Resources to enhance creativity

EUROMED CREATIVITY LAB Title of activity Learning objectives Duration Activity room Materials Description

Intro session creativity To open up the discussion about creativity, understand its importance and how we use our creative potential on a daily basis and in our work.

90 min No special requirements Post-its, markers, flipchart papers Intro in creativity and innovation Project a Ted Talk on Creativity - Walter Disney https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8MwiGYzlyg Their own definitions of creativity „Creativity is all about exploration and going where no one has gone before. Just like an explorer, you’re hoping to head into uncharted territories. Asking why is the key to starting the journey. A great idea creates its own timing. And that’s what you should be searching for. By being tuned in, aware, sensitive to what is going on, and by keeping an open mind, you can create the circumstances to make that happen.”

Creativity can be found in your simple daily tasks through to ground-breaking scientific discoveries. There have been many definitions of creativity in literature and academia to define sudden bursts of brilliance.

Here is a list of well-respected definitions: "Creativity is the process of change, of development, of evolution, in the organisation of subjective life (Ghiselin,1952)" "Creativity is the forming of associative elements into new combinations which either meet requirements or are in some way useful (Mednick, 1962)" "Creativity denotes a person’s capacity to produce new or original ideas, insights, inventions, or artistic products, which are accepted by experts as being of scientific, aesthetic, social or technical value (Vernon, 1989)" "Creativity is imagination with responsibility (Sae Ra Kung, 2009)" Share with the participants that creativity comes in 2 different sizes A. Small "c" creativity - describes the small ideas that add to our everyday life. Ask the participants to give some concrete examples This can include cooking dinner or rearranging your cupboards. They are not things that will make you rich or famous, but they are everyday, small accomplishments, which enrich and enhance our lives.

Therefore, creativity is not just found in a pretty picture hanging on the wall, it can be found in actions and objects. When you woke up this morning to get ready for

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your day, you used many objects that embody creativity, which in turn made your day a little easier.

B. Big "C" Creativity - Big "C" creativity goes beyond he everyday problem solving, where humankind has made giant leaps in literature and academia where evidence of grand creativity can be found. These milestones can be embodied or represented by objects, be it the spaceship that took the first man to the moon, or a painting that provoked a new movement of thoughts and techniques.

Ask the participants to give examples of big "C" creativity.

Now that they understand better the definition of creativity, ask them to close their eyes and to raise their hand if they consider themselves creative people. Ask them to open their eyes and see if, they keep their hand up taking into account that other people see them. It is important to believe in your creative spirit and your ability to find creative solutions. This is actually the first step.

Part V – Creativity MindMap The next step is to understand the vast dimension of creativity.

The trainer will prepare a series of keywords connected to creativity and add on a clear wall and the participants will be asked to work in 5 groups to develop more the map with new connections in order to create a complete creativity mindmap.

Key-words – draw the word creativity beneath half brain – half heart.

Big categories that the words can be structured in: Tools People Emotions Environments Processes Complementary skills / attitudes / Inspiration Saboteurs of creativity Enhancers of creativity Ask them to come up with new words and share them in the group, complete the mindmap.

What have you discovered about yourself? Did your perspective on creativity changed in any way after this discussion?

Creativity in Youth NGOs To explore various ways through which Youth NGOs can support creative processes in their organizations 90 min

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Open stations Post-its, markers, flipchart papers To initiate the discussion about creative and innovative youth organisations, the facilitators will prepare a collection of briefs with dimensions of innovation in organizations. Afterwards will create multicultural teams and will handle to the participants the following briefs, which are the main pillars of innovation in youth work: Pillar 1: Inclusive team environment Pillar 2: Creative office design Pillar 3: Freedom and flexibility in the workflow Pillar 4: Psychological safety Pillar 5: Self-reflection as a form of exploring new perspectives and possibilities Pillar 6: Knowledge sharing to inspire other people and to practice of culture of sharing information Brief 1: Encourage creativity with an inclusive team environment A playful company culture helps create a sense of belonging and safety, which is the gateway to creative expression and thought generation. A genuine team-based environment, in which connections are forged through collaboration and social time, is essential for innovative teamwork.

Imagine or re-think how our youth not-for-profit organizations could encourage creativity with an inclusive team environment.

What should be the conditions, the enablers encouraged by the team members and the managers of the organization?

Brief 2: Promote creativity through office design An inspiring workspace inspires creativity and innovation.

Reimagine the way that the organizational space works so it encourages and enhances the creativity of the people. Create a raw prototype of a creative office. What elements we should bring in this space?

Brief 3: Provide freedom and flexibility in how work is done Creativity in the workplace does not have to mean creativity in the workspace. Brainstorm a collection of concrete ways and policies that provide freedom and flexibility in how work is done in a way to enhance the team creativity.

Brief 4: Offer the space for knowledge sharing There is no shortage of talent and skills within your organization, just waiting to be passed on. Encourage your employees to share what they know and what they can do with other coworkers.

Brainstorm concrete ways/methods/tools/infrastructure to offer the space for knowledge sharing in your organization.

Brief 5: Encourage the practice of self-reflection When the workload picks up, it’s easy for your employees to

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become focused on the work and forget about the significance of what they’re accomplishing.

Discuss within your team and propose a collection of methods and systems that encourage your team workers to practice selfreflection check-ins.

Brief 6: Support employees in creative risk-taking Cultivate an office culture that rewards creative risk-taking. One reason why employees are not thinking out of the box or proposing different solutions is due to the fear of making mistakes and not having their ideas supported. As much as possible, make it clear to your employees that your organization values creativity—and understands its importance. Imagine you are a new not-for-profit organization. Brainstorm and create the organization policies that support employees in creative risktaking.

What are your key take-aways?

What would you implement starting tomorrow in your organizations?

Creativity Boosters Title of activity Learning objectives

Duration No of participants Activity room Materials Description

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20 ways to use a spoon  To activate the participants creativity  To improve their active listening skills  To learn how to offer a feedback  To break patterns, understand where the ideas come from, and how can we achieve innovation.  To understand the dynamics of a healthy brainstorming process 1h <10 Groups of 3-4 people Papers for each group and 1 pen The trainer distributes the participants in 6 mixed groups. They have as a task to write in 2 minutes 20 ways to use a spoon on the paper received. After the time expires, they are asked how many ways they have found in their teams. Thank them and then ask them to forget the old ones and offer them 2 more minutes to write new 20 ways. The system is repeated until 5 times, the differences are that they will be sometimes very stressed with the time by the trainer and sometimes they are just announced that the times expired.

Next, the trainer asks the participants, in groups, to select 5 the most unconventional ways to use a spoon shared in their group.

Give them 5 minutes to read their full list. Afterwards they share their solutions.

What was the size of your spoon?

What was the color, material of your spoon?

How did you felt under the pressure of time?

Time was a friend or an enermy in generating ideas?

How you have received the solutions from your team members?

What are the 3-4 most important things when we are in a brainstorming, creativity session?

The trainer will share with them that this is a Disney method used to generate new ideas in a very short time. The results of the first 4 rounds are usually patterns, old ideas, norms that we are living with. If we want to innovate we have to cross the boundaries and continue to generate ideas until the fresh and valuable ideas appear in your mind.

Title of activity Learning objectives Duration No of participants Activity room Materials Description

Various creativity boosters  To warm-up our creativity 20-30 min unlimited Circle 30 Circles (Pen and a piece of paper (per person) with 30 blank circles on it of approximately the same size.)

Creativity Booster 1: 30 Circles Step 1: Give each participant one 30 Circles sheet of paper and something to draw with.

Step 2: Turn as many of the blank circles as possible into recognizable objects in three minutes (think clock faces, billiard balls, etc.)

Step 3: Compare results. Look for the quantity or fluency of ideas. How many people filled in ten, fifteen, twenty or more circles? (Typically, most people don’t finish.) Next, look for diversity or flexibility in ideas. See if the ideas are derivative (a basketball, a baseball, a volleyball) or distinct (a planet, a cookie, a happy face). Did anyone “break the rules” and combine circles (a snowman or a traffic light)? Were the rules explicit, or just assumed?

Tips from the field Besides being a great warm-up exercise, Thirty Circles offers a quick lesson about ideation. When you generate ideas, you are balancing two goals: fluency (the speed and quantity of ideas) and flexibility (ideas that are truly different and distinct). We know from experience that it’s easier to have a great idea if you have many to choose from. But if you have a lot of ideas that are just variations on a theme, you might only have one idea with twenty-nine other versions. When you combine fluency and flexibility, you can generate a rich array of concepts to choose from.

