Community Conversations: Youth & Opportunity

Description

Net Impact and Design for America join together to bring you a deliberative dialogue session on Youth & Opportunity. In this 90-minute session, presenters and attendees will share their individual experiences, recognize common interests and possible coalitions, and create an action plan for impact in the local and national community.

What is deliberative dialogue?

It is perhaps easier to say what deliberative dialogue is not — this is not a space for debate, where harm might be inflicted through elevated tones of voice and emotional outbursts directed at other participants. It is not academic discussion, where we delve into the history of why, how, and who without ever coming to any action. Deliberative dialogue is a highly structured and facilitated conversation around a specific topic with the aim of creating an action plan.

Why Design for America and Net Impact?

As your social entrepreneurship student organization, Net Impact believes that our time here at Johns Hopkins is best spent in service to our community, and the organization makes every effort to bring resources and spaces to create that change. Design for America (DFA) similarly centers on service from a more hands-on approach, co-creating with community stakeholders on human-centered design projects throughout the year. Under the Up to Us campaign, Net Impact and DFA have pooled their resources, resulting in a uniquely actionable dialogue space for the Johns Hopkins community.

What can we even get done in 90 minutes?

Before the session, we will send out reading materials to familiarize all participants with the angle of conversation — don't worry, nothing extensive. Two pages maximum. We'll open with some design icebreakers, get to know who's in the room, and then commence a formal dialogue session, where we will pool our collective stories to get a holistic picture of our subject and the places we can best create an impact. We'll take a short break and then return for a true design thinking session, ideating, and creating an action plan so that we all walk away from the session with next steps in mind.

You really think you can solve the entirety of "youth and opportunity" in one session?

No. We don't. But we do know that the conversation has to start, over and over again, and include different folks every time. This deliberative dialogue will be part of a larger initiative extending into next year, where Net Impact will host further dialogue sessions, DFA will host further workshops, and together we will be closer to an equitable future than we were yesterday.