The Learning Tree Store Print Publication
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New Year 2008
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Who Will Lead?
It is becoming ever more evident that there is something wrong with the way we are treating our planet. Global warming and the changing of our climate is a threat to our collective future. This means that each and every one of us must change our lifestyle and make better choices for ourselves and the planet. These changes force us to think further into the future, and it calls for a new generation of individuals who are willing and able to take the lead to put the new ideals into action. In short you could say that we need a new generation of young leaders to, well, save the planet.
This is why Douglas Cohen, founder of The Leadership Center and Sustainability Leadership Alliance, has devoted himself to teaching young people about change and the sustainability movement. Doug, who holds an M.A. in Applied Behavioral Science, has extensive experience in working with these issues.
A practitioner of collaborative, cross-sector solution seeking, Doug addresses key social equity and economic justice dimensions of the Sustainability Era, using the tools of human systems thinking and large scale change.
His current professional interests include sustainability as a driver of change in society, development of youth leadership, and the rise of civil society as an organizing domain of world governance. Doug has experience from the national corporate leadership development, organizational capacity building in social services and Child Welfare & Foster Care reform, and has dedicated his time especially to the youth development and youth leadership domains.
Since 2004, Doug has been in a civil society pioneering social change organization, the US Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development [USPESD]. He is Chair, Resource Council – National Youth Initiatives and codeveloper of the Green Jobs for At-Risk Youth Initiative, an initiative that works for development in a green economy.
Together with the younger and fitter Dan Roth of Cornell, USPESD Chair of the Youth Action Team, Doug is advocate of a Partnership model that cuts through generations to promote progressive change. Doug and Dan believe that this communication across generations is both a core value and operating principle for this necessary change.
Leadership is not a word that just belongs in corporate business. It is a word that belongs to you, because as the next generation you will have to lead a new way, you will have to take on the role as a leader.
So, what will the students be learning about themselves and the world before them in the newly launched Salem-Beverly Mass. Youth Leadership Through Service Learning program?
Since community and civic leadership begins with self-development, these are among the areas of learning and inquiry that the participants will be guided through during their program:
Leadership is…
A Discovery of your own power to express yourself
About Courage, the courage to say what you see, both within you and without, to say what is True and what needs attention by the group and the community
An Opportunity to contribute to creating a Future that is distinctly different from the Past
A Privilege to bring your own unique intelligence to others (for there has never before been anyone born with just Your perspective on the world)
A journey of a Lifetime since true leaders must first be authentic and lifelong learners in order to be effective
An Act of Creation as leadership arises in groups and is shared as tasks and processes unfold, taking people into the act of shaping what has never existed before on behalf of a better world
For more information: Inspired Futures Campaign Douglas Cohen, Chair – National Youth Initiatives-US Partnership Education for Sustainability
www.uspartnership.org – Youth Action Team
dacohen77@gmail.com 917.558.0107