What Makes Us Unique

The Engage Networks relies on organizing principles that represent the best practices we have found for getting people engaged over the long term. Some of our main principles are:


	Going Offline: While online communities can facilitate and grow change, we believe that the power of groups that meet in person cannot be wholly replicated. While we heavily utilize technology to advance our goals, the Engage Network focuses on building "offline" communities first.
	Tapping Pre-Existing Networks and Social Champions: Rather than creating new communities from scratch, the Engage Network identifies pre-existing networks of people with shared values (such as the 20 million people in the U.S. who practice yoga) and the high profile "social champions" who inspire them. These social champions motivate and inspire their community, but typically lack an efficient infrastructure that moves people beyond their inspiration and into long term engagement. Engage provides this infrastructure.
	Everything Happens in a Circle: The basic operating unit of Engage is a small circle that provides the basis of trust and relationship necessary to get things done. One circle might provide hospice care to a dying friend; 10 circles working together can get organic food into a local school district; 1,000 circles can bring yoga classes to at-risk youth all over the country; and 10,000 circles could get a president elected.

Who We Are

The Engage Network is a best practices model for community empowerment and civic engagement that:

	Leverages the power of inspiring social champions such as Julia Butterfly Hill, Seane Corn and Van Jones.
	Trains transformational leaders to lead self-replicating small circles in their communities.
	Creates social ventures that fund and grow the network.

Sectors

In our first year, Engage has launched three sectors of the Network:

What's Your Tree,™ based on the story of legendary treesitter and bestselling author Julia Butterfly Hill, provides a way for people to "find their own tree," while building small groups and social networks in their communities.

Off the Mat, Into the World™ builds on the social change vision of renowned yoga teacher Seane Corn. It guides participants to define their purpose and become active in their local and global communities in an effective, sustainable and joyful way.

Green For All,™ based on the inspiring vision of Van Jones, is dedicated to building an inclusive green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty.