There is a bittersweet beauty to being part of a young people’s organization committed to leadership development. The great part is there are always new people coming in ready to grow their leadership, and with that, we get new ideas and become even bolder with our vision. Leadership development is one of the sweetest joys…
Spring is in full swing in my life right now. The loneliness and isolation of another COVID winter have made way into frantic busyness. In addition to travel plans and gatherings with loved ones, I’m also noticing the dust around my house more than before and I’m taking stock of all that needs mending, or…
Time is weird, it can feel both fast and slow all at once. This has felt especially true over the last two years but has always felt true for me when it comes to Resource Generation. Being in the work, it can feel like it takes so long for an idea to become reality. And…
The plan for this blog post was to share some updates with the RG community about strategic planning, and I still plan on doing that. But not today. Today the people of Ukraine and Russia are living through a war. A war I am so far from geographically, that I don’t understand politically, and yet…
February 9, 2022 I have to admit, figuring out what to write about for this month’s newsletter has been a struggle. First of all, this is the first newsletter for us this year and y’all haven’t really gotten to know me yet. But more importantly, there is so much I could share about. Like, my…
Our Fall Redistribution Pledge and Membership Drive begins this week and I’m asking you to commit to three things: Less than 2 months ago in mid-September, I became the Executive Director of Resource Generation, having been a member and on staff for over six years. It’s an exciting time to be moving into this role…
We hold the liberation of Black and Indigenous people as central to the liberation of all people. We know that attempted genocide and chattel slavery created the initial foundation for massive wealth disparity in the U.S. and that the continued exploitation and criminalization of those communities upholds the racial wealth divide. We believe that well-resourced Black and Native Left organizing is a critical part of how we all get more free.
We believe social justice movements need to be led by communities most directly impacted by injustice. As young people with access to wealth, we choose to undermine the pattern of funders dictating the work and instead choose to follow the leadership of transformative social justice movements and communities, led by people who are: poor, working-class, Black, Indigenous, of color, women, disabled, queer and trans.
We work towards eradicating classism and towards wholeness. We believe that all classes and communities are interconnected and interdependent and that classism has been used to wedge and divide us. We know that much is lost communally in the name of wealth accumulation and that people with wealth have a lot to gain from returning wealth to the collective and transforming our economy. We know that the current economic system is untenable, and we work to build a solidarity economy.
We believe that people ages 18–35, with wealth and class privilege, are at a pivotal stage in life to make a lifelong commitment to social movements. Youth movements and organizing are, and have been bold and visionary. We are building on the legacy of those who came before us, and we are working for a better world for those who will come after. Young people with access to wealth and class privilege need to be organized as protagonists—actively engaging in and seeking out ways that leverage and redistribute our access to power and resources within our control, and redirect resources and power within the networks and institutions we are connected to. We are committed to resisting ageist norms of people acquiring power and holding on to it and constantly doing leadership development to bring about new leadership.
We believe personal and structural change are deeply connected, and every person has the ability to heal and grow. We are committed to working towards transforming ourselves, our organizations, our communities, and society as a whole through our work. We bring our full selves, our experiences, our stake, and our strategic thinking to build cross-class relationships in working for a just and livable world.
We believe in collective and individual growth, groundedness and interdependence. We know that tensions will arise, and we will approach these with curiosity on behalf of our personal and collective wants. We will work to see tensions as generative rather than destructive and finite. We welcome principled disagreement and will strive to keep conflict generative in service of our broader goals and mission.
We believe in the power of collaboration across class, race, and movements. We know that our vision depends on our relationships with communities, organizations and people across our movement ecosystem, with whom we share similarities and differences. Through our organizing work we also seek ways to invite our families, communities, and other people with access to wealth to this work.
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