Three Case Studies William Drayton founded Youth Venture on his belief that youth are capable of extraordinary contributions to their families and communities and that young people can spearhead significant social endeavors. Jacek Jakubowski and PAM have a similar agenda, or lack thereof. PAM members are invited to invent their own projects, while PAM as an institution takes a modest backseat, facilitating creativity workshops and, through its expansive network, connecting young people with one another and with other useful resources. This has resulted in a wide array of youth-driven projects, including music festivals, art shows, and environmental education endeavors. Camilo Soares of Paraguay and Casa de la Juventud go even further.
Soares rejects the oft-repeated slogan that youth are the future of society.
As Youth Venture's approach depends on partnerships among several existing community entities, Drayton and his small team have had to forge a new brand of inter-institutional cooperation. But as different as these obstacles may be from one another, Soares, Jakubowski, and Drayton have built their organizations on strikingly similar sets of assumptions. All three adhere to a strong belief that youth must be partners in their own development, not resources to be exploited or passive recipients of adult wisdom and experience. Each insists that young people must learn to work collaboratively, and that this is perhaps the single most important skill for the next millenium. And all three organizations are characterized by a commitment to helping others, to active engagement in solving social problems.