrate a "quietly revolutionary"
moral authority that is uniquely theirs.
They do not have any monopoly on truth or wisdom. No one
suggests that. Still, there is a characteristic fervor:
It can manifest in many ways, with a great roar and in song.
In each instance it is palpable, the force to be reckoned with.
This is the power of youth organizations and organized youth
that is such a galvanizing force for change.
Preparing to Learn, Preparing to Teach
Why consider these four? Why or how are they
distinguishable from others, from, say, the International
Boy Scouts and other large organizations? Is there a
set of social problems that young people are best
suited to solving? Do the four leaders offer models
that could work in other cultures? Is their effectiveness
a result of something inherent in youth, or have these
four identified critical ingredients especially useful
in tackling problems "on the edge of impossibility?"
The questions ought to start a process of analyzing the
dynamics of social invention, and particularly the role
of young social entrepreneurs in such change.
Examining the work of the social entrepreneur can provide
fundamental information about social change: how it happens,
where, when, and why or why not. Accordingly, these articles
offer carefully (and cleverly) designed and implemented
operations. Don't mistake teen-agers for the ones lacking
discipline or the will to prevail. The approaches are
ingeniously aimed and scaled to build cultural and individual
pride from the ground up, in the field, on the street, backstage.
It is tempting to rest on the notion that at any given moment,
professionals can answer the questions: How are things going?
What might make them better? But we resist. The thought provides
only an abstract measure of assurance that we might some day solve
problems. Clearly it is not enough. But if we look hard at the fine
details of the four, altogether different strategies for change
profiled here, we begin to see a number of common principles.
Certain themes emerge from the give-and-take of daily operations
that provide the rudiments of appropriate and sustainable,
youth-directed strategies for improving social conditions.
Above all else, what differentiates these initiatives is
the organizers' understanding of the catalytic power of youth,
and the trust and respect that it deserves. And for all their
differences, at the intersection of problem and purpose, we can
see that Hernando Roldan's mediation strategies in Colombia share
fundamental characteristics with Mina Das's leadership program
in West Bengal villages. And they each parallel the Afro Reggae
initiatives of Jose Oliveira in Rio de Janeiro and the resource
management and educational programs of Chaiyong Phumphrabu in Thailand.
The Foundations
Identifying the common elements asks for something like a
photographer's eye: an appreciation of detail, texture and
light coupled with focus and composition. And while fragments
of stories and strategies may exist beyond the cropped image,
their presence is felt and thus continues to inform the picture.
The prescription for mobilizing a corps of responsible
(or previously disillusioned) young people in change would
seem to necessitate, at a minimum, the following principles:
- Incorporating a sense of fun into the seriousness of managing crises and
meeting long-term social objectives..
- Harnessing youthful passion and "get the job done" ardor
for solving problems officially deemed too overwhelming for local resources.
- Striking a practical balance between cultural
traditions and social imperatives for change.
- Employing the innate moral authority of youth
to challenge parents, local officials, school administrators,
governments and others constrained by vested interests and
generations of inertia and accumulated failure.
- Turning the street-savvy of disenfranchised young
people into effective action.
- Relying on the lack of institutional experience as a
strategic advantage. Because they may not know "protocol,"
young people are in a unique position to turn bankrupt policy
and procedure upside-down.
- Recognizing the vulnerability and self-consciousness
that young people often feel and recasting it into compelling
service to others. Engaging the young in urgent causes and
philosophically grounded activities pays enormous dividends,
including (for the youths) a richer sense of self and a profound
relationship to everything that exists outside them.
This is called community development plus: Reducing poverty,
violence and apathy with imagination.
The experiences of these young people seem driven by the
implicit knowledge that broad change requires sustained
motivation. Inventing and implementing a process to achieve
that goal is one of the singular achievements of the four
leaders. That the programs involve entire communities adds
momentum and guarantees greater impact. Because the programs
rest on the two-way flow of learning, with adults turning to
young people as role models, everyone takes turns to lead and
to learn. The all-important cultural base for the initiatives
gives their goals and actions traditional roots, as well as a
standard of achievement. All the participants know that they
have to earn each other's respect and that they have to continue
to grow, from common soil to shared time and space. They teach
clearly the lesson that social change comes only from partnership.
The pictures of these young people at work have to give us pause.
Where do we go with these lessons? Perhaps it's enough to consider
the motivating issues of change: What do we value most, what
features or practices that enlarge lives and provide access to
self respect? How do we practice best a belief in human rights?
Where in the day do we fit a desire to improve the lives of individuals facing
abuse or centuries of neglect of the most basic needs? Is the
certain knowledge that the environment must be revered and
protected forever enough to guide planning and decision-making?
These are the questions the youngsters are asking.
Karin Hillhouse is a freelance writer and editor in Washington, DC. From the
vantage of her background in comparative literature and urban planning,
she writes often on cultural and environmental matters.
July 1998 Journal Home Page