At EDGE, we want to explore if young people with wealth or class privilege in Europe can support the Just Transition and become  leaders for the common good. Read on and get involved! 

Growing evidence shows that the current economic and political system cannot provide the solutions to ensure a sustainable future for our planet and humankind. There is a need for radical transformation from a system which is based on extractivism, exploitation and the enclosure of wealth and power, to one which puts the wellbeing of people and planet at its core.

At the same time, inequality is on constant rise: Billionaire wealth has risen by an annual average of 13 percent since 2010 – six times faster than the wages of ordinary workers (Oxfam Inequality report 2018). An increasing number of young people with wealth and class privilege, often inherited but sometimes also as a result of own income and entrepreneurship, want to play a constructive part in a just transition from an extractive to a living economy. In the United States, Resource Generation has a history of over 20 years in organising young people with wealth and class privilege “to become transformative leaders working towards the equitable distribution of wealth, land and power”. Resource Movement in Canada is doing similar work. In Europe, there is no organised peer community of young people who want to use their privilege to make a contribution to a more equitable distribution of wealth and power, and to create a better world for present and future generations.

EDGE Funders Alliance aims to “move resources to systemic change” (cf. EDGE mission). Organising people with wealth can be an important lever not only to shift resources for the Just Transition, but also to move philanthropy from a charity framing to a notion of justice, and to influence the discourse on power, privilege and capitalism within philanthropy and beyond. EDGE and its members want to provide young people with wealth or class privilege with inspiration on how they can use their financial and non-financial assets to facilitate positive change. Furthermore, we aim to explore and possibly facilitate the creation of a networked community of young people with wealth and class privilege in Europe, in line with EDGE’s values and mission.

The objectives of the initiative are twofold:

• To inspire and inform young people with wealth or class privilege in Europe about ways to use their assets and power to create a better world.
• To organise young people with wealth or class privilege in Europe to create a peer community of transformative leaders working towards the equitable distribution of wealth, land and power.

Two or three committed young individuals with wealth and class privilege should lead this initiative based on an idea of community organising and peer networking. EDGE and committed members will support the process in the background.

Are you a young person with wealth and class privilege* in Europe?
Find out more here, or click below and sign up to get involved!

*Check the wealth definition by Resource Generation if you don’t know if you are part of the target group, or get in touch with Tobias Troll, EDGE Europe.