“TAGS”
THAT COMMUNICATE YOUR SPACE TO THE WORLD
Let’s raise people’s attention
for their new opportunities
Great new content, great intentions, great opportunities, fun and benefits. For education, for SDGs, for youth, for people fired up for good, for self-organized collaboration, for positive vibes in town, for real big impact for people and planet, to spark similar precious across town. That’s new, it’s precious, now we have to convey this to people.
What’s this space like? What are its offers and services? What can people do with it – as visitor, citizen, youth team, school, partner, coach, as city … ?
How to “market” this place?
People respond to different keywords
Youth Leadership is the prime theme, or rather High Impact Youth Leadership as we call it, to make sure people do not confuse it with lukewarm, diluted forms of youth advocacy. But the majority population doesn’t know the term, and only North America even knows it as part of civic education. So, this tag should be in there, maybe with the definition (“(training) young people as agents of change in their communities”), or our re-mix with a focus on what’s actually happening : youth changing lives, land, learning, laws and industries, but the tag is not enough.
Youth participation is too lame and not fitting. It’s not new, and usually limited to youth deciding which color to choose for the new playground toys (seriously!), or as we like to say which side of the school entrance to place the flower pots. Drop it.
The SDGs, Sustainable Development Goals are en vogue – until 2030 – with many caring people and key partners; repeat: town council, school boards, civil society, media, foundations.
History of the SDGs - important!
The SDGs have been defined by the global community over several years at level of the UNITED NATIONS, in order to achieve the mandate of the UN and humanity’s common dream : fair societies of peace, prosperity and sustainability.
In 1992, at the Earth Summit, good people, the holistic scientific global minds of the 60s, 70s and 80s had achieved to take the UN beyond the 1950s mindset of only governments (and corporate lobbies). The final document described in 40 chapters what needs to be done to avoid the collapse of ecosystems, economies and peace. This document is titled “way to go for the 21st Century” – in latin: Agenda 21.
It’s a fantastic breakthrough that has led to much greening of policies and education(!), nurturing a mindset beyond just war, toxic fodder and tv propagated by bad governments.
(This is the reason why some dark interest groups have begun smearing Agenda 21 as some evil elite conspiracy to enslave the people – while it is the exact opposite; whereas the doom and gloomers base everything they say on **assumptions** without ever having met any person at the UN, been at the UN, and definitely have never met or even know any of the top notch people in the creative driver seats … we at YL personally know people involved in crafting it, and who have established new positive structures at the UN. Eric sets the story right on The Planetary Guardian youtube channel; you may need to watch and learn this to become resilient to trolls and morons, from fascists to new agers believing the idiot bullshit myth which is a total fantasy. Of course, since the UN is an administration, like the local town council, people of different interest groups make their way there … and while supposedly caring people sit idle smoking pot and clicking around on facebook, or being fascist and clicking around on facebook … hey, hippies and fascists, surprise, you have something in common, go have a beer!!, the really good people have gone to work and shape the UN so it is not left to dark interest groups. So stop believing their lies and boost positive governance – at town council level, national level and the UN)
Here’s what good, smart people have been doing. Until the mid-90s, civil society had zero presence at the UN. The first “black” Secretary General Kofi Annan, born in Ghana, declared that the UN had failed its mandata to achieve global peace, freedom from hunger and gross inequality, which after 50 years proved that government and economy (big corporations) alone could not achieve it. That now was the time to include all of humanity in this effort, namely civil society – organizations that have been mushrooming at record rate with the rise of the internet (can you imagine running campaigns and global collaboration with fax machines, the time and cost of letters?).
Since the year 2,000 when civil society got strong presence at the UN, good people have pressured for a much better practice than the 1970s “development” of dropping money and flour on countries with little oversight, accountability and “tracking progress” whether things are actually “getting better”.
First the MDGs, the Millenium Development Goals defined targets for countries to reach, so that corrupt and incompetent governments actually “go to work” and “get competent people involved”.
Then, the few MDGs got expanded beyond the basic needs development topics of food and education (alphabetization) … to many other things that are important for a good life – for example protection of Life On Land and Life Under Water.
Hence, 17 SDGs got defined and they encompass everything (except for our novel SDG 18, that you will now take care of, yay!), and have become centrally important for national and local administration globally, also when applying for funding, and in education, and also media are asked to play their role in raising awareness for “now everybody get involved to end hunger, create peace, enjoyable cities and a world we love.”
Hence, the SDGs are a major tag to use!
Have a cup of tea and familiarize yourself with the 17 SDGs and their indicators. All of them, just so you’ve seen them once*. They are part of the Exhibit, your toolset.
* and pay good attention to the passages that highlight “strong participation of local citizens” to make sure that measures are actually what people really want and become stewards of their own livable city and region.
SDG 18
As usual with most of civil society, education, media and administration, content is usually limited to “raising awareness on problems” like 30% poverty in country X, with the goal of people knowing the SDGs exist … but without role models, real-life authentic videos, without any empowerment to actually do something relevant.
In fact, when you read through the SDGs that they are not only held in administrative language, but most things are actually to be handled by administration; such as allocating funding for schools and reducing traffic fatalities.
