It’s the end of the day. You’re 12 years old. You’ve been carrying around a mountain of science textbooks, 2” binders with random sheets of loose leaf paper, and that spiral agenda issued to you at the beginning of the school year. The best part of the day is shaking off the weight of the day, and dropping your backpack off at your front door. You reach out to your door knob—
For most of us, young people with wealth, we know how this story ends, or rather, continues in a neverending cycle. Each day, we know with certainty that relief is on the other side of the door. The door will always be there because this house—our house—will always be there.
At the end of each day, we have a safe harbor. A definite space for infinite wishes upon dandelion seeds, unlimited embarrassing moments only our locked diaries remember, and an unshakeable sense of stability and safety that becomes hardwired into our cells.
How much of our play, curiosity, and openness was fueled by our sense of safety? How much joy and possibility was anchored by our stability?
This sense of security should not only be reserved for those privileged enough to be born into a home. Everyone deserves that guaranteed respite the second you cross the threshold into your house, nestle into your couch, dive into your bed. Everyone deserves a home that is yours, unaffected by the whims of the speculative market, slumlords, and greedy corporations.
We, young people with wealth and class privilege, have a moral and a strategic mandate to make a stable, safe home not a privilege, but a right. But, to be completely honest, we need a lot more people and power to have the impact to make a real difference. To make massive shifts across the nation, we need to rally our people. We need to organize our family, reach out to our elite college friends, and invite people from all corners of our lives to join us.
With our Organizing Drive a third of the way through, we have recruited 13/50 new members and raised $363K out of $1M (~a quarter of our annual budget) to fund RG’s work. Over the next four weeks, hitting our internal goals will fortify our resources, grow our membership, and skill up to boldly organize for a world where everyone is safely and affordably housed.
This movement hinges on each one of us. We’re calling on you to think of 5 people in your life who need the Resource Generation community—even if they don’t know it yet. Think of those college friends, LinkedIn contacts, professional associations, family, hobby or interest groups, organizing circles, etc., and invite them 1:1 to one of our upcoming Organizing Drive events. And don’t forget to share our events and spread the word about our housing campaign in your groups and group chats! Need sample language to get the ball rolling? Check out our toolkit here.
