Campaign for a Presidential Commission on Youth and Intergenerational Partnerships

About the Campaign

In January of 2000, three young social entrepreneurs, with the goal of increasing youth participation in local, national, and global decision-making, opened the first office of the Global Youth Action Network (GYAN) in New York City just a couple of blocks from the UN.

Eight years later, young people, equipped with new hope and a new political vision, came out in record numbers to support Barack Obama's presidential campaign.

While seemingly disconnected, these two historical events are not unrelated. The rise of the Internet and the 24-hour news cycle has transformed young people from local to global citizens. As the world globalizes and cultures meet, we become increasingly interdependent. This shift in the zeitgeist of the United States created fertile ground for a new form of politics to take root.

GYAN, together with its parent web community TakingITGlobal, was an early proponent of these concepts, helping to cultivate thousands of young leaders and catalyze thousands of partnerships.

By some measure, Obama's candidacy was a beneficiary of these efforts. Now that he has been elected, the work is only just beginning. The idea of strengthening the youth participation in decision-making processes is threatening in the minds of a few, but a panacea in the minds of many. Extant systems of global decision-making seem paralyzed in the face rising social and environmental problems. New leaders and new leadership is needed to break from the traditions of the past. Just as Obama's presidential bid put to rest the practice of negative campaigning, the arrival of fresh ideas and fresh leadership on the world stage, can capture the attention of the world, put to rest traditional challenges and inspire responsible and pragmatic action to solve problems.

Shortly after Obama's election, Jonah Wittkamper, one of the three co-founders of GYAN, looked at the Wikipedia page on Presidential Commissions and read about Kennedy's commission on women. With the parallels between Obama and Kennedy fresh in mind, developing a Commission on youth seemed historically appropriate.

Wittkamper, a member of the team that built the technology behind Obama's mobile phone text messaging platform, quickly developed a memo for the Obama administration in partnership with Franziska Seel, the current Executive Director of GYAN. It was formally submitted to the transition team on January 8th. A few days later a website was created, a facebook group was formed, and a presentation of the idea was organized in Washington, DC, the night before inauguration.

Dozens of people, including many international participants came, and a campaign was born.

Currently, the campaign is operating as a project of the Global Youth Action Network, though other partners are coming on board. The community will maintain a very horizontal leadership and decision-making structure to empower grassroots organizers as much as possible. The team aims for diversity, transparency, and participatory processes.

It is worth mentioning that Intergenerational Partnership is also a key motivating factor. In the 1960s, people frequently said, "Don't trust anyone over 30." Those times have changed. Elders are now embracing young people more and more, but there is still a long way to go. Virtually every large institution, public, private, or non-profit, suffers from a lack of intergenerational cooperation. Elders have wisdom and experience to share, but inadequate opportunity to do so. Young people are tech savvy and energetic, but with inadequate financial or political power to create the change that is needed. Greater partnership across generations can lead to great synergy and allow us to do more with less.

The question of intergenerational partnerships, as well as the questions of health, education, political reform, etc. will be key topics of the commission. The role of our campaign is to rally diverse stake-holders around these issues and ensure that they are present and available to participate and contribute in the most appropriate way when the Commission is formally established.