Throughout these past few weeks while working for Ashoka, I've been challenged to view "social change" through a very critical lens. Ashoka, an international organization focused on changing systems, has already exposed me to a plethora of the world's best social entrepreneurs - honored with the Ashoka Fellow title - and their solutions for making our world a better place.
Ashoka envisions an "everyone a changemaker" world - not an "everyone an entreprenuer" world - but one in which everyone to works together as changemakers to create ways to better engage all people in systems change.
I've been thinking a lot about how these Ashoka Fellows have come to be passionate about their issue because they all come from different backgrounds and have very different stories. How might we make it so that every individual has a foundation that allows them to become a changemaker?
I've always had a "live-by-example" philosophy about my life - through what I do, how I go through my days, etc. My passion about veganism and health, though it's only become a huge focus of mine in the past few years (after an entire childhood of being raised in an extremely health-conscious household and during which I dreamed of going to the gas station and buying Cheetos once I was old enough to drive) - and what it means for me - better health, better environment, protesting animal cruelty, etc. - gives me an area in which to focus my attention when it comes to systems change.
But what about people who don't have passions about systems change? How can we ensure that others, especially younger generations, that have no idea what systems change is or have no idea where to start, grow up to become changemakers? How can we teach them the skills to develop passions about certain issues?
This has been a hot topic of conversation and action at Ashoka recently. Their newest initiative holds the answer to these questions. The Empathy Initiative is "a collaborative platform for social entrepreneurs and others who share this vision of a world where every child masters empathy and who have the insights and innovations that will make that vision a reality." They are mobilizing a "global team of teams" to ensure that empathy learning is as fundamental as reading and math in early education.
As the rate of change in the world accelerates and traditional power structures are being broken down, opening the way for more people to engage in systems change, it is crucial that we foster empathy in all generations - especially younger generations - so that they may grow up with the passions and tools needed to create solutions to help tackle the increasing number of social challenges that are experienced by millions every single day.
So what I'm left asking myself is, how can I create empathy in the communities around me - regardless if they are older or younger than me, and how can I teach empathy in a live-by-example way?
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