The Emerging Generation

A couple weeks ago my husband and I went over to our neighbors' apartment for dessert and games. During an epic game of Phase 10 (of which I won for the first time ever) we had some fascinating converations about culture, life and generation gaps.

At one point we were talking about the millennial generation and I made the comment "I know I'm a millennial, but sometimes I don't really know HOW I'm a millennial". We went on to discuss the common characteristics of our generation and what makes us so unique compared to our parents and generation Xers.

Turns out I'm a pretty stereotypical millennial: I want to change the world, I'm idealistic, want to do work that 'matters', highly social, very connected via technology, comfortable with diversity. I value socially conscious products and companies, volunteer, etc. I want to challenge the status quo and am ready to lead even though I'm still young. A couple articles about millennials can be found here and here. I'm currently reading the book 'Un-Christian' (David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, 2007) which discusses millennials (called 'mosaics' by the authors) and x-ers (called 'busters') and the importance of engaging them in the church body. My generation is leaving the church in droves and not many are coming back. I'd highly recommend this book if you are a church leader and are having trouble engaging teens and twenty somethings.

After that initial conversation with my neighbors, I started reading more articles about characteristics of and outreach to my generation. It seems like the non profti world and the business world is starting to take notice. One of the more interesting blogs/articles I found about my generation was on Katya's non profit blog. She posted a diagram further categorizing millennials into six categories: hip- elinnials, gadget gurus, millennial moms, ant-milliennials, clean and green millenial, and old school millennials. I was going to post detailed descriptions but I figured you could check out the diagram here to see where you fit and where your kids/family/friends fit.

There's all sorts of information out there for engaging millennials, much of which comes from writers and professionals from other generations. I applaud them for thinking about generation gaps and how to engage the upcoming generation. Its extremely important for Churches, non profits, and other businesses to understand twenty somethings and how to reach them. Here are seven thoughts on engaging my generation:

Take us seriously. We can detect when you're being patronizing. For me, I can tell when I'm getting the 'cute little idealistic girl' proverbial pat on the head. If you don't take us seriously, we will never forget it, and we may never take you seriously either.

Be true to yourself. Millennials are okay with older generations, but they want you to be 'you'. I've heard countless jabs at older church leaders or Christian leaders who are trying too hard to be 'hip'. Don't wear skinny jeans or leather pants if you're over the age of 40. We are okay with old people, we have respect for them (case in point: Betty White). But only when the respect is reciprocated and if they're being true to themselves.

Understand the post modern brain Many millenials are okay with gray areas. We are more likely to believe something "isn't wrong, but different". It seems like some older generations are not as comfortable with this concept, at least from my experience. Do some research, have some conversations.

Observe sucesses. There are plenty of organizations and churches who are effectively reaching millenials. Observe them, talk to their leaders. Don't try to copy them (see number 2) but observing people who are reaching millenials or organizations that are led by millenials is a great place to start. You don't have to be in your twenty's to effectively engage my generation. I can think of dozens of older leaders I highly respect. But most, if not all of them are attempting to engage my generation effectively.

Try to change the world with them: I'll never forget a conversation I had with a church leader about fair trade coffee. I suggested that the church start serving a Faith based, missional coffee brand that wasn't harvested by slaves. His response "I would, but people here don't care about that stuff". That one comment stuck with me and caused me to feel disconnected from that particular group. If leaders aren't interested in engaging with millennial's social causes, their followers won't be either. And they'll lose the millennials they want to engage. Even the smallest organization or business can have policy on socially conscious products, causes, volunteerism, etc. Make that part of your organizational culture and the millennials will come.

Technology, technology, technology: If I go to a website and its complicated, messy and full of word art and clip art from the early 2000s, I won't stay there for very long. An organization's website tells a millennial everything they think they need to know. If its not relevant to what's popular at that current time, it won't engage us. Hint on websites: keep it simple and clean. Blogs are good ways to dissemenate detailed information. And if you don't have a twitter account, get one.

