I'm delighted to tell you about the Commonwealth Girls In ICT Creativity & Innovation Challenge, exploring ideas to make education and learning more inclusive for all children; and to ask you to invite young people to join in. 

Designed and run by the Commonwealth Businesswomen’s Network (CBWN), Flow In Action and GSMA, this is an international inclusive event for girls and boys, inviting them to engage, explore and experience UN Sustainable Development Goal 4 on Quality Education and Goal 5 on Gender Equality.

What had originally been planned as a face-to-face workshop for 30 girls in London, was turned upside down by COVID-19. With more than 1.5 billion students now out of school during the COVID-19 pandemic, we got together to see how we could help. From a brief conversation two weeks ago, the challenge has emerged and we are excited to share this as a free interactive online event for girls and boys ages 8-16 years old in Commonwealth countries and beyond. 

This is an opportunity for your young people to:

· Learn digital skills
· Create incredible innovative ideas for inclusive education for all children
· Connect across the globe as problem-solvers

Powered by our tech platforms of Hazu and World Labs, you can get involved in the challenge with your children and youth from 23 April 2020 until 23 June 2020. Take part on the day and then as an ongoing project.

Educators, librarians, youth workers: get your students involved to connect across the globe, learning digital skills as they use their creativity and generate incredible ideas to solve the innovation challenge.

Parents: get your kids involved in the challenge as a home-schooling creativity activity as they learn digital skills and share their incredible ideas for creating inclusive education.

Students: Your creativity counts! Take part in the challenge with children across the world, learn digital skills and share your incredible ideas for creating inclusive education for all children.
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Discover more about the challenge at www.cbwn.org  and be ready to register and enter the interactive classroom on the 23rd April 2020.

We are so excited to see the incredible ideas of young people emerging over the course of the challenge, and we will be sharing their voices with you, as a community taking action for the planet. 

#girlsinict #flowinaction #imagination #ideas #creativity #innovation #entrepreneurship #commonwealth #youthvoices 

I wonder what you wonder...about a drop of water?

A question for kids of all ages...so feel free to have a go too.

Share this with your kids and get them wondering...as a homeschooling activity.

When we wonder, we connect to our imagination and creativity. We see things from new perspectives. We problem solve in different ways.

Wondering keeps us well and hopeful.

Your kids can share their ideas on the platform at this link. https://hazu.io/flowinaction.org/wonderlab

Also...if you're an educator, librarian, youth worker ...then sign up for the online training with me for creating your own Kids Wonder Lab for your organisation at www.flowinaction.org/wonder


#flowinaction #purejoyofcreating #imagination #ideas #creativity #innovation #entrepreneurship #wellbeing #sustainability #sdgs #love #wonder #awe #lovetheplanet #designforflourishing #peopleandplanetcentreddesignthinking #flourishing #purposedriven #teacher #librarian #youthvoices

When was the last time you remember feeling wonder? 
Can you remember?
Can you picture what you were looking at or thinking about?

I’m asking, because wonder is a powerhouse, creating a chain reaction to real and radical impact in what you do.  ​

Somewhere along the way, you signed up to make good change happen in the world. In these unusual times, creating powerful solutions for the planet, means that you need to be more creative than ever.

The deal you make with the Universe, if you’re using the word ‘innovative’ anywhere in your lingo, is that you will need to step into the soupy mess for real and risk doing things differently.

And the moment you do is the time when revolutionary ideas will show up to challenge you on direction, choices, decisions…arriving unplanned and wilfully disrespectful of your status quo.

Often, our first reaction is to curate ourselves based on past hurts and seeming failures.

It plays out a little like the scene from Notting Hill, towards the end in the bookshop.

Your idea arrives and, like Anna, it says, “I was wondering whether you would let me see you a little…or a lot…”

Unnerved by the magnificent possibilities, you, like William, reply, “Can I just say No to your kind request? With you I’m in real danger…my relatively inexperienced heart, I fear, will not recover if I was once again cast aside…”

Startled by something that will take you out of your comfort zone, you haul out all of the old myths and stories to stay safe, all the reasons why not.

Both of these characters are you. Your unique blend of splendid creativity asks to be seen, inviting you to take the risk on something spectacular. The same you, who has chewed the dirt in the arena, as Brene Brown calls it, doesn’t want the agony of hitting the ground again.

And yet, revolutionary ideas are incorrigible in their persistence.

You may be tender-hearted but you are not faint-hearted; deep down you know that a seed of disruption has been planted that will change everything. After all, when you chose to play with the fire of walking the path less well travelled, you knew you were going to get at least a little singed.

What to do then?

As rule-breakers and change-makers advocating for people and planet, saying No to taking action makes us deeply unhappy. And yet, age and experience make us a little wiser than saying a ‘straight-over-the-cliff’ Yes.  

What if you said, “Maybe!”

Allowing something extraordinary to unfold starts with, “Maybe…” so that time, tenderness and courage can work their magic, making space for the possibilities to be revealed and explored.

Letting go of past hurts, the fear of future failures and perhaps most of all, the terror that things might actually work out, means learning how to say Maybe.

This is the soupy space I like working with you in. It’s messy, human, real. It’s the necessary meeting point of love, wonder, joy which are essential for opening up your creativity to be innovative and entrepreneurial.

It’s where I get you to show up authentically, remembering how to take risks as unprecedented you, regardless of age or position.

You called yourself to action with your idea, I give you the tools to say Maybe so that you make massive positive impact in ways meaningful to you.

Get in touch. You can email me elaine@flowinaction.org  and we can chat about how I can help you and your team with coaching and workshops. 

Oh…and watch the whole film to know the whole story. Bring your own snack, I don’t share my popcorn!

#flowinaction #flow #wellbeing #creativity #love #innovation #entrepreneurship #socialinnovation #socialenterprise #socinn #socent #responsiblebusiness #purposedriven #climateaction #sustainability #sdgs ​