Edgeryders celebrate entering 2012 in togetherness. We’ve reached 350 members, many of whom keep a vivid, ongoing interest in figuring out youth transition problems.
Making a Living campaign took off pretty well at the beginning of December, we now have a dozen reports (and welcome many more!) exposing genuine struggles to cope with job prospects, the employee condition and poverty at times. While particularly the youngest of us live by the book and invest in education or training to become employable, some Edgeryders have stopped looking for or gave up proper jobs and took up entrepreneurship or freelancing. We see such alternatives resulting from personal journeys and convictions, and discover that accessing resources to do what you love isn’t easy - see Alberto’s post on social innovation funding. Neither is being your own boss, in Vinay’s words. In either way, relying on personal networks (family or friends) seems to be widely agreed upon. Strategies to find and take pride in our work will keep on unfolding as we move on to the next campaign on civic participation entitled “We, the people”. It will be launched on January 9th, stay tuned!
But progress doesn’t stop here. While we value all contributions, we keep on discovering new ways for community members to be actively involved, not just by posting on the platform, but by promoting their own content, gaining visibility in their fields and building collaboration (Lucas Gonzalez’s initiative to translate & subtitle Edgeryders video presentation has reached 8 languages). Edgeryders become more of a grand team every day. Joining our community in early 2012 are open government expert Marc Garriga (@mgarrigap), open economy advocate Eric Harris-Braun (@zippy314), youth worker Joao Scarpelini (@joaoscarpelini). A warm welcome to all of you guys!
Let’s stick together in this and continue to build a narrative which is true to our transition. To quote Rossi [2009: 471], the youth condition is “the product of dispute and negotiation processes involving young people’s own representations and those of external sources (allies and antagonists)”. I don’t know about antagonists, but in Edgeryders we’re all allies, and will continue to be throughout 2012!