Sole Searching Shoes has a photo on their Instagram account of a pair of feet in flipflops made from 2 plastic water bottles and some cord.

If ever a picture spoke a thousand words, it is this one. 

Ingenious and heart-breaking. 

I lived in Zambia as a little girl. Most of the time barefoot. I had some flipflops but they were 2 left feet and I wore them anyway. ​Even that was a world apart from the life belonging to those feet in that photo.

There are businesses using materials like plastic bottles to make shoes, trainers, flipflops. Is it one that can work like an ethical business on the ground in places of greatest need? 

If you put those bottles as flipflops on a model, do they become a fashion statement?

What if...the bottles could be broken down and combined somehow with 3D printing to create a new pair of flipflops or shoes or something entirely different?

The scarcity that bred the innovation is incomprehensible to most of us. Try it for yourself and walk a mile in those shoes!

#socinn #creativity #ideas #flowinaction #flipflops
@flowinaction @elainefrancetcb
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Half term away from school. 

What did you do? What will you do?

Even if you play computer games for 7 days you are learning new skills that you can use to solve problems and find answers in other parts of your life. Brilliant!

Why reflect on your half term? To discover more about your creativity, even when you think you aren't doing anything.

How to reflect? By using visual tools to journal and story-tell what you did.

What to reflect with? Use the different tools in the mind-map to download and explore what you did. Each one gives you a key skill that will help you with learning and after-school. 

Reflecting is about understanding your impact - on yourself, on the people around you, on your environment. Learning to reflect means that you get use it as a problem-solving tool in everything you do, so that you overcome challenges.

Download the Mind-Map and use it to guide your reflecting.

#socinn #ideas #creativity #thinkingmaps #flowinaction
@flowinaction @elainefrancetcb

You are your creativity in action. Your creativity is a unique blend of all of your life experiences, your knowledge, your skills and talents. It makes you unprecedented.

Imagine the incredible power of EVERY young person bringing their creativity to the table, to solve the challenges of the 21st Century. 

With 103 million young people worldwide not having basic literacy skills (Source: www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/education) we are actively stopping their creativity from being part of the solution. 

Imagine changing that and what we might change together.

I had a really interesting discussion with some students recently, about Sustainable Development Goal #1 - No Poverty.

They raised a question about 'whether it was a good thing to end poverty because of the consequences for those not in poverty and the planet?'

Yep. Read that sentence above again. It kind of takes your breath away with the sense that poverty is a form of natural selection.

Now these are great kids, who do really care about people and planet. Their question is a back-straightener and for that fact alone it opens up the opportunity to explore the fear of what will happen for 'us' if we end poverty for 'them.'

Perhaps the fastest way to end poverty is to walk back into the fear, to explore our need to feel safe and in the words of the Yoda, 'Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose!'

I think those kids named the elephant in the room, which in my world opens up the way to show them how to use their unique creativity to explore ideas from a social innovation perspective, rather than play a zero-sum game.

#creativity #socinn #innovationforecast #sdg1 #endpoverty #ideas #whatif #creativeleaders
@flowinaction @elainefrancetcb

How will you celebrate World Toilet Day?

This year, World Toilet Day focuses on the link between sanitation and nutrition. Stats from the UN indicate that 2,4 billion people do not have access to adequate sanitation.

The Gates Foundation came up with a global challenge called Reinvent The Toilet in 2015. 

Check out the mind-map below for guidance, do your research and get people thinking about Sustainable Development Goal 6 by running your own Reinvent Toilets Challenge competition in your school.

#creativity #socinn #wecantwait #flowinaction @elainefrancetcb @flowinaction

Flow In Action's work to empower young people, is all about laying the foundations for them to become social innovators.

As 'social innovators' they will generate ideas and solutions that make positive change happen in their communities - local, national, global, online.

That's the mission.

It thrills me every time I take young people on this journey, equipping them with the tools and skills to take action.

In true Simon Sinek style, I want each one of them to know 'why' their particular, unique blend of imagination and ideas count. I want each one of them to know 'how' to have ideas and develop them; and I want each one of them to know 'what' to do to turn those ideas into reality, reframing failure so that they focus always on creativity.

We work on imagination, how to have ideas, demystifying innovation and how to use these processes to build resilience. 

It's not about being the best academically, it's about knowing it is okay not to know the answer and having the skills, stamina and determination to know how to find it instead. To me, every child belongs to the tribe of problem-solvers because their unique perspective counts.

In 2017, the goal is for Flow In Action to reach 1,000,000 young people - one way or another - to plant the seed of social innovation in them. I want Learn To Move Mountains (c) Clubs happening everywhere...in schools, in libraries, online...

How can you join the revolution?

Look at the Flow In Action Workshops for Students and get in touch to talk about your requirements. 

Sign up for the free Flow In Action e-newspaper on the Home Page and get ideas each week to inspire social innovation and change-making in your community.

#creativity #innovation #socinn 
@elainefrancetcb @IBOrganisation @IBWorldmag @edutopia