A Call to Action: Everyone a Changemaker

Ashoka’s Youth Venture® is based on the simple underlying and core insight that if individuals are powerful as young people, they are more likely to be powerful as adults. To be powerful – in fact, to be a full citizen in a world characterized increasingly by change – one must be a changemaker.

Unfortunately, according to a new study conducted by Best Buy @15 and the Minneapolis-based Search Institute, there is a lot of room for improvement when it comes to building the relationships that give teens a leg up when it comes to taking action to change their communities and themselves. They found that only 22 percent of all 15-year-olds feel as though they have the confidence, skills and opportunities to voice their opinion and influence the things that matter to most to them. So what can you to make your voice heard?

Our challenge, especially those of us attending the Youth Venture National Summit this weekend, is to figure out how to support our friends in developing their own voices as young leaders. Its a tough task, but we're working on it!

Check out the findings of the study for yourself. Its called Teen Voice 2010: Relationships That Matter to America’s Teens.