Blog posts by related to Youth leadership

BucketFeet: Buy One, Give Some

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Posted Apr 20, 2011 3:53pm
John Converse Townsend

Charity is a basic constituent of today’s economy. Citizen consumers and cultural capitalists are demanding corporate social responsibility and won’t hesitate to punish companies who don’t deliver. So if the money is where the “warm and fuzzy” is, it makes sense that that’s where new businesses continue to emerge.

BucketFeet is the latest in this new wave of businesses blending social purpose with profit. The Chicago-based shoe company, launched just two months ago, operates under the motto, “Buy a Shoe, Build a Community.”

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The Breath of a Movement: Girls Discovering their Voices

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Posted Mar 30, 2011 1:09pm
Anonymous

Sejal Hathi was honored as an Ashoka ChangemakeHER, Changemakers's inaugural celebration of the world's most influentual and inspiring women. Find her fellow honorees' voices here.


Sejal Hathi, age 19, trains and mobilizes girls across the globe to co-create social change through her organization, Girls Helping Girls

★★★

Today, when I talk about Girls Helping Girls (GHG), I always say that part of our mission is to grow the next generation of female leaders: to build a dynamic sisterhood of changemakers that will revolutionize the way social change is achieved.

Yet, when I ponder the skills I used to launch GHG that I could offer to make this possible, I can name only bold idealism, glorious compassion, and a deep eagerness to drive a positive difference. Was I a leader? Perhaps.

Was I capable of cultivating new leaders? Most would say, “probably not.” But I very rapidly learned that inspiring girls’ leadership is less about bequeathing tools and more about nurturing a reciprocal exchange of ideas, strengths, and experiences.

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James Cromwell opens TEDxYSE with a bang

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Posted Nov 18, 2010 11:09am
John Converse Townsend


James Cromwell just rocked the stage at TEDxYSE.

He gave a rousing speech that brought several members of the audience to their feet.

“There is so much optimism and enthusiasm and hopefulness in the young people that I’ve met this morning,” said Cromwell. “But I do have to say from and older perspective, we made a hash of it. We really made a hash of it. We have left you a disaster.”

Cromwell compared the world’s current state of affairs to a roaring, violent locomotive racing toward a cliff. There won’t be time for incremental changes, and therefore we are in desperate need of dramatic system-changing impact; a necessary paradigm shift to save our species from its worst enemy: ourselves.

Fortunately we have young social entrepreneurs fueling world-changing initiatives. For Cromwell, young entrepreneurs are undoubtedly the hope for the world. He closed with this statement:

"The heart, not the mind, is the organ which connects us to the natural world and to each other. And so with all my heart, I wish all of you the best of luck. Persevere, question authority, and seize the day."

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