Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Unleashing Power of Young People

This video has had 19 million views. If you browse the articles on this blog you'll see that interns and volunteers from a variety of universities have been creating graphics, videos, blog articles, etc. intended to show adults ways to help kids in poverty neighborhoods. This needs to be an ongoing effort by young people and adults in many neighborhoods, cities and countries. It needs to support a year-round mobilization of people, ideas and resources that are distributed to thousands of places around the world. This graphic illustrates how events that repeat year-after-year can increase the number of people involved and the dollars available to help tutor/mentor programs be available to youth in more places.
When I was working in corporate advertising for a major retailer in the 1980s we spent $250 million a year to attract customers to over 400 stores in 40 states. None of us in the non profit sector have that type of advertising so we need to innovate other ways to get our story in front of a growing number of people every day. Young people can be part of this solutions, and in the process they can learn to be leaders and problem solvers. At the June 14, 2012 Tutor/Mentor Conference we are organizing a panel where programs can show how young people are raising their voices for social justice. If you have such a program and would like to share, please visit the conference web site and introduce yourself to us.

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