Three sticky notes. A sheet of garage sale price stickers. A room full of young leaders.
The concept is simple, but the Manifesto Project’s goal is much more far-reaching.
Young leaders gathered at Co+Hoots coworking space just outside downtown Phoenix Tuesday to brainstorm ideas for youth leadership retention in an event hosted by The Manifesto Project.
The attendees were given large colored sticky notes and tasked with writing answers for three fill-in-the-blank questions that describe what their generation is, what would make them stay in Arizona forever and how they will lead the change they want to see.
They then voted on which answers they liked best by attaching the garage sale stickers to other people’s sticky notes. The top answers were compiled into a list that became that particular community’s manifesto.
Some popular responses from Tuesday’s event said that their generation was dynamic and full of untapped potential. Attendees wrote that they would stay in the community if there was more funding for education and more pedestrian-friendly improvements. They suggested leading change by supporting local businesses and changemaking organizations with money and time, as well as encouraging collaboration, innovation and passion.
The goal of The Manifesto Project is to hold 50 town-hall style meetings in 50 different Arizona cities and towns over a 6 to 10 month period, Manifesto Project original leadership team member Michal Tyra said. Each meeting is unique to the individual city, but the concept of creating a manifesto document remains the same.
The idea for the project came from the Center for the Future of Arizona’s The Arizona We Want 2.0 report, which listed several issues the citizens of Arizona wanted change and action on, Tyra said. The Manifesto Project was formed in Feb. to address the issue of youth leadership development and retention.
The main purpose isn’t just to hear what young people have to say about their state, though, Tyra said. The project is working to unite young leaders and organizations in order to encourage conversation and collaboration.
“The idea is that we start to create kind of a community of young leaders, a growing network,” Tyra said. “We don’t want each event to be a one-off. We want there to be a growing sense that Arizona young leaders are a connected force in the state.”
Tyra said the project wants to take under-utilized young talent and place those young leaders in job positions and internships and on boards and advisory councils. He said they want to “plug in” people as a way to proactively and progressively work to connect existing groups.
“We don’t have to reinvent the wheel, we just have to make sure the wheel runs as efficiently as it possibly can,” Tyra said.
Many of the Manifesto events are hosted by leadership organizations in specific communities. Tyra said this fits in with the overall collaborative, grassroots theme of the project.
“All of these groups that are already working in their own separate communities, let’s get them working together for Arizona as a whole,” Tyra said. “We think the only way we can be successful is if everybody gets on board to help us out. We don’t want to do this on our own. We want the individual communities to take ownership of this.”
Tyra said The Manifesto Project will partner with other established organizations and projects to encourage this spirit of cooperation. Two organizations had pop-up booths at Tuesday’s Manifesto event.
Jim McPherson and Lindsay Kinkade handed out “Welcome to Phx” magazines listing events, projects and organizations in downtown Phoenix at the Design Territory booth.
City staff had attendees write responses to questions Manifesto Project-style at the PlanPHX booth. These included questions on shopping and entertainment, transportation, sustainability, economic strength and neighborhood identity, village planner Xandon Keating said.
Although PlanPHX has not participated in any other Manifesto events so far, Keating said they are interested in attending future events in the Phoenix area.
Before the downtown Phoenix manifesto was revealed, six community activists gave speeches on projects and issues they’re involved in. Kimber Lanning, Greg Esser, Leslie Lindo, Dorina Bustamante, Jim McPherson and Michael Zimmerlich spoke on topics including support for local businesses, community engagement and sustainability.
Co+Hoots community manager Keith Mulvin said the concept of partnering with different organizations is key. He said the core values of Co+Hoots are collaboration, community and coworking, and this ties in well with encouraging synergy among leaders.
“Retention (of youth leaders) is a challenge,” Mulvin said. “There’s a lot of fragmentation, but these groups are aligned with common goals.”
Editor’s note: Mauro Whiteman, a leader and organizer for The Manifesto Project, is executive editor of the Downtown Devil. He did not contribute to the reporting of this article.
Contact the reporter at kimberly.koerth@asu.edu
