Teachers!

Discover what they want to do, give them the chance and resources to fall in love with doing it and then watch them fight to continue doing it. Give them the power to restore to themselves a sense of purpose and self worth - what can be more positively empowering than standing back to admire the physical evidence of one's exertions. Making should not be an after thought when it comes to the curriculum, it should be an integral part of education and the learning of life skills. Whether these young people go on to pursue careers in making or not, is not important. What is important is that they will have been given, at a crucial time in their development, the key to endeavour and the resulting fulfillment that brings; Something they will be able to carry with them into adulthood as a fundamental tool of life, regardless of their eventual career choice.

Government!

For heavens sake, give back to the teachers the resources to do this, before it is too late for another group of school leavers.

One way to include is to speak English! Dissecting society and (pseudo) intellectual banter will not attract the dwindling old masters to teach the young or Boab off the street with a canny pair of hands to come and teach.

Make CRAFT the focus, not the discussion of craft, dissection of craft or analyshit!
preserve it, continue it, spread it, promote it, make new craft! Push the boundaries of craft!

The biggest loss that could happen here in the midst of all this well intended talking is craft.

Teach people, make them want to work (as craftspeople). Create an enviroment to sell peoples craft, teach people to make things and make money, it's all possible and to everyones benefit.

I respect artists, graduates, intellectuals and but speak your own language and you will attract own sort.
Don't talk about it: Do it!

Help people that are already doing great stuff to continue to do so. Don't bind them with bureaucracy. Fee them. Enable and empower them to continue to enable others. Don't start from scratch, find and identify the grass routes movers and shakers and support them and allow them to replicate (aka be copied). Don't make them apply for funding, just give it to them. Let them continue to do great work without the paperwork, let video documentation (encourages copying), be the medium of sharing and proof of value. Document, share and amplify. Don't politicise, don't be dogmatic, be open to the fact that mistakes will be made, but let them be made small, and the successes replicated and amplified.

When we talk about craft, how do we define craft? What is our perception and understanding of craft as practice? If we are to realise social change through craft I believe we need to better understand and define the relationship between craft as individual practice; craft and the transference of skill; craft as a mechanism for collective engagement and expression; and how we strategically craft the conditions for meaningful social change.

I suggest the latter of these - 'crafting conditions for change' will require high-level objectives for development and a deeper understanding of how craft interrelates across different degrees of scope and territories of practice.

One consideration in relation to such a perspective may be to explore how the significant body of craft knowledge, skill and experience currently being channelled through creative, community engagement and development can be strategically applied to broader processes of cohesive regional service development. Local authority partnership planning often fails to adequately meet the needs of local people and make a real difference to issues of social exclusion, poverty and inequality. Action at the strategic, decision-making levels is often driven through little or no qualitative understanding of the needs, dreams, hopes or desires of the public, but the economic self-interest of top-down policy-making. How can the use of creative engagement, research and development be integrated strategically to realise positive social change, capable of linking individual / local objectives of empowerment up to high-level objectives for action.

If a makers manifesto is to meaningfully contribute to social change, it would seem freedom from funding vulnerabilities created through short-term, tick-box, knee-jerk policy-making is essential. However, if action is to make a real difference regardless of the level of scale on which it is being realised I suggest a maker’s manifesto will require the establishment of unified principles for collective, cohesive action. It should look to the development of policies crafted and adapted responsively by makers and people together.

We live in a multi dimensional culture. I believe Understanding what meme's drive social groups can be the key to future development and change. This isnt to do with being 'PC' its about making the ideas it work for people.
There is a group in london who teach people how to fix bycycles for free, the reason this works and helps the areas is because it is culturally correct to its location, lots of young and old people in london like and ride bikes. Craft does not have to be located simply in hand calving, but in a specialist skill set. Giving it a real use, relevance and the abilaty to pass on within a culture.
Giving a kid a engraving tool in the name of craft is only going to get him or her bored, giving him somthing based on what is popular in the area is a whole new craft game.