CEF YouthWise Program:
Celebrating the Creative Wisdom of Youth
An Example of CEF's Outreach in the World
CEF YouthWise is an outreach program of the Creative Education Foundation, addressing two of its key focus areas: creative education and youth, and creative communities and cities. CEF YouthWise offers children and youth an experiential introduction to the Osborn-Parnes Creative Problem Solving (CPS) Process and the principles of Applied Imagination and creativity. Its purpose is to provide participants with the tools, strategies and techniques of CPS so they can apply them proactively to challenges in their lives, their schools and their communities. CEF YouthWise is presented by qualified CEF leaders, members and teachers.
NEW! If you would like to be considered as teacher or facilitator for CEF YouthWise programs, please contact us for more information.
CEF YouthWise Mission
The CEF YouthWise Program seeks to teach young people how to apply Creative Problem Solving to make positive changes in their own lives and to collaborate with youth and adults in their schools and communities to solve challenges creatively and for the common good.
CEF YouthWise Curriculum
The Osborn-Parnes Creative Problem Solving Process is the foundation of our program. It is a dynamic and flexible tool. The CEF YouthWise Curriculum is designed to fit several teaching and learning styles.
CEF YouthWise Program - Three Pilot Projects
CEF currently has three active pilot projects underway as part of its development of an overall CEF YouthWise Program that will be adaptable to other communities, both in the U.S. and internationally. These programs include CEF YouthWise @ CPSI, CEF YouthWise in South Africa, and CEF YouthWise in Chester, Pennsylvania.
Each of these projects begin with CEF YouthWise's goal of teaching young people how to apply Creative Problem Solving to make positive changes in their own lives and in their communities. However, the model of how this program is taught in each of the three communities varies. This diversity of approach will help determine what are the core elements that constitute CEF YouthWise and which elements will vary by community. For example, the time format varies by the concentrated, weeklong approach at CEF's annual Creative Problem Solving Institute and in South Africa, versus the multi-week format being applied in Chester.
CEF YouthWise - Highlights From the South Africa Project
A team of six CEF volunteers went on their
way to deliver the third CEF YouthWise in South Africa program.
Read The
Times Herald story about the three Buffalo-area members of the
team.
CEF launched the YouthWise progam in October 2003 with a school-based program in South Africa, working with 60 students and 10 teachers, representing six separate schools in the Cape Flats area. Cape Flats is a relatively new community that has expanded greatly since democracy as more and more black families have been gravitating toward the cities for work. The economic level is very low. All students who attended were boys ages 12 to 14. They gathered at the Paul Roos Gymnasium in Stellenbosch, and completed a two-day program in entrepreneurship prior to CEF's arrival.
CEF's 2003 program theme was hope -- and during the course of the two-and-a-half days with the students, we shared with them the basic tools of CPS, which they applied directly to goals they identified in their own lives. Working together, we created the "story" of where they want to go, and they expressed this story through a variety of media---including their own journaling, and video.
Joette Field led the team, and spoke about her experience at the 9th annual International Creativity Conference in Africa. Click here to read what this introduction of the CEF YouthWise program meant for CEF and the 60 eighth-grade students who received and enjoyed these tools, and in turn gave us back so much spirit and heart.
2003 team member Amy Swisher wrote an article for Soul Magazine about the experience. Click here to read the text.
Since 2003, CEF has returned to South Africa in 2004 and added more student (including girls and boys) and more adult participants. A CEF team of six will be there again in Septmber 2005. In this third year, the team will using further-defined materials and assessments in an effort to deepen the sustainability of the program going forward.
Applications of Creative Thinking in the Classroom
- In language arts, use CPS to generate characters, setting, problems and solutions. Children can create and imagination, applying their own ideas.
- In research projects, have students/scouts/program participants use CPS to generate their own topics and approaches to research.
- For classroom management, use CPS to create a classroom environment, structure and boundaries.
- In math, use CPS for applied problem solving, allowing children to define the problem and look at it differently.
- In science, use CPS to explore the scientific method.
- In social studies, use CPS to explore and better understand differences and diversity. Apply creative thinking to explore historical events from a variety of perspectives and viewpoints.
- For conflict resolution, use CPS to think in new ways about the conflict topic and to generate and implement solutions.
