A SOCIALLY CONSCIOUS GENERATION BRINGS HOPE FOR OUR FUTURE!

Over the past few years, America’s youth and young adults have been actively engaged in several social efforts across the world to make our world a better place for everyone. One of the most popular social efforts with this Generation has been the Green Campaign to Save Our Environment, which has been spearheaded by Former Vice President Al Gore and several other amazing leaders across the world. Although social efforts like this and many others such as the One Campaign, Moblizie.org, and Youth Venture that have actively engaged and inspired thousands of young people across the country may surprise some, it has not surprised me at all, and personally I expect to see more participation with various social issues from individuals of this generation in the future.

In recent studies over the past few years, civic participation has been up with this younger generation, 80% of people from Generation Y desire to make an impact in the world, and Deloitte's 2007 Volunteer IMPACT Survey found that four out of five respondents (80 percent) of this generation identified themselves as volunteers and 97 percent of respondents believed companies should offer their employees opportunities to volunteer their work-related skills or talents to non-profit organizations. What’s even more striking with these studies is that one consumer article showed that 91% of people from this younger generation said they would switch a brand if the other company supported the same common cause as them.

This revealing information about Millenials further confirms the business predictions identified in Megatrends 2010 where it talks about social change being an important part of the future businesses within our country and world. It also shows us that leaders who desire to be effective at leading young men or women of this younger generation must be socially aware of the current issues of our day and must make it a point to at least support some social cause in the world. And lastly, even though some studies have stated that are generation is all about fame and money, this social truth about Generation Y provides great expectation, promise, and hope about the future of our nation and world!