Dafna Michaelson Jenet

How do you take that feeling inside that you get when you hear someone inspire you to take action and make it a force ready to propel real action? This was the question I had to answer when I presented at TedxDenverED. I was slated to speak to hundreds of formal and informal educators in a presentation which was going to be recorded and simulcast across the globe. I knew that sharing the stories of the ordinary people who stood up to become community problem solvers I met on the 50 in 52 Journey and the experience I had with my daughters 3rd/4th grade classroom elevating the students to the roles of community problem identifier and problem solver would pump them up, but how to make them commit?

After encouraging the audience to think about the list of things they like to complain about in their communities and pushing them to identify just one thing from that list for which they could work to find a solution the participants were ready for the next step.

Working with a graphic storyteller Raise Your Hand© began to take shape, literally and figuratively. Using large foam core towers and dozens of bright colorful magic markers members of the audience were encouraged to publicly and creatively record the community solutions they for which they were going to commit to “raise their hands” and take action on developing a solution.

A powerful and motivating force behind the Raise Your Hand© activity was a $1,000 donation committed by the curator of TedxDenverED to help the best idea get launched.

Now developed into a formal workshop Raise Your Hand© offers communities ranging from neighborhoods to corporate communities the opportunity to develop a colorful lasting record of how their community came together to “raise their hand” and tackle the issues that need solving. Check out www.journeyinstitute.org/raiseyourhand for more information. Let’s raise our hands together!