XYBOOM began as an intergenerational approach to addressing employment issues. Youth un/underemployment, retiring (or not!) baby boomers, generational misconceptions and alienation are all hot topics that strike a chord with everyone in some way. But as the XYBOOM team reflected on our first conference, the feedback we received and the response we got from everyone who took part in the conference, it became obvious that generational understanding and collaboration could be an asset to so many socio-cultural and economic issues that we are or will be facing.
These issues include harnessing technology and social media effectively. Understanding the state of the environment and how our actions as global citizens continue to affect it. Making choices in education and our careers that relate to our employment and career aspirations. Figuring out the economic consequences of buying a house, or raising a family with an end goal of retiring comfortably. Figuring out how to be a part of socio-political processes that determine how younger generations will care for young children or aging parents.
No matter what generation we are a part of, with the complexities that are undeniably a part of the rapidly changing world, many of us have come to the realization that the opportunities available to us are also changing and evolving. In some ways, there are many more possibilities we didn’t know we could attain, at the individual, civic and global level – finding ways to harness these possibilities is part of the work we have to do together.
Here at XYBOOM, we believe that intergenerational understanding and collaboration is an integral step towards creating common ground for supporting each other and improving the processes we use to address all these issues. We want to work together to find innovative ways to foster positive and supportive communities, workplaces and relationships by breaking down communication barriers and creating tangible results.