Sustainable Initiatives

On Thursday night, August 16th, in an auditorium on the Miami-Dade College Wolfson Campus, uVu had a front row seat for a conversation between Miami Mayor Manny Diaz and the members of Genertion Engage in South Florida.  Generation Engage (or GenGage) is a nonpartisan youth-civic-engagement initiative that connects young Americans to political leaders, to other civic organizations, and to meaningful debate about the future they will inherit.

The organization is built on the belief that young people suffer not from a lack of interest, but from a lack of access and access was what the evening was all about.

Although the Mayor was available for the entire event, he promised that anyone who didn't get a chance to ask a question could still find away to do so and that was the main reason uVu was there. Much like the mission of Generation Engage, uVu was conceived as an access point for the community.  On this evening, we made it possible for members of the audience to pose their questions on video, which we will post on the uVu site.  The Mayor has offered to respond to these questions directly on the site as well. You can see the questions in the Speaker's Corner section of uVu.

This is a blueprint for a new form of community engagement because the offer to use uVu is there for every citizen in South Florida, free of charge and free of influence, this is a new form of soapbox for anyone who has something important to say.  uVu's purpose which is different from most user generated video sites, is to build bridges in a very specific way for a very specific region.  We can help join audiences to arts organizations, match interested volunteers with local civic groups and most importantly, give ordinary citizens access to their elected officials in a away that leads to authentic conversation and not just finger pointing.

I hope you will take a look at the online questions and answers on our site when they get posted and you will consider adding you voice (upload a video, write a comment) and keep the conversation going.

As Generation Engage's principles state:
Our democracy should be a dialogue, not a monologue and the best investment we can make in the future of our democracy is in young leaders at the local level.

I couldn't agree more. If you were at the event that night, tell us what you thought. If you weren't and would like information on the next event click the Generation Engage link above.