A PATH TO A PREFERABLE FUTURE
The YMCA World Urban Network senior leadership sessions at YMCA175 will focus on mapping out what we can do to bring about social innovation and determine a future where we feel empowered – and ultimately YMCA’s role.
Attendance is needed at all three interactive sessions.
The world will have to make big transitions in the decade to come which could shape the next 100 years or more: climate change and species extinction; the rise of AI and our shifting relationship with technology; continued urbanisation, especially in Africa and the ageing of the population (in virtually everywhere other than Africa). All of these transitions are set against the backdrop of wide and possibly widening inequalities. Together they are creating in turmoil in political systems which often seem inadequate as people look for leaders and solutions which make them feel secure.
What do these transitions mean for people we work with as individuals, organisations and communities? How can YMCA help people shape these transitions so they go well rather than badly, so they have a sense of agency rather than feeling powerless and can we breakthrough to new better ways of living rather than suffering continued breakdowns? These transitions are challenging both the business model of YMCA and its mission model. How should the movement respond?
Having addressed the challenges and opportunities of these transitions we will work together to map, individually, collaboratively and collectively a description of a Preferable Future. A preferable future will be shaped by values and purpose not just by technology and profit.
With that image in mind, we will map The Path to the Preferable Future which the YMCA can open up for its members, communities, partners and as an organisation. That will take us through three linked workshops looking at how YMCA helps to build agency in the midst of uncertainty; how YMCA could be a platform for social movement building and how the movement could learn from models of mass, mission driven social innovation. Each of these sessions is designed to give participants practical tools and examples they can take home to their one communities to start a conversation about change.
In the final session we will bring it all together to assess what we need to do as a movement setting out on a journey to the Preferable Future. How do we avoid and get through the fog of uncertainty and the perils of disruption? Who else is on the same journey that we could team up with?
Facilitated by Charles Leadbeater
Leading innovator and World Urban Network contributor
Mon 5 Aug, 1.30-4.30pm | Tue 6 Aug 1.30-4.30pm | Wed 7 Aug 3-6pm
ICC Capital Suite Room 17
Charles Leadbeater is an independent facilitator and strategist. He was one of the first people ever to write about the rise of social entrepreneurship back in 1997. Charles has spent 25 years working with social innovators, public services, cities and companies to promote innovation with a social purpose.
His TED talks on innovation and education have been viewed by millions. His work now focuses on the role of movements in bringing about systems change and the future of work in the midst of green transitions.