Future Now
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The Millennial Trains Project: Applications Open
Last August the Institute for the Future sent me on the Millennial Trains Project - an experimental educational journey sponsored by National Geographic and the U.N. Foundation that took me to San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Denver, Omaha, Chicago, Pittsburgh and Washington D.C. via ye ole rail road track. Riding on an old Zephyr, a great 20th century innovation, there was something poetic about looking for the future of America while tracing the steps of the past.
Equipped with the Inventor's Toolkit, I was on a mission to seek out social inventors - individuals inventing and building innovative social assets for their communities - and give them a process and tools to design new systems. (Read more about my journey here.)
The journey lead me to discover the ingenuity and innovation existing in neighborhoods both small and large. I saw young community leaders prototyping possible future solutions on city blocks. The Millennial Trains Project boldly proclaimed this kind of future-making the narrative of our generation. The idea resonated on the train and every city we stopped in.
Now, I'm helping founder and CEO Patrick Dowd gear up for the next journey. We will travel to Portland, Seattle, Whitefish, St. Paul, Milwaukee, Detroit, Cleveland, and finally end in New York.
There's still one more month for the millennials to finish crowdfunding, and the applicants this journey are already quite diverse.
Karan Satia, for example, created a monthly activity kit called Eco-Curious to engage kids with their environment and encourage outdoor exploration. He's planning on prototyping this in the 7 cities we visit through a nature walk with kids and their parents ages 6-9. He's about halfway to his goal, so support his crowdfunding page here.
Another MTP participant wants to explore the future of libraries in the digital age. Catherine Tsavalas, who reached her goal (see her page here), will document and share how independent bookstores and public libraries impact and improve local communities across the country.
There's a project focused on recording stories from assisted living/elderly care homes, another project asking why Millennials are spiritual but not religious, and one passionate Detroiter who wants to build a knowledge and skillshare community to tap into the hidden talents of her city.
Peruse the "crowdhitch" page to see what more Millennials are working on.
If you're interested in applying and would like more information, contact [email protected].
Lindsea K. Wilbur is a current Research Affiliate with the Governance Futures Lab exploring the emergent governance structures of inner and outer space. She's on a mission to empower communities around the world to reconstitute their civic governance systems using our Inventor's Toolkit.