That’s why we say at YL, “We live the SDGs – in Action!” (a slogan that is well received by people) and which sets us apart and resonates very well with people because they at last want action.
Also, we add “the missing SDG 18 : Active Citizenship, and its priority indicator 18.1 is Youth Leadership.” This is a new tag we use and we assume it will also ring belles with people. You may weave it into your communciation.
SDG LearnZone is a good “tag” to market your space to city, schools, also organizations, media and citizens, since the SDGs are quite en vogue now, and will be for years to come – if they keep a vibrant tone, and are not diluted or smeared or experienced as *boring*. We think our approach is the best and only way to make sure they achieve their people-powered potentials … beyond the largely invisible things done at level of administrations.
LearnSpace is how we tag it on the YL Map, and people pretty much understand what that means. Places to learn are usually cool, and different from places for “education”. It instantly raises the question – what can I learn there?
YOUTH-LEADER LearnSpace is a good tag in places where people decide to be part of the YL tribe and unfold the full potentials of our resources, programs and partners. and where activities have given our brand a good reputation in your city. People will know it’s about high impact youth leadership, it rocks and it’s a fun place to be, with tons of options to be part.
Certified YOUTH-LEADER LearnSpace is a valuable tag, a seal of quality and trust that you can achieve as a licensed partner (view Licensing).
Certified Youth-Leader Coach is a valuable tag.
sevengardens dialoger is a valuable tag (view trainings + certification).
Changemaker Student Club Headquarter (HQ) is heavy-worded but the idea is clear. It’s good to use when introducing the concept to teachers, students, parents and partners. Then, it’ll probably become known by its proper “name” like D.A. Den, Future Lounge etc
Outer School Changemaker HQ is also clear, for spaces where student clubs / youth teams establish HQ at a public library or community centre. It’ll also develop its own “name”.
Peer-to-peer learning is a strong and popular tag nowadays, too. There’s no teacher talking and everyone else listening (for lack of competence). Here, people learn together, because they each are competent, they each have individual talent, passions that they follow, bring in, combine on their individual learning journey and collective endeavour. YL facilitates peer-to-peer learning, even though we provide the missions (action guides) and role models. But that’s like we all agree on with music and sports. Young people pick masters’ music pieces, learn to play them, remix, jam, freestyle, then compose. Basketball and skateboarding follow a set of (1) tool, moves, role models, even music and fashion style (which is actually some ego BS, and indicates that people may not as cool, free and adventurous as they imagine to be; just saying). So, in YL, there’s role models, tools, moves, rules, with plenty of liberty (and requirement) to freestyle by one’s own passion and talent and ideas, adapted to setting and goals – in creative collaboration at local, digital and global level, short- and long-term, with people of various age groups and societal sectors and cultures.
Positive news media culture is also a well received tag. Studies haven proven that news on people succeeding in doing good for people and planet nurture mental health, active citizenry, and peace. Solution stories are omni-present in the LearnSpace, available for users, schools and media.
Positive role models are well received by many, like by educators and parents. what few people know is that among mammals (incl. humans) role models shape 80% of behavior, much of it suconsciously, copy-paste, and it also functions via media. Psychology, marketing industry, Paris Hilton and the porn industry know this very well. So, facing today’s challenges, what role models do we show our children? Warlords, comedians, models, greedy marketeers, overambitious tennis players? Or our societies’ finest, our most highly decorated youth and adults? these terms can be re-mixed.
Life skills are definitely learned here, but we do not specify them because the scope of activities is so big and self-organized.
Education for Sustainable Development ESD fits always 100%. We have UNESCO status as Official Project of the World Decade of ESD and are Competence Partner for Youth Leadership of the UNITE NATIONS UNIVERSITY’s Regional Centre of Expertise Ruhr, Germany, which is in charge of building networks for ESD, and for all 17 SDGs.
Active citizenship, youth action, global learning, Global Citizenship Education GCE, intercultural learning … it all fits.
Badges. IF you decide to be part in our #bemoreawesome changemaker training program for youth age 8-18, as a YL Coach, educator or youth team, you can mention that completion of missions gains YL (UNESCO status) Badges by international education standards, stored in personal digital backpacks for use with CV, websites, print-out; there’s 400+ badges to gain for missions such as “researched the regional water situation”, “made the city council declare the city a Blue Community, keeping/making water public, a human right and bottled water banned”, or “raised $10,000 for … by organizing a city-wide 48-hour sponsor run”, “raised 1,000 books for…”, “created films on natural, cultural heritage”, “on yukky, unhealthy ingredients in popular foods” published in YL Magazine and YL educational media etc.
Once you are confident about your space + familiar with the YL network
Learning, working and taking action with today’s Einsteins, Gandhis and Gryffindores is our slogan and people like it, and it’s true. You will know when to use it so it is not criticized as an overclaim (which it is not), and when it resonates best with the imaginative, creative, adventurous (young and old) crowd that is your optimal user group and partner.
We have a planet to save is another slogan we like and that is true. You may like to use it in casual communications with your community and a conscious public.
+ Your ideas for tags
are welcome, as different languages, societies and cultures have different terms that are understood, appreciated, en vogue, trusted, needed …