Young Californians are essential for enacting meaningful change and envisioning a more vibrant future for the next century. This Fall, California 100 is bringing together passionate student leaders, campus activists, and youth community partners from regions throughout the state to workshop a series of youth vision manifestos for the future, develop calls to action that inspire a growing network of young California futurists, and co-design a celebratory Youth Futures Summit planned for March 2023 on the Capitol lawn in Sacramento. The youth work builds on California 100’s policy and scenario reports, innovation projects, advanced technology initiatives, and engagement campaigns launched this spring and will contribute to the final vision being produced by the California 100 Commission.
“We’re thrilled to welcome such a diverse coalition of young Californians to our Futures Fellowship,” said Dr. Karthick Ramakrishnan, Executive Director of California 100. “Our fellows are the California of tomorrow, and we’re honored to uplift and center their unique perspective. Their work will be critical in creating a youth-centered, youth-led movement to democratize futures thinking and will inform our keystone vision and strategy document for the future of California.”
CALIFORNIA 100 FUTURES FELLOWS
This week, California 100 welcomes its first cohort of Futures Fellows — a coalition of 46 student leaders and youth community organizers collaborating from campuses across the state including the University of California, California State University, California Community College, independent and private undergraduate campuses.
YOUTH PARTNERS
Alongside the Futures Fellows cohort, California 100’s youth work will be powered by a network of partners including campus-based student organizations and inspiring youth-led and youth-centered community organizations — with many already deeply engaged in long-term futures planning and intergenerational visioning work. Partners will collaborate on and provide valuable insights in developing youth manifestos for the future and the culminating 2023 Youth Summit in Sacramento.
California 100 Youth Partners include:
- CALPIRG Students
- UC Student Association (UCSA)
- CalState Student Association (CSSA)
- UC Riverside Center for Social Innovation and the Inter-Collegiate Council of the Inland Empire (ICCIE)
- GENup
- Empowering Pacific Island Communities (EPIC)Youth Leadership Institute
- Rise Free CA
- UC Berkeley Innovations for Youth (i4Y) Research Hub
- UC San Diego Design Lab- UCSD Design Lab
- California Forward (CA FWD)
- Hispanas Organized for Political Equality (HOPE)
- MILPA Collective
- Gameheads
- AfroRithms Futures Group
- Leveraged Play, among others.
CALIFORNIA 100 YOUTH FUTURES SUMMIT
The California 100 Youth Futures Summit is set to take place on Sunday, March 12, 2023 with hundreds of young people expected to gather on the West Lawn of the State Capitol for a day of participatory action, live strategic foresight demonstrations, creative ‘zine and freedom dreaming workshops, and youth-led visioning for the future of California.
“We are thinking of the Youth Futures Summit as a cross between a World Expo and a neighborhood block party; a playful, innovation pavilion, community ‘potluck’ of youth-centered ideas and dreams for the future of our state,” said Julia Malta–Weingard, Youth Engagement Lead for California 100.
The Youth Futures Summit will provide facilitated opportunities for hundreds of young people — representing the geographical, cultural, political and racial diversity of California — to come together in collective action, participate in civic and creative engagement, and build communities of belonging and connections with peers across the state.
The Youth Futures Summit is free & open to the public, RSVP here
METHODOLOGY AND TALENT
Through participatory workshops, Futures Fellows are tasked with building a youth vision for the future of California by designing a collective set of actionable Youth Manifestos. This vision will be shared in a range of formats including as a large-scale mural, through a series of graphic-novel style documentary comics, as a multimedia report, and as part of the broader celebratory Youth Futures Summit in Spring 2023.
For the workshops, California 100 is pleased to collaborate with creative practitioners, including:
- Dr. Lonny J. Avi Brooks (AfroRithms, CSU East Bay)
- Jane McGonigal (Urgent Optimists, Institute for the Future)
- Damon Packwood (Gameheads)
- Golnoush Pak (illustrator & cartoonist)
- Randy Lubin (Leveraged Play, School of International Futures), and
- Dr. Karthick Ramakrishnan (California 100, UC Riverside) among other California 100 commissioners, directors, and youth partners.
As part of the initiative’s ongoing commitment to democratizing futures work for broader state and global participation, California 100 will also partner with YR Media (formerly Youth Radio), an award-winning media, technology and music training center and platform for emerging BIPOC content creators, to produce a “Dreamers & Doers” DIY Toolkit. The free, downloadable toolkit will provide customizable exercises, creative brainstorming frameworks, and actionable lessons for educators and youth leaders to think and plan like futurists and create their own visions for the future.