Be innovative: Millennials have the world at their fingertips. They know how its always been done, and are extremely attracted to new, innovative approaches to solving problems and running business. 'Social Innovation' and 'Social Entrepreneurship' are big buzz terms right now. Find out what they are and how your organization can encorporate innovation into your everyday practice.

Don't count us out. Millennials are highly educated, motivated, and at times naive. If we think we can do it, we're going to try, and we won't give up until we suceed. If you are part of an older generation, read up about how you can engage us. If you are a millennial like me, learn more about yourself and how culture has influenced who you are. It'll help with frustrations you have as you strive towards your dreams, trust me. Millennials want to change the world, and in true millennial fashion, I say that we WILL change the world. We just need everyone's help to meet that goal.

{features} Mapping it out

I'm continuing my series of {features} posts on the Not for Sale campaign today with a look at one of their most innovative and fascinating projects. SlaveryMap is Not for Sale's mapping feature that gives ordinary people the power to report and research slavery incidents around the world. Here's the description from the SlaveryMap website:

"Every captive is a person; every survivor has a story. It's time to show the world that slaves exist among us. Restaurants and fields, construction sites and brothels, suburbs and cities: all are home to victims of trafficking in the United States and abroad. Twenty-seven million slaves in the world, and we want to find them.

SlaveryMap exists to record and display instances of human trafficking across the globe. Whether you find them hidden in your hometown or covered in The New York Times, report the incidents onto this map for people everywhere to see. If you encounter a current situation of bondage, do not enter the information here. Please immediately call the US national trafficking hotline number so that the proper law enforcement and service providers can be alerted: 1-888-3737-888.

All you need to do to get started is create a login account. Join with your friends, your school, your community and Abolitionists throughout the world. Together, we will finally put a face to this epidemic.

Welcome to the movement."

I had the privilege of attending a breakout session on strategic investigation at the Backyard Academy. The facilitator, Jono, shared with us the concept of SlaveryMap and how you and I can be involved in reporting incidents. The site is monitored to ensure that the identities of victims are not disclosed, and you must request permission to post on the site. Jono explained that most contributors use news reports and other public data to post on the map. I imagine you could post information provided by non profit organizations, but it is important to maintain confidentiality and to protect victims. Jono expressed their desire to protect victims, they request that identifying information not be posted on the map.

I've been exploring SlaveryMap for the past couple of days and I have found some fascinating information. Many of the reports on the map have links to the actual news reports and information about the incident, so that has been helpful for me as I've done research. I feel like the links also help verify information. Many of us don't truly believe that slavery exists in our communities. I did a search of a couple communities and turned up some interesting information. First example: Woodstock, Georgia, my hometown. Woodstock is a middle class, fairly affluent community that has traditionally been very safe. Slavery Map has two reported incidents of slavery in Woodstock in the last couple of years. The first incident was a case of domestic servitude, where a Forsyth County police officer enslaved a woman from India in his home. The second was at the La Cabana Restaurant on Main Street, where the owner was apparently smuggling underage girls into the United States and forcing them to pay their 'debts' by performing sexual acts. Second example: Sandy Springs, Georgia, my current city of residence. Sandy Springs is also an affluent city just north of Atlanta. One incident of slavery was reported there, from an Atlanta Journal-Constitution article. A man was arrested for raping and prostituting a 14 year old girl.

SlaveryMap doesn't have all incidents of slavery that have been reported, and it certainly does not display all the incidents of slavery in the world. Right now there are over 1,600 cases on the map. I reported the statistic that there are 27 million slaves in the world today, here's another article verifying that number. The Polaris Project has a fact sheet of statistics on human trafficking numbers that list a variety of statistics on Slavery around the world and in the United States. There could be up to 300,000 children prostituted in our country right now. I've read some statistics that the State Department estimates that 17,500 people are trafficked into the United States every year, but I can't find a verified article with that number, it's mostly from websites. Regardless, SlaveryMap is seeking to expose these cases for the general population.

Not for Sale is looking for people to contribute to SlaveryMap, and they want people to be aware of what is going on in their community. Check out the SlaveryMap website website to see what is going on in your community. Awareness is the first step for all of us, and it leads to action, which leads to change.