Today we’d like to introduce you to Global Shapers Atlanta Hub. Them and their team share their story with us below:
Founded in 2012 under the leadership of Operation Hope Founder/CEO and Young Global Leaders founding class member John Hope Bryant, Mayor Kasim Reed, and Ambassador Andrew Young, the Global Shapers Atlanta hub is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that seeks to utilize the diverse strengths of its network to address issues on both a local and global scale. The Atlanta Hub is part of the Global Shapers network, which is an international community of individuals under 30 who are driven to make a positive impact in their respective communities. As of today, there are 10,735 Shapers from 450 Hubs from 146 countries all over the world, with an alumni network that boasts over 3,570 members.
Our Hub operates with a leadership structure that places a Curator and Vice Curator to lead the charge in an ideally distributive leadership structure every year through an elections process. Through this work, the structure of the Hub not only builds out projects, programs and initiatives that allow us to tap into the passions, lived experiences and expertise of the Hub itself, but it also allows for us as a Hub to build connections across different Hubs all over the world and build power together.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
There have definitely been some challenges. We can only speak for this Curatorship Year, but it would be remiss to say that COVID-19 hasn’t played a role this year in determining how we move forward, especially the recent Delta wave. A lot of members of the Atlanta Hub are in different postures and positions so people are moving and changing jobs, revaluing their purpose and meaning and thinking through what they want to do next, which is reflective of what a lot of Hubs all over the world are going through to some degree. Because of these changes as well as some internal changes within Global Shapers as an entity, we’ve had to re-think through engagement, plans and building relationships with each other both virtually and in-person. Balance hasn’t been easy, but it’s been worthwhile to really rebuild in a way.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Right now, we’re a Hub of 36 Shapers (we just finished our recruiting season to find new members). While WEF and Global Shapers are shifting their Impact Area focuses and structures, we have a leadership structure that helps guide the vision and mission of the Atlanta Hub which rotates yearly. While we do have some guidelines and structure from WEF as previously mentioned before, we’re able to be pretty autonomous in terms of the work we do as a Hub.
For the 2021-2022 Curatorship Year, a big emphasis is community building. As a Hub in the US South, Global Shapers are in a unique position to be a part of the solution to build partnerships and relationships to build back better with communities and groups that are moving forward for social change and progress. While it is an amazing effort to be innovative and thoughtful, it is actually more important that we think through ways to build interdependence and community practices among the members of the Hub, those connected to us, and the larger ATL ecosystem.
To do this, we have three Impact Areas: Climate and Environment, Equity & Inclusion and Education & Employment with co-leads holding down the fort to execute on projects and initiatives. These Impact Areas, we’ve put on several events both in our hub to educate ourselves to partnering with other organizations to bring Shapers all over the world to us, such as through our Shape North America Conference at the Emory School of Medicine in 2019. We’ve written thought leadership pieces, organized virtual dinners and discussions on civic engagement and activism as well as volunteered at Clarkston while building connections with each other and other people globally.
These Impact Areas will be changing this year, but our areas of focus as Shapers are as follows:
Protect the planet: Reduce emissions, fight drought, respond to natural disasters, preserve biodiversity, conserve nature, promote sustainable consumption, and more.
Reskill for the future: Provide all people with quality education, skills and jobs to ensure no one is left behind in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, along with promoting new standards of work, digital literacy, online safety, among others.
Strengthen civic engagement: Empower minority leadership, mobilize citizen voting, inspire youth to run for local politics and ensure representation in decision-making and solution-building at all levels of society.
Create inclusive communities: Advocate for human rights, disrupt harmful stereotypes related to gender, race, sexual orientation, disability, homelessness, statelessness, among others.
Improve health and well-being: Achieve health equality, ensure access to health services, address the social determinants of health, advance youth mental health support and respond to pandemics.
Deliver basic needs: Respond to local disasters, take humanitarian action, end hunger, fight extreme poverty, and more, to support the world’s most vulnerable communities.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
The most important lesson we have learned is to be conscious of the ways you understand and navigate the world. Global Shapers is a completely voluntary organization that has changed and grown a lot over the last decade almost, but it’s so important that we not only push and drive change and stay rooted in community doing so.
Our Hub has had its challenges, but a big lesson for us is being able to stand in the truth of what we’ve committed and seeing that change and action through tangibly.
Contact Info:
- Email: info@atlantaglobalshapers.org
- Website: https://www.atlantaglobalshapers.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shapers_atl/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GlobalShapersAtlanta
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Shapers_ATL
