Youth In The News: Millennials Bringing Change And Tearing Down Stereotypes

Tulsa’s Young Professionals bringing cycling into the city

Historic Route 66 and other thoroughfares in Tulsa were used this week by the TYPros (aka Tulsa’s Young Professionals), who have decided to bring cycling into this city. Though it may sound strange to most Europeans, who are accustomed to using bikes on a daily basis, this is not so common in most cities in the US. The long-term transportation plan in Tulsa includes bike lanes, but this group of young adults decided that they actually want to show other citizens how it will look. So they teamed up with the Tulsa Bike Club and the Tulsa Public Schools on a truly inspiring project. I mean, when young people get away with placing temporary bike lanes on the busiest streets in a city, you just have to give them credit. The whole idea behind this project is to show how it will work once the long-term plan is implemented and to demonstrate that cyclists will not cause more traffic jams. But doing that was not enough for these young people, so they got the schools involved, too. Elementary students, a hundred of them, rode alongside the Tulsa Bike Club members and the TYPros. The goal was to introduce cycling as a means of transportation to the kids and to top it all – each kid got to keep the bike!

Originally published at TulsaWorld.com.

Joliet middle school students entering the world of entrepreneurship

The Entrepreneurship Club of Joliet held their 5th annual Expo last Tuesday. When you hear that students from middle school, from grades six to eight, are presenting their products you kind of want to see it. Those who had the chance to attend it were definitely not disappointed. The Expo showed the true entrepreneurial spirit that the young minds of this city have. The students presented a variety of ideas – going from apps designed to help doctors’ rounds be more efficient to creating calming candies and even creating multi-purpose shoes. The overall conclusion is that we should keep an eye on this new young generation, they have a lot of ideas, and they are starting to work on them already. Eleven schools participated in presenting 31 exhibits during the Expo. Needless to say, the young entrepreneurs were proud of their products and are motivated to keep going in the direction of creating their own businesses.

The Entrepreneurship Club of Joliet was established by the Education Committee of the Joliet Region Chamber of Commerce & Industry, in partnership with Lewis University, the University of St. Francis, and Rasmussen College.

Originally published at TheHerald-News.com.

Canadian indigenous youths’ future under threat

Aboriginal youth in Canada, according to data recently published by the Justice Department, are severely overrepresented in the justice system. Indigenous youth account for only 7 percent of the overall population in Canada, and yet the number of indigenous youth who have already entered the justice system is sadly much higher. They currently represent 41 percent of incarcerated Canadians. The results published by the above-mentioned department show how poorly the overall system is addressing the needs of these young people. The number of incarcerated indigenous youth has increased rapidly in the past decade; and, according to experts and independent studies, the problem is complex but can be broken down to see what is causing it. According to their statements, the high percentage of Aboriginal youth in the justice system is a product of chronic problems plaguing these communities including educational failures, a lack of mental-health resources, and a weak child-welfare system. With this topic in the headlines of most Canadian media we can only hope that these problems will be addressed as soon as possible and that Millennials with Aboriginal backgrounds will be mentioned again soon but with more positive news to report.

Originally published at CBC.ca.

UN Alliance of Civilizations 7^th Global Forum held in Baku

Youth representatives from all around the world met last week in Baku, Azerbaijan to attend the Global Forum. Applications were open to youth leaders and leaders of youth organizations; and, needless to say, a lot of them applied. The UN Alliance of Civilizations received more than 6.000 applications from more than 160 countries. The selection process was done two months ago, and since that day the chosen participants have been busy working and meeting each other. All of these inspiring young people had a choice of which team they wanted to join – each team is dealing with a different subject ranging from discussing narratives from migrants’ perspectives to interfaith issues and building narratives for conflict-affected areas. A variety of topics was covered as soon as ten work groups were formed. Their work, once completed, will be published under the title “Narratives of Tomorrow” and will be presented to high-level representatives of the UN and member governments. These young people are dedicating their time and knowledge to sharing the views of youth with today’s decision-makers.

Originally published at UN.org.

Millennials from Britain embracing the digital era

And we are back in Britain and dealing with the topic of youth-oriented surveys. We just love them. This time we are not talking about the EU referendum to be held in a few months in the UK. The topic of this survey is much more interesting. The research was done by the ComRes consultancy and published by Nesta, the UK’s innovation foundation; and it basically tested how open-minded to the digital era are British adults. The survey questioned 1.000 of them, and the results are in. As usual the Millennials scored way better than the others. According to the published research, one in four Millennials is willing to have a romantic relationship with a robot, while only 17 percent of all adults would go on a date with one. The willingness to swap their dinner for a pill was also tested, and only 23 percent of the survey participants were open to this option. The survey was done as a part of the promotion campaign for FutureFestival, which will be held in September.

Originally published at Mirror.co.uk.

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