The story behind the story of this year’s primary elections has been the power and influence of America’s youth vote. Record numbers of young adults are turning out to make their voices heard; in some states, turnout rates among young adults have doubled or even tripled. Barack Obama, in particular, has struck a chord among young adults with his message for change: among the under-30 crowd, voters are breaking almost 2:1 in his favor.* We’ve found these statistics interesting not only as indicators of political strategy, but as evidence of a new level of growing civic participation among young adults. According to Peter Levine, director of the civic engagement research group CIRCLE, rising youth turnout rates are reflective of this generation’s “deep concern about the critical issues at stake and the impact of this election on our country’s future.” Young adults are anxious for change and are now considering voting as one way to play a role in determining our collective future.

But the rise of civic participation isn’t just about a desire for turnover within our current political leadership. It’s also about systemic social change and the desire to create a more just and productive society-one characterized by peace and diplomacy, careful stewardship of our natural resources, equality of opportunity, social inclusiveness, and constructive public debate. And voting isn’t the only way that we are making our desires known. Young adults are applying to professional service programs like Teach for America in record numbers; launching a dizzying amount of new, creative, youth-led social ventures; and committing more hours to volunteerism than previous generations.

The seeds of a movement of change have been planted. Now, it’s time to nurture them-to cultivate a new generation of leaders committed to addressing society’s most entrenched social issues.

Fortunately, we have plenty of role models to look to for inspiration, guidance and mentoring. When we launched The Purpose Project as an effort to inspire and equip the next generation of social leaders by sharing the stories and messages of our predecessors, we asked everyone we could, “who inspires you?” With your help and responses, we’ve developed an extensive list of inspiring leaders who have spent their lives working for social change.

You introduced us to Nancy Schowyer who, together with six partners, built a home that would offer refuge to families suffering from homelessness in the area around Gloucester, Massachusetts. Over the last twenty-five years, Nancy and the Wellspring House have provided shelter for over 1,000 homeless parents and children and helped them to find permanent housing. In addition, the organization has paid special attention to the underlying causes of homelessness and responded with programs to address them including education, emergency shelter, affordable housing, job training, family support and mentoring.

You introduced us to Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia, who has constructed a model for corporate social responsibility by integrating his business goals and social ambitions into a “double-bottom line.” Yvon catalyzed the development of the organic cotton industry after he became aware of the unsustainable nature of traditional cotton farming and processing. The success of Patagonia’s clothing line-which was primarily made of traditional cotton-was contributing to environmental destruction. After working to develop an organic fiber of equal strength and quality, he also helped to ensure a stable market for organic cotton by convincing his competition to switch over. Patagonia’s early and unconventional efforts revolutionized the global cotton industry and sparked the emergence of many of today’s green clothing retailers.

You introduced us to Liz Titus Putnam who turned her 1954 senior thesis at Vassar into a lifelong mission to help preserve our nation’s public lands and promote a culture of stewardship amongst its young people. The Student Conservation Association now places thousands of students and recent graduates in service and leadership positions in environmental research and protection across the country.

And you introduced us to Billy Starr who founded The Pan-Massachusetts Challenge (PMC) as an effort to raise money for cancer research after losing his mother to the disease. Twenty-eight years ago, Billy led a group of friends and supporters on a 2-day, 220 mile bike ride across Massachusetts that contributed $10,000 to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Since then, Billy has turned the PMC into the single largest athletic fundraising event in the country, raising $33 million for Dana Farber last year alone and a total of $204 million since its inauguration.

Over the past six months Billy, Liz, and a number of other social leaders have agreed to work with us to help inspire and equip a future generation of changemakers. Together, we’re developing a book that will share their stories and lessons learned, with the goal of inspiring and equipping young people to take action. In addition to the book, we’re creating a curriculum of case studies and discussion guides to make the stories a resource for teaching and discussion in classrooms and community groups, and an “action toolkit” of more practical, how-to resources to help users contribute and connect to their local and global communities.

To support this work, we’ve set a goal to raise $100,000 over the next six months. These funds will allow us to gather and compile the stories of the rest of the changemakers that will be included in the book and to begin developing the project’s other resources. We’re excited to announce that we’ve received a leadership gift to kick-off this fundraising effort along with a generous challenge grant from that same donor: the first $20,000 we raise from individuals (before June 30th) will be matched with an additional $10,000.

We need your help to meet this challenge! Please make a tax-deductible contribution to The Purpose Project. It’s time for our generation to share in the responsibility of charting positive courses for our society. And it’s time for society to invest in the future. Your financial support will help us to inspire the next wave of social changemakers and empower them to lead efforts that will create sustainable results.

Thank you for your continued support!

Warm regards,
Matthew and Michelle

* courtesy of CIRCLE (The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 20th, 2008 at 12:43 pm and is filed under Progress, Thoughts and Questions, Writings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.