Creativity Booster 2: The useless objects game

1. Have five to ten objects prepared. You can use household items or stuff you can find around the office.

2. Display each object and ask the group to come up with new uses for them.

3. Have a blast listening to ideas – some will be outstandingly brilliant, some just downright absurd – that the group comes up with!

Creativity Booster 3: Look Away from What You Are Creating Materials: Pencil or fibre-tip pen, Paper, Timer, 5 minutes free time Objectives: To train the eye to observe and draw what it really sees – rather than what it thinks it sees – and to encourage the brain’s language mode to drop out as you draw.

What to do  Grab a piece of paper and lay it flat on a desk or sketchbook.  Set the timer for 5 minutes.  Position yourself at a table, with the pencil in the middle of the page, to begin drawing.  Now, here’s the strange bit. Turn around in your seat so you are facing in the exact opposite position. Your hand will still be planted on the table with your pencil tip ready to draw, you just won’t be able to see it!  Now begin to gaze at the palm of your hand, crinkling it a bit so you see every line and wrinkle. This is going to be your subject.  You don’t want a drawing of your whole hand, far from it, all you are after is a series of lines and marks observed from your hand.  Draw, without lifting the pencil from the page, for the full 5 minutes. This is harder to do than it sounds.

The temptation to turn around and sneak a peek will be huge.

But if you can resist for 5 minutes something magical can happen…

Creativity Booster 4: Complete this drawing This little exercise measures creativity based on four components:  Fluency — This is to list out as many as ideas as possible, no matter how ridiculous they may be. The key here is to be explorative and open. Ideas can then be refined later.  Flexibility — This involves coming up with different ways to solve a problem you are addressing. Try to have different categories here. This could be technological or non-technological. For example, when dealing with customers, you should be able to see the situation from the customer’s point of view. That way you will have

more than one solution for solving the problem.

Originality — This is part of the divergent thinking process where you will have ideas that have more breadth and originality. A novice user will be able to offer unexpected responses and come up with breakthrough solutions.  Elaboration — This is the way you describe a certain idea. For example: “a pair of Airpods” as opposed to “a pair of wireless headphones that delivers an unparallel experience”.

The latter sounds way more exciting. This attention to detail can often transform an idea to one with greater potential. 

Creativity Booster 5: Make your own sandwich This exercise is bound to get all those creative juices flowing. As the name suggests, participants are to get a blank piece of paper and simply make a sandwich that reflects their personality.

Creativity Booster 6: Design a watch face Create a new type of information display for the Pebble watch.

Matt wrote up a great post that highlighted all the creations. We were so ahead of our time!

Creativity Booster 7: Your morning in 2065 Draw out your morning routine 50 years from now. Let's explore what a morning in the future will be like? Do you drink coffee?

Do you read the news? Do you shower?

Creativity Booster 8: Channel Your Inner Artist You will need to form teams of 4–6 participants for this exercise and print outs of some random objects for this. Each team will

appoint an artist within their group. The artist will then be separated from the rest of his/her group. The rest of the group will pick out an object from the box and instruct their designated artists to draw it out without revealing what their object is. This may seem easy but the one-way communication of instructions from teams to their artists must be rather precise to get the drawing right. The group whose drawing is the closest to the actual item they picked wins the game. This exercise not only improves creative thinking but also improves communication within teams.

Title of activity Learning objectives Duration No of participants Activity room Materials Description

Meeting your Creative Spirit To (re)connect with themselves 1h unlimited Making themselves comfortable in the activity room Handout with instructions for the trainer Begin by telling participants they are going to go on an inner journey to the place where their creative spirit lives. The creative spirit represents the part of us that makes things happen. Then introduce the basics of visualization. Creative visualization is a visit into the imagination. It’s like having a dream while you are awake. In this case, it’s guided because you will be asking people to imagine certain things along the way.

The important thing to remember, though, is that this is their experience and whatever comes up in their mind is the right thing. Let them know that everyone has a different experience with visualization. For some it looks like a brilliant movie, for others it’s a fuzzier, more impressionistic experience. Some people don’t see anything at all, but they may feel emotions or have some thoughts. It doesn’t matter what form the experience takes. The idea is to simply follow along and see what happens.

