What kind of world are our kids going to inherit?

What kind of world do they want to inherit?

Until recent times, it has been the belief of parents that their children would have a better world than the one they lived through. I have talked to literally hundreds of people across North America and most parents and grandparents no longer believe this is true. Most believe that our world is going down a path that has a scary future for our children and grandchildren. Their fear is more than economic - it is happiness and well being. They are fearful that beyond economic opportunity, their kids will be in a world that is just plain difficult. 

I find it very interesting how universal this thought is. It lies very close to the surface of most adults that I speak with. We as a world community are starting to become scared for our children's future.

We believe there is hope and that is why we created  Women Reshaping the World?. We believe that the best hope for our children and grandchildren is when women are connected to a deep sense of purpose and influence the decisions that affect the future of our world. To have this influence, it takes a lot of voices, it takes a big community of voices to be able to have sufficient impact to overcome the entrenched cultural norms, and the power of those who do not want to see the changes that are necessary. That is why we are committed to building a community of two million women who in their own individual ways are reshaping the world for our children and grandchildren.

It is through the cumulative actions of millions of women that we can rebalance the world and remember why we make these decisions. It's for  the happiness and well being of our children and their children. That is the responsibility of every adult and should be the basis for every decision that is made.

So recently, Sheila Kelly and I were talking about these kinds of ideas and she asked a brilliant question. What do the youth think? What kind of world do they want? If women are reshaping the world for children and grandchildren, shouldn't youth have a say in the world we are handing off to them?  BRILLIANT

That is why we created Kids Speak Out. Our youth are smart, they are aware and they have good ideas. Why not have their input as a way of guiding our actions as world reshappers?

So I went on the web and started looking for video of youth talking about their expectations for the future. I found hundreds of videos of adults telling other adults and kids what kind of world they should have and only a few of youth telling the adults. Those that did are brilliant and we will share one of them with you at our Kids Speak Our event on June 13th. But it's also clear that we are not giving kids the podium and yet it is their future. When I was interviewing one of these youth for the Kids Speak Out Event, he expressed the frustration on not being heard as a youth and that is why he wants to come to the event. Our kids are smart, they are thoughtful and they are wise.

And so on June 13th in Halifax, we are going to give youth the podium, we are going to listen to what they have to say and we are going to invite them into the attendee discussions where adults will be learning and deciding what kind of actions they can take to reshape the world for our youth.

We will be asking the youth:

What kind of world do you think you will inherit 30 or 40 years from now?
What kind of world would you like to inherit?
What do you think we adults should do about it?
What do you think is keeping us from doing that? 

This will be a truly collaborative, intergenerational opportunity and we expect this to be a model that we can roll out across North America.

Interestingly, our very first registrant for this event was man. Women Reshaping the World has struggled with how we include men in the conversation. Maybe we have discovered how. Bring youth and adults together to decide on what kind of world we want for them and how we can do something about it.

 What a radical idea!

Please be part of the conversation. Join Us for the inaugural event where Kids Speak Out

 To register for this event: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/kids-speak-out-tickets-16992864114