2010 has been a watershed year for the Awakening the Dreamer (ATD) Initiative and its work with young people. We have looked deeply into how the Initiative can best support the Millennial Generation to make their greatest contribution, and have decided to partner with Generation Waking Up, through the work of two young colleagues, Zo Tobi and Joshua Gorman.
Zo trained to deliver the Awakening The Dreamer Symposium, brought it to thousands of young people in his work as a youth organizer in the Sierra Club Student Coalition, and has continued to be deeply inspired by it. Joshua has been holding a vision for the role of his generation for several years and has been developing that vision through the creation of an organization called Generation Waking Up. Now Awakening The Dreamer is seeing that the most powerful way that ATD can reach and inspire today’s youth is through a partnership with Generation Waking Up (GenUp for short).
The mission of Generation Waking Up is to ignite a generation-wide movement of young people helping to bring forth a thriving, just, sustainable world. In service to our mission, they strive to:
- Awaken in young people a clear sense of identity and purpose within the story of our generation’s coming of age at this turning point in human history.
- Empower young people with the training, mentoring, and support they need to thrive as global citizens, leaders, and change agents in the 21st century.
- Connect youth-based social change efforts across issues, geography, and all lines of difference, unleashing the collaborative power and collective action of today’s younger generations.
The ATD team is now hard at work establishing this partnership and finalizing GenUp’s plan for 2010 and beyond. Expect to see more about this in the near future.
