Twenty-somethings don’t just want to make the world a better place.
Our generation actually thinks we can do it.
And, while that might seem naive, it’s not.
Why is it not?
Well, we’re an equipped and connected bunch. We do things previously thought impossible on a regular basis, and we’ve seen the world change right before our eyes.
For quite a while 20 Something Bloggers has been trying to figure out how to add a dose of ‘charitable motivation‘ to the community, without being unfairly choosy of the specific causes that we put in front of the whole group.
That can be a little tricky, but it seems to really come down to idea that you’re all good people and our community offers all of us a unique chance to be good people together.
Instead of trying to focus everyone on a particular cause (breast cancer, homelessness, human rights, or another of the many deserving issues that exist all over the world and in our backyards) we want to focus on the simple act of being good people.
So we’re going to form a partnership.
We’d like you to be involved.
We’re going to work with an established group called It Starts With Us, whose sole purpose is to change the world.
The mission of ItStartsWith.Us is to make a positive impact in the lives of the people around us. Nate, the founder of ISWU, writes a blog which serves as the most publicly visible part of that mission. However, we are going to join a covert team of individuals who take a more hands-on approach to helping others. The members of the A-Team work behind the scenes to touch people’s lives in unique and meaningful ways each and every week. We already have a group of hundreds of people in dozens of countries who do the following:
- Participate in small weekly “missions” to help people out and make a difference
- Communicate with us and other members of the team via forums on both ISWU & 20SB
- Contribute to the movement by adding ideas and suggesting stories to feature
- Remain as anonymous or as public as you choose. Use a pseudonym if you like.
The time commitment to being in this group probably adds up to about 15 minutes a week. Missions are assigned via email, and consist of cool little things we do both online and offline to make a noticeable difference in someone’s life.
In about four months, the A-Team has grown to over 400 members who participate and share their mission stories. When Nate and I sat down to talk, we imagined 20,000 people all over the world joined into the movement.
We imagined one mission dedicated to maximum impact. He outlined his original dream:
“Think about what would happen if our mission for the week was to write a brief letter of encouragement to a terminally ill child. We pick the biggest special-needs hospital in the country . . . and every child in that hospital gets 50 letters. What will every postal worker say when they deliver 20,000 letters to that hospital in a single week? What will all the staff members say when they see the effect on all the kids? What will all the family members say when they’ve been touched with such a demonstration of love from strangers? None of these people will ever forget what happened to them that week, and they will tell the story to others for the rest of their lives. And what did it cost you? 15 minutes and the price of a stamp.”
Lots of people doing little missions of good.
So we’re going to form a sub-group for the A-Team, and I’m (along with some help) going to manage our 20SB participants. We’ll let Nate keep pushing out his missions, and we’ll see if we can’t give the whole thing a huge boost.
If you’d like to head over to our Partner page on ItStartsWith.Us, click here and you’ll see more details and a place to sign up. As always, we’ll never sell, spam, or abuse your email address.
Here’s the thing.
I personally joined the A-Team (along with some other 20SBers, I’ve noticed) and for weeks now I’ve been participating in the missions. I actually had lunch with Nate while he was in Chicago, and just recently drove the few hours between us to connect for another lunch. He’s genuine and smart. He’s excited to work with you guys.
The missions are super easy, and if one doesn’t work for you, you can skip it. The nice thing is knowing that a good deed idea you’ve got running around your head when you read each mission is the same thing hundreds (soon thousands) of other A-Team members are contemplating acting on.
The stories you read when people complete their missions are incredible, heartwarming and inspiring. I immediately wanted to see how 20SB might leverage what’s already been built by Nate.
Join Us Today!
Our partnership page for the 20SB A-Team is here. We’re going to set up a forum on 20SB so everyone who participates can connect, and you’ll notice in the forthcoming mission emails that there are forums within ISWU for everyone to share their mission stories. There are wonderful people in both places, so check them out!
So sign up today…there’s no downside. Join people around the world to make a difference.
You can enter your email below to sign up. We’ll collect emails and follow up before our first mission.
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