RELAXATION Let people know that you are going to begin by leading them in a few activities to increase their relaxation. The more relaxed we are, the more open we are to our inner selves. Ask participants to get in a comfortable position either sitting in a chair or lying on the floor and close their eyes. Let them know that it’s ok to not close their eyes if they’re too uncomfortable doing so in a group. If that is the case, ask them to partially close their eyes.

Then ask everyone to begin by becoming aware of their breathing. “Don’t do anything special with it. Just notice it coming in and going out of your body. Now, breath more deeply bringing the breath right down into your belly. Watch your belly

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rise and fall as the breath comes in and out.” You can say things like, “Breathing in clear, calm energy. Breathing out any tension or worries.” Now ask participants to feel the contact between their body and the floor or the chair. With each out breath, feel their body get heavier. After going through a relaxation sequence tell participants, “Now we are going to take a journey to the place where your creative spirit lives.”

VISUALIZATION Ask participants to imagine standing in front of a door. “Take a moment to look at the door. What color is it? What is it made of? What is the texture? What does the frame look like? Are there any words written on the door?” Ask them to reach out with their hand and run it down the imaginary door. “What does the door feel like?” And then ask them to reach out with their nose and smell the door. “What does the door smell like?” Then say, “In a moment I’m going to ask you to open the door and enter the place where your creative spirit lives. Now, open the door and slowly walk in.

Take a moment to look around. Are you in a large space or small? Are you inside or outdoors? What colors do you see?

What does it feel like to be in the place your creative spirit lives?

Now call out and invite your creative spirit to join you in this place. Notice what happens. If your creative spirit appears as a form, take a moment to see what it looks like. Is it big or small?

Male or female? Human, animal, or something else? Does it have an age? How does it feel to be standing in the presence of your creative spirit? Now take a moment to talk with your creative spirit. What advice does she/he have to help you become fully creative, fully yourself? What does your creative spirit need from you to become fully activated? Take a moment to ask your creative spirit anything else that comes to mind.

Finally, thank your creative spirit for taking the time to be you and say goodbye, knowing you can come back to this place at anytime. Now, walk back through the door, close the door, and slowly feel yourself return to the room. Wiggle your fingers and toes, stretch your arms and legs, and when you are ready, open your eyes.”

If anyone feel confortable to share their experience, they are free to do it.

If your creative spirit would be an animal, how would it look like? Use some modelling clay and create the animal and share the story behind each one.

Innovation Title of activity Learning objectives

Impossible Hybrids To discover how to play and create new tools/products from

Duration Activity room Materials Description

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concepts that are not overlapping, by combining the objects.

60 min working stations Flipchart papers, sticky notes, colourful markers Another exercise to stretch the imagination focuses on creating impossible objects. Creativity involves the synthesis of unlike concepts, particularly when the concepts are not normally seen as overlapping. Below are unusual combinations of objects. The trainer will create 8 groups and each one of them will receive a challenge on a note + 1 common one (the last one) so they can see how they think alike or different. Try to imagine each object, describe it as fully as possible and draw a picture of it on a flipchart paper. Share in the big group your invention.

1. A tent that is a hammock 2. A lampshade that is a book 3. A bicycle that is an oven 4. A backpack that is a hammock The participants will have the task to find a name for their product, create a sales story and pitch their product and convince the audience to buy and use it.

How was the process of creating something new from 2 different elements? How were the roles distributed in the teams?

Brainstorming methods Title of activity Learning objectives

Duration Activity room Materials Description

6-3-5 The compelling “why” for using such a technique is the belief that the success of an idea generation process is determined by the degree of contribution and integration to one another’s suggestions (building on the idea of others), thereby overcoming any possible creativity barriers team members might face.

Brainwriting gives everyone a chance to focus quietly, which for introverts provides a space for less stress than typical brainstorming sessions.

Having everyone share a deep background of the topic at hand is important so that not one single expert can overtly influence the quality of the output.

To become familiar with brainwriting methods 60 min Working stations A4 papers; pens 6-3-5 6-3-5 means: 6 in group/3 ideas per round/5 minutes per round.

Divide everyone into groups of about 6. Too many in a group are unmanageable, too few restrict the generation of ideas. 3. Each participant starts with a prewritten brainwriting form. The

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problem to be addressed is written at the top of the form In the first round, participants have 5 minutes to write 3 ideas in the top boxes (1 per box) of the brainwriting form. Often the problem is known ahead of time and the participants come in with the 3 ideas already developed. If this is the case, this initial time can be shorter.

At the end of each round, the form is passed to the person on the right. As each person gets a form from the person on the left, they read all the ideas on the sheet and then add three new ones. The new ideas can be completely new, or can be variations of ideas already on the sheet, or can be additional developments to ideas already on the sheet. Ideas from other participants should foster new ideas. There is no talking or discussion during these rounds.

The process is completed when each participant gets his own form back, now filled up with many ideas. The last step is to sort the ideas using the 100 dollars test.

The plus of the method?

The minus of this approach?

In which contexts and environments you should use it?

Handouts for 6-3-5 Title of activity Context

The Challenge

Climate Protection Now! Located in the southeast of the country, the target community are the people of Munich city. Munich is the capital and biggest city of Germany’s largest county, Bavaria. Possible solutions, however, may spread throughout the German speaking countries, affecting roughly 100 million people. Because the challenge addresses private households, residents and estateowners need to be addressed by the proposed solutions as they have been identified in a large-scale measure of personal climate harms.

Nowadays, private households lack the motivation and awareness to take action when it comes to sustainable and environmentally friendly living. Green City e.V. is therefore looking for innovative solutions to encourage the broader public to become proactive citizens who engage in daily activities.

Do you have an innovative approach to stimulate Munich’s citizens to carry forward climate objectives by personally taking conscious, environmentally friendly action on a daily basis?

Solutions may be of technical or entrepreneurial nature but close to the citizens’ daily lives in order to encourage them to take action in becoming conscious and environmentally friendly residents. We also welcome ideas concerning educational campaigns that help to make people aware of their personal, environmental footprint and their role in meeting the climate

The Challenge owners

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objectives.

Green City’s organisational purpose and mission revolves around the aim to improve future and current living conditions in light of individuals and their natural surrounding environment by fighting for more sustainable transport, an innovative city design, lifelong environmental education, and a considerate dealing with energy in Munich. As a politically and financially independent non-profit organisation, Green City aims to reduce individual motor-driven traffic and the emission of airborne gases to make Munich a greener and more viable place to live.

Therefore, Green City’s statute includes a complete reduction of harmful emissions, which is why we are a member of “KlimaAllianz”, ally to the citizens’ initiative for Munich’s coal-fired power plant shutdown, and consultant and communicative service for “Klimapakt Münchner Wirtschaft”.

1h 30 min to come up with a solution to the challenge 10 min to present it to the group Accessibility for everyone & everywhere The problem of accessibility and mobility in our cities is a major societal challenge. Urban planning has not been designed for citizens with reduced mobility. Angers (a small city from France) has been a city of experimentation for more than 20 years.

The French Equal Opportunities Act of 2005 forecasted that in 2015, 100% of the Establishments will be Public Access Establishments (PRAs). This is far from the case today, as only 30% of the PRAs are declared accessible for disabled people.

In addition to the inaccessible PRAs, obstacles on the road are abundant: a too narrow sidewalk, an unsuitable coating, sloping terrains, a boat that hasn’t a suitable access for disabled persons; as well as temporary obstacles, often linked to incivility, like cars or two-wheelers parked on the sidewalk, jobs without alternative or accessible path. For instance, Paris, the third most visited city in the world is 80% inaccessible.

Moving freely and autonomously in cities is therefore a problem for all people with reduced mobility, whose rights are not respected, facing isolation and no longer wanting to travel for fear of being blocked in an unknown inaccessible place With the economic crisis and budget cuts, cities have increasingly tight budgets; moreover expenditures to improve accessibility are very important. It is therefore necessary to be able to compensate this economic scarcity with technological innovation to facilitate the daily life of millions of disabled people.

Target community: Public establishments, Persons who are disadvantaged with reduced mobility (PRM) regardless of physical disability.

The Challenge

The Challenge owners

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The Challenge

Find a solution that enable all people with reduced mobility to be able to move around the city in complete autonomy and disposing of a suitable route to the desired destination or accessible place. The solution must be duplicable on a large scale, quickly to cover a large territory, allowing