“If our nation is going to continue to provide positive influence on world affairs, we must teach our children about a different world and to appreciate the importance of their own leadership on the world stage. We cannot return to “business as usual.” Our young people will be the major players in our future, and must be included in any vision of how to build that future. Let our children become the ambassadors for making a better world. So, not only can such an environment be created, it must be created — now more than ever. We consider this effort to be the job of the entire community.
– Gary Goldman, IQLI

As a 23 year student and minister in the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness (MSIA), I have dedicated the past 20 years to the education and empowerment of youth, and to connect our young people to a powerful purpose in their lives and in their communities. My non-profit, International Quality Leadership Institute (IQLI), is currently embarking on a monumental vision — a Youth Empowerment Movement that is intended to mobilize our youth locally, nationally and worldwide by channeling the power of a generation of young people to build caring, safe, and sustainable youth-centered communities, in partnership with adults. To further this vision, we have mobilized a bi-partisan coalition of Illinois and national Mayors and community leaders to spearhead our movement of Youth-Centered Communities in Illinois as a model for the nation. This movement encourages students’ voices to be heard and allows dialogue to emerge about how we learn and how we live, and encourages students to dream again of the kind of place we wish our school community to become.

I’ve found MSIA teachings to be very important in my work with youth and communities. It fits perfectly as I allow the Spirit within me to resonate with young people in order to encourage them toward intrinsic change and, thus, real success. This goes far beyond a mental approach. It is a work of the heart. Utilizing unconditional loving in my work is at the core for manifesting the work of the Spirit and the Traveler. It’s time to open up and listen to our children. They have fresh ideas and open views that can help build a bridge of trust among all people, thus being a catalyst for healing our world.

It’s time for this nation to fully engage and empower every young person in America to make significant contributions to their own lives and to the revitalization of their schools, neighborhoods, and communities by joining with adults, as full partners, in action to shape the nation’s future. By now, most people have realized that the world is no longer the safe, stable and predictable place that it once was. There are ever increasing and incredible changes on our nation’s future horizon. How do we provide the enrichment and empowerment youth will need to be contributors in solving important world and community problems?

To realize this vision of empowering our youth with youth-adult partnerships that give youth a legitimate voice, we believe several things are critical. The first of these is a change in attitude and a change in heart about youth and what they can contribute. Related to this is a willingness to engage in the kind of youth-adult dialogue that involves genuine respect for the views of youth. We must recognize the need for a learning environment where the opportunities for learning are not defined by the boundaries of the past, but the limits of the imagination.

To accomplish our ambitious goals, IQLI has the following four main objectives:

1. Bring adults and youth together through community outreach with organizations and schools to create a caring learning environment where young people can develop and build critical life, problem solving and decision making skills.
2. Build trust and open dialogue between youth and adults, through leadership activities, that reflect individual and community values, resulting in more caring, safe and sustainable communities.
3. Facilitate youth-centered community forums and summits where youth can confront local, national, and global issues and experiment with real world dialogue and decision-making in partnership with adults.
4. Cultivate youth’s creativity in real-life problem solving through joint planning and implementation of community betterment projects.

Today’s youth represent an enormous untapped potential and our most precious resource. Their energy, enthusiasm, creativity, and insight offer critical solutions to many pressing problems. The inclusion of their voices in the solutions has not only been overlooked, but we also believe youth voices have been ignored. Many young people express that they are living in a fearful world and find it increasingly difficult to dream of a bright and better future. They feel that adults do not listen to them and are rarely asked how the educational system or other public institutions could better serve or involve them. IQLI believes that at the core of most social problems is a sense of disconnection between youth and their communities.

I feel we need to come back to the heart and spirit of what education is truly about. That is to address the real nature of the child. Their essence, their innocence, their Soul. Education can not be so narrow as to only use test scores as an indicator of a child’s success. We must educate the whole person and as adults suspend our adult “knowing” and get down on our knees and look into the eyes of these young creatures and see in their eyes the vulnerability and wonder that we have abandoned as adults.

There has been an immense wake-up call for this nation and the world. There is a vast potential, largely untouched among our young people, that must be recognized and tapped in this new world. We must see with new eyes. When we do, we will find that what is waiting to be discovered is the richness of the future – a new possibility in our youth. The change must start with all of us and we believe the time is now.

I am inviting the MSIA community to hold this vision with a clear intention of creating a collaborative and heartfelt youth initiative in order to bring our planet into wholeness and a place of peace for all. We must include our future, our young generation in this quest. I invite you to share with me your thoughts or resources on making this vision a reality. Contact Gary Goldman for information and dialogue at gargoldman@aol.com. Visit us on the web at www.iqli.com.

Gary Goldman holds a M.A. in organizational development and is President and Founder of the non-profit International Quality Leadership Institute (IQLI) in Chicago, Illinois, which is an outgrowth of his for-profit’s 20 years of pioneering work in diverse communities. He is a nationally recognized leader in education reform and youth empowerment and is the coauthor of the book, Empowering Students to Transform Schools which has been endorsed by leaders including John-Roger, Founder of MSIA. Gary has been featured in the national media, including The Learning Channel, WGN, ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN Headlines News and hosted his own weekly Chicago radio show. He has presented at major conferences including the National Governor’s Conference, National 4-H Conference, the Illinois Municipal League and the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Washington, DC. Gary has published articles nationally and has guest lectured at major universities and traveled overseas to present his model on youth empowerment.
Gary was a Chicago representative for Insight Seminars, MSIA and Peace Theological Seminary for many years and has served several terms on the Chicago MSIA Ministerial Board. He received the MSIA Minister of the Year Award in 1988.