5th Space

---

‘ComMutiny’ stands for the first 'mutiny' within as a young person that comes from working in communities which are ‘different’ from oneself. It is symbolic of the fact the social and systemic transformation cannot happen without personal transformation, which is best facilitated  by  continuous   exploration, reflection and navigating self and social challenges in relation to  the real world.   ComMutiny - The Youth Collective is working towards building vibrant eco-systems and youth-centric spaces which we call the 5th Space. For ComMutiny, youth includes young people in the age group of 13 to 35.  The 5th Space is a space that exists beyond and between the 4 legitimate spaces occupied by youth that is Family, Friends, Education / Career and Recreation. These erstwhile spaces for youth are more often than not governed by others, the rules of these spaces and the norms are not set by young people. The 5th Space alternatively is co-governed by youth and the youth facilitators and rejects the instrumentalist view towards young people. It focuses on transforming young people by engaging them in deep self-exploration and supporting their social action experiments to become changemakers and awakened active citizens (Jagriks) of their communities, their nations, the planet and the larger Universe. The 5th Space nurtures social inclusion, holistic development and fosters social hope by promoting feelings of freedom, ownership, love and learning and growth'. A window to the 5th Space is offered in this short spunky animation 18 Till I Die 
 

“Leaders are neither born nor made, they are nurtured in empowering spaces”

To create powerful responses to the overwhelming development issues we face today, there is a critical need to build capacities and nurture leadership with breakthrough thinking, a huge heart, and fresh impetus to make the values of liberty, equality, justice and fraternity come alive on our streets and bring forth young voices in different spaces of our society.

This agenda, however is too complex to accomplish for a handful of good leaders. It will need shared leadership at an unprecedented scale across the world and in each country.
 
ComMutiny is a national collective of over 113 youth led and youth engaging organisations and youth development practitioners represented through our national forum and state collectives in Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh. Through this endeavour, we aim to aggregate the best youth work experiences and practices in the country, as well as value add to the sector at large by foregrounding the power of empowering spaces for young people – the only way to take this process of youth centric development to scale with soul, or ‘scoul’, as we call it.
 
In 2019, ComMutiny and Ashoka Innovators for the Public Collaborated to incubate vartaLeap  - a cross-sectoral, coalition for co-learning with a vast combined experience that is taking the discourse of ‘Every youth a Jagirk…Every space nurturing Jagriks’ forward, to move youth-centric development from the margins and make it a new norm in every space that young people occupy or that impacts young people, beyond the youth sector. ComMutiny and vartaLeap together form a dynamic ecosystem of over 180 youth led and youth engaging organisations, youth development practitioners, as well as cross sectoral representatives, with a common mission - to mainstream youth centric development.
 
ComMutiny Strategies include Aggregating, Accelerating and Amplifying 5th Spaces:
1. Aggregating 5th Spaces - Collectivising some of the best youth-centric organizations and youth-work practitioners in the country into an effective, collaborative eco-system. These organizations represent a large cross section of a very diverse youth population in both urban and rural areas. 
2. Acclerating 5th Spaces - Creating over 150   5th Space media and learning products, as well as gaming resources and toolkits that act as capacity building toolkits for youth-engaging organisations and youth workers. These include films, books, research, graphic novels, music albums, social games and different kinds of learning resources for on ground and online engagement and impact.  
3. Amplifying 5th Spaces - Design and facilitation of large scale powerful public initiatives and youth leadership journeys that are run collectively across the country reaching nearly approximately 200,000 on ground and approximately 20,00,000 online over the last 5 years.