Our History

Human Agenda blossomed from energy and activism at the turn of the millennium to focus on an open, independent path of analysis and action with the vision of meeting the human needs of all.

Originally a group studying and analyzing current conditions and how to make transformative change, Human Agenda was incorporated in March 2002 as a 501c3 non-profit organization in San Jose, California. Gertrude Gertrude Welch served as its first board of directors President and Richard Hobbs as the Executive Director.

For its first 10 years, Human Agenda held five annual signature events on the love ethic, a farmworker reality tour, celebration of Take Back Your Time Day, a hunger banquet coinciding with the United Nations Human Rights Day, and a VisionQuest. Human Agenda continues to engage in education and dialogue through regular Human Agenda Roundtables, but has made the turn from education to advocacy through inter-connected projects focused on democracy, equity, cooperation, kindness, and sustainability— the DECKS values.

Our Mission

The mission of Human Agenda is to envision a world where the human needs of all can be met, engage the community in forging local institutions that are democratic, cooperative, egalitarian, sustainable, and kind, and take individual responsibility to embody the change we’d like to see.

Human Agenda believes that human beings require appropriate resources and time as well as an ethic of love to engage in the human need fulfilling activities that make our lives full, meaningful, and satisfying. Key to meeting our human needs is access to reduced working hours at a livable wage. Without a reasonable work week and reasonable time for other essential human activities like our health, our relationships, our community, our lifelong learning, our civic engagement, and our self-realization, we cannot reach peace, growth, and fulfillment for ourselves, our society, or our world.

Democracy

Equity

Cooperation

Kindness

Sustainability

Our Vision

The dominant values in our community, society, and world are shaped by human beings, and can be changed by people of good will to better meet the needs of all human beings on earth. Just as people are creations of given social conditions and values, these same social conditions and values are shaped and changed by human beings, by their organized activity.

For these reasons it is essential to envision different social conditions that would better meet the needs of all human beings and create a more compassionate and humane world. We need to ask the question: “What does it take to develop a stable set of repeatable conditions whereby all human beings have access to fulfilling, caring, meaningful, empowered, balanced lives?”

OUR GOAL IS TO CREATE CONDITIONS TO MEET THE PHYSICAL, EMOTIONAL, AND SPIRITUAL NEEDS OF ALL HUMAN BEINGS

Their physiological needs such as nutritious food, clean air and water, shelter from the elements, life protection services, and sexual gratification.
Their psychological needs such as the need for love and emotional security, the need for spirituality and connection, the need for finding purpose and meaning in life, sensual needs, and time for reflection.
Their family needs such as caring for children and elders, food preparation, cleaning, home maintenance, and procreation.
Their needs for producing sustainable goods and services (such as health care, teaching, distribution of resources, exchange, life protection services, transportation, and communication) in ways that dignify work and provide family-sustaining salaries.
Their need for life-long learning and reliable information.
Their need for democratic decision-making structures guided by ethical choices at all levels of life, including the family, school, neighborhood, workplace, local, national, and international levels.
Their need for “free time” discretionary activities such as art, sport, recreation, volunteerism, and entertainment to engage in their passions.