Millennials: Join a Journey for Social Change

Jonathan Lewis
Founder and Chair, Microcredit Enterprises

A white-haired black woman and a bald white man walk into a bar…  OK, so I don’t actually know any barroom jokes about white-haired black women, bald white men or any combination thereof.

What do a white-haired black woman and a bald white man really have in common?  Both write my two favorite blogs — indeed the only two blogs that I unfailingly read.  Judge for yourself:

Akaya Windwood, President of the Rockwood Leadership Institute, pens a monthly e-newsletter about tapping into your personal and professional talents in order to ramp up your leadership capacity.  Don’t let my inadequate description stop you from checking out this elegantly thoughtful blogger.

Sasha Dichter, Director for Business Development at the Acumen Fund, writes a blog from the frontlines of social change, raising money and getting things done.  Sasha upends the conventional claptrap about “generosity, philanthropy and social change” by pushing aside the superficial to unveil some useful, albeit longstanding, tools for activists.

From each, I am challenged to step up my game which, as it turns out, is also the animating vision for a coming multi-episode, online video series for social activists.  It is especially designed for Millennials (global citizens younger than 30 or, for that matter, anyone else) who want to have more social change clout.  It is called iOnPoverty.

@2plus2is10 follows me on Twitter.  She describes herself as “on a journey for social change.”  Awesome.  So is iOnPoverty.  So am I.

In a series of straight-talking conversations with accomplished social entrepreneurs, iOnPoverty viewers will gain information they need to get and keep social justice jobs.  Think nitty-gritty content that is instantly useful, shockingly honest and enduringly inspiring.

Here’s the rub:  I am 63 (pictured here on the iOnPoverty studio set, practicing).  In my lifetime I have invented, financed and launched a few successful social enterprises, and eagerly birthed some that failed.  The advantage of being 63 is I have learned, as one wag put it, that “experience teaches you to recognize a mistake when you’ve made it again.”

But, unavoidably, I can’t be younger.  In scheming about the topics, themes and questions for the video conversations, I am cramming.  If you are member of the Millennial Generation and looking into a career fighting poverty, tell me what is important to you.

You are one of the 50,000, 100,000 or even a million viewers who will watch iOnPoverty.  What do you want to hear that would be really useful to you?  What kind of change do you want to make?  What do you think you need to get there?

Post your ideas, thoughts, suggestions, questions and sneers.  I will read every word.

And, if you want to sign up for our e-newsletter, visit our website or join the movement, you can’t.  Yet.  Until later, follow us on Twitter @iOnPoverty and hashtag #iOnPoverty.

Join a journey for social change.  Let’s see what economic justice looks like.