Empowering the Next Generation of Leaders
The issue of 'access' to internet is extremely important for us at Youth Noise. We are primarily an online entity and we use our website to inspire dialogue, action, and localized campaigns around causes that our users create and engage within.
We have great user-generated content coming from all corners of the US and some internationally. However, many times, we find that representative voices are lacking from all backgrounds due to the limited access to computers and the internet for moderate to low income students.
We find ourselves engaging these people on a face-to-face level with our offline to online programming, but then have problems connecting them back to the website. Many times, we find that youth we engage offline are powerful leaders and igniters in their communities, but they many times have little access to the internet or computers.
At YouthNoise, we can't always fill that void. However, there are many new ideas out there , including some mentioned above, about how to combat that, but what if the powers that be, don't want to hear these voices?
How do we increase the awareness of what is happening in these communities while providing a system of education and experiences on the web NOW? What type of community partnerships must form to make this happen? How do local and national organizations work together most efficiently? Most importantly, what examples are already out there that we can build off of and circulate?
We'd love to hear your thoughts.
Comments
Broadband Internet access is to the 21st century what rural electrification was to the 20th century. Both technologies were initially novelties, and later they became luxuries that only the wealthy could afford. People who didn't have them didn't think they needed them - after all, farmers had been milking their cows by kerosene laterns for generations. Electric utilities had little incentive to spend vast sums of money to serve sparsely-populated areas. It was only through a concerted public-private partnership lead by farsighted public officials that electricity was brought to rural America so that all Americans could enjoy the fruits of this new technology. Such an effort is needed today if America is to thrive in the 21st century.
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