The Concept Project's Manifesto

The Concept Project’s Manifesto

Introduction

A personal manifesto. I was immediately intrigued with this assignment, knowing full well I would be doing the manifesto on something much larger than myself. First I looked at the assignment and took the word “you.” I replaced it with the phrase “The Concept Project.” Welcome to my world. How to change each of my assignments into work for the initiative, The Concept Project. Understand that these values and actions will be carried throughout the rest of my life. When people ask me what I want to do for the rest of my life. I answer with three words. Understand that a manifesto written about this has much more gravity in my life than if i were to talk about myself alone. The Concept Project.

Community Appreciation

Support. As a unit The Concept Project has received incredible support from multiple communities. Being able to work on a community's social issues and heal their problems without anybody asking us has resulted in very overwhelming and heartwarming support. People supporting our events and efforts with food, drink, hugs, smiles, honks and everything in between is what the Concept Project values most about being part of communities. Big thanks go out to both the small town communities of rural Nova Scotia and New Hampshire who both embraced our ideas and gave us the time to understand our mission.

Unique Methods

The Concept Project differs from most initiatives and funding efforts because of its unique style and new ideas. The Concept Project uses mental and physical challenges as a metaphor for a given social issue. The use of a difficult goal or task can be used as a catalyst to raise money and awareness. Currently, our members are not aware of any other non-profit team that is raising money the way we do. Examples or our type of work are done by many individuals but we believe we can be the first official business to share a social network of physical and mental challenges that aim to raise money and awareness. The most distinct part of The Concept project is how we use the distance or location of the challenge to tell the story of our metaphor. For example : If The Concept Project were to WALK from the Highest to the Lowest point in New Hampshire, they would name it the Highs and Lows Project. The metaphor explains the struggles and fears we all face in the name of our mental health. 10,000 dollars were raised in the highs and lows project, but most importantly made noise, starting healthy and normal conversations on mental health.

Building a Community

The ideal community that the Concept Project is striving to create is a community full of Concept Project Members completing their own adventure and challenges because of their inspiration and motivation to solve a struggle going on in their own beloved area. This community will be full of people who are excited to solve problems in their community using our unorthodox methods and an original idea. Anyone can have an idea that is good enough to raise $10,000 dollars and get people talking. It just takes a concept.

Demands and Motivation

Integrity and open-mindedness. Integrity is high on our list because we want all interactions with our charities and community members to ensure we mean what we say and can be counted on the follow through on our commitments. An open mind is essential to be part of our project. The concepts that we pursue require stepping out of comfort zones and learning in unorthodox ways.

We demand the same qualities from others who want to be a part of The Concept Project. Charities that we donate to and people that help us do so must stick to their word and be open to our methods and ideas. The community we are looking to build requires people who understand the value of experience and are eager to learn about topics that intrigue them. Another quality that we demand is relentlessness. Fundraising takes countless failures to succeed. The members of our project must be tenacious in how we ask for contributions realizing that getting shut down does not mean we can not succeed in other ways. Don’t be afraid to bark up the wrong tree. Just bark.

Our Appearance

The Concept Project team thinks our ideas are inspirational and have the power to change the world. We truly believe that our communities can benefit in traceable and measurable ways. The Concept Project is ultimately satisfied when there is tangible evidence of change in the community. In terms of branding, the team aims to appear professional and trustworthy. The paper trails of our work and the donations used are how we can ensure the public that the event made a difference. The goal is to make The COncept Project An easy initiative to get behind, letting everyone know how easy it can be to get involved or even brainstorm their very own events.

Our Key Value

The value of experience. Experiences can change your life completely. The Concept Project founders believe in the value of experience, consistently trying to prove how an experience can help yourself while also helping others. Walking for 6 days on end in a blizzard was an experience that won’t be forgotten. The actions and choices made by The Concept Project are predicated on the value of unforgettable feats completed in the name of an issue that we aim to solve. Each event that is carried out by The Concept Project is created, while keeping in mind the experience added to the lives of all of those who participate as an athlete, support crew or donator.

Healthy and Educated

Each event that The Concept Project is part of idealizes health and education.

Health is a key component of everything The Concept Project does. Physical health is heightened through the endurance athletics that many of the challenges involve. It is necessary to stay in a peak athletic shape in order to perform the events. Injury avoidance is taken seriously so that we can continue to provide our work for sustained periods of time. Our mental health is also monitored making sure we are in health environments and productive communities. Mental health is positively affected when you are given the ability to help others. My personal mental health has been much better since the creation of The Concept Project.

Education is the next ideal that The Concept Project holds. The Concept Project is pioneering a new form of education. In speaking with our co-founder we have found that the events that we participated in gave us new knowledge on topics that intrigue us. This is an effective way to teach yourself about problems in our community and how to go about solving them. The hands-on experience based learning is unique to The Concept Project. One thing that The COncept Project is currently working on is how to combine our work with higher-education. Classes in higher-ed can and will be modified to teach the content of a course in a practical real-world context by using concept projects as school assignments. For example, a course like community development could be taught through one of our efforts to get a memorial build for the Nova Scotian/Colchester community.

Our Impact

The Concept Project wants to change the world by raising money that is allocated to entities that we see fit. The Concept Project wants to change the world by raising awareness through our athletic feats and efforts. The Concept Project wants to change the world by educating people by accurately documenting the process. The Concept Project wants to change the world by starting a conversation regarding social issues that we want to see progression in. The Concept Project wants to change the world by involving others and giving strangers experience and purpose in life. The Concept Project wants to change the world by allowing people to perform challenging and achieve goals that they would never have thought possible. The Concept Project wants to change the world by creating a fund that is donatable at any time to help make our efforts always actually happen. The Concept Project wants to change the world by redefining how we educate and use experience to teach us things about yourself and others.

Developing Communities

Development of a community is "a process where community members come together to take collective action and generate solutions to common problems." - The United Nations. The Concept Project acts as a community developer anytime we are able to offer the ability to have conversation with other community members and start collaboration. We want to be the catalyst to many communities who use our intuitive methods to band together and solve problems whether it is the grief strategy of a community or a global pandemic. The most recent developer role that The Concept Project will take on is the additional funding for a memorial to be built. Understanding all the factors at play and who is involved in the process is a form of developing the community.

Conclusion

This assignment is not what was asked for. It does however have much more value to me as someone trying to start a non-profit initiative. It also taught me more about my efforts in a community development context than I would have learned if the manifesto was written on myself. I believe even though some assignments are not done to their exact rubric specification, done right, these can teach the course material in a more effective way.