Leaders of Today or Leaders of Tomorrow? | Ranti Ogunleye | TEDxElmPark

Key Concepts

• Public Safety: Defined by residents as more than just law enforcement; includes environmental factors like cleanliness, lighting, economic stability, and opportunities for youth.
• NSTAT (Neighborhood Stat): A mechanism used by MAP to bring together residents, nonprofits, and city agencies to identify and prioritize community safety concerns.
• Community-Centered Approach: Emphasizes centering residents and their lived experiences in developing public safety strategies, contrasting with historical top-down government approaches.
• Underlying Drivers of Public Safety: Identified as poverty.
• Resident Competencies: Focus on building leadership development and civic participation skills in residents.
• Leadership Multiplier Effect: The synergistic impact of mentorship combined with eye-opening experiences for young people, leading to multiplied leadership capacity.
• Exposure Creates Belief: The motto "See it, try it, become it" highlights the importance of experiencing opportunities to foster belief in one's potential.
• "I Do. We Do. You Do." Framework: A pedagogical approach to skill development that moves from demonstration to guided practice to independent execution, building confidence and agency.
• Investment in Youth Leadership: The argument that investing in youth leadership yields significant community returns and is crucial for future leadership development.

Public Safety and Community Engagement

The speaker, as the director of the mayor's action plan for neighborhood safety, focuses on organizing residents around public safety issues. The core philosophy is that "you can't have public safety without the community that lives there. You have to center them." Residents define public safety broadly, encompassing not just law enforcement but also environmental factors like clean spaces, good lighting, economic stability, and opportunities for young people to thrive.

The Mayor's Action Plan (MAP) utilizes a mechanism called NSTAT (Neighborhood Stat). This process convenes residents, nonprofits, and city agencies to collaboratively discuss and prioritize safety concerns within specific communities. This approach directly counters historical government practices where interventions were imposed without resident input. The speaker emphasizes that individual needs for safety vary, necessitating a personalized, community-driven approach.

MAP works with 15 residents in 30 communities to identify and strategize in real-time to mitigate harms. The speaker highlights the invaluable "lived experiences" and "ingenuity of community" in developing effective solutions. Poverty is identified as a significant underlying driver of public safety issues.

A substantial portion of the speaker's work involves helping residents navigate city systems and advocate for themselves, focusing on building core competencies such as leadership development and civic participation.

The Alarming Lack of Leadership Development in Older Adults

A recurring concern for the speaker is the lack of investment in leadership development for older adults within communities. Despite their extensive lived experience and knowledge of their communities' needs, many have never been given the opportunity to lead or have their voices valued. This observation stems from the speaker's own realization of the opportunities they were afforded as a young person, which were not universally available.

The Power of Experience and Mentorship

The speaker contrasts mentorship with life experiences, stating that while mentors can validate and provide courage, it is "life's experiences that are going to shape and mold you and make you the person you are." The speaker recounts a transformative experience at 14-15 years old, traveling to Croatia after the Dayton Peace Accords to discuss peace education. This experience, which involved engaging with the realities of the Balkan region, significantly altered their academic trajectory and instilled confidence, making education more tangible and impactful. This experience demonstrated that being "valued" was more critical than academic performance alone.

Data-Driven Insights on Public Safety and Greening

A significant statistic is presented: "Taking vacant lots in communities that have high levels of violence and greening them drops crime by 30%." This is attributed to resident-driven strategies and is presented as more impactful than increased policing.

The Decline of Leadership in Youth and the Role of Experience

The speaker addresses a concerning trend: "30% of young adults say they don't see themselves as leaders." This is further broken down, with young women identifying as non-leaders at a higher rate than young men. A significant percentage (44%) report rarely or never taking on leadership roles growing up.

Drawing from parents from West Africa (Nigeria), the speaker emphasizes the importance of chores and responsibilities in fostering leadership from a young age. Parents and educators are urged to provide even "minute things" at home to build children's confidence and leadership skills.

Data from the University of Illinois indicates that "83% of young people globally believe their governments have failed them," suggesting a systemic failure in nurturing future leaders. The speaker argues that without early leadership experiences, individuals may struggle to be creative in addressing complex issues like crime, systemic racism, and oppression.

The Leadership Multiplier Effect: Mentorship + Experience

The speaker posits that the combination of mentorship and "eye-opening experiences" creates a "leadership multiplier effect." This synergy is credited with shaping the speaker's own path. The speaker's background is detailed: growing up in Park Hill Apartments, parents from Nigeria, and siblings who achieved significant success. Despite being an "underachiever" academically with a 75 average, joining the "Global Kids" program at Curtis High School was pivotal. The program's affirmation that "Your voice is just as valuable as somebody who has a 99 average" was profoundly impactful.

Transformative International Experiences

A key experience was being selected for the United Nations World Youth Forum in Vienna, Austria, at age 16. Despite initial unfamiliarity with the concept of "sustainability," the opportunity to learn and engage was transformative. At the forum, the speaker connected with Sunukret (Sunflower in Croatian) and traveled to Bosnia to work with Bosnian refugees. Conducting "democracy workshops" with Bosnians and Serbians, who had been in conflict, revealed a shared desire for peace and progress among young people. This experience solidified the speaker's desire to "affect young people the way someone affected me."

The speaker contrasts their "living" education through these experiences with traditional academic learning from books. The ability to travel internationally and engage in meaningful work with refugees, facilitated by mentors and programs, was a powerful catalyst. This led to being named "educator of the year" in New York City in 2015 and director of the mayor's action plan for neighborhood safety in 2024.

The "I Do. We Do. You Do." Framework and its Impact

The "leadership multiplier effect" is further explained through the "I Do. We Do. You Do." framework. This cyclical process involves:

1. I Do: The leader demonstrates the skill or task.
2. We Do: The leader and the learner practice together.
3. You Do: The learner practices independently, with the leader present for support.

This method builds confidence by showing learners that the leader is also engaged in the process, fostering a sense of shared effort and belief. It acknowledges different learning styles and empowers individuals to believe in their own capabilities, leading to outcomes like the speaker's siblings' successes and their own career path.

Call to Action: Invest in Youth Leadership

The speaker's motto is "Exposure creates belief. See it, try it, become it." The final message is a call to action: "Invest in youth leadership." This investment should go beyond mere mentorship to include providing "eye-opening experiences." The speaker asserts that teaching from a book leads to regurgitation, while providing experience leads to leadership and the ability to cultivate future leaders.

The economic argument for investing in youth leadership is strong: "Every $1 invested in youth leadership yields $13 back in community." Funding community-representative organizations is also crucial, as they are more likely to create businesses and opportunities that address local needs.

The speaker concludes with a powerful statement: "Our legacy is not measured by what we do but by who we are prepared to lead next." The future is presented as immediate, emphasizing the urgency of investing in young people today to shape tomorrow's leaders.