By Hildy Gottlieb

While many communities are still struggling in the midst of a slow economic recovery, the most successful ones have found ways to challenge the culture of despair.

In a new edition of Making Change, Hildy Gottlieb, the host, talks with Michelle Nunn, chief executive of the Points of Light Institute, a Washington group that seeks to promote volunteerism.

Ms. Nunn notes that young people in particular need to be reminded of their power to affect social change through volunteerism and lays out her strategy for inspiring youngsters to act. Among her suggestions: Explain what peers can do to make a difference because that might work better than talking about the activism of famous leaders like Martin Luther King Jr.

Hildy Gottlieb is the founder of the Community-Driven Institute and author of The Pollyanna Principles: Reinventing "Nonprofit Organizations" to Create the Future of Our World. In this podcast, Making Change, she interviews leaders to discuss how those who are working for the greater good seek to create social change. New episodes of Making Change appear on the second Thursday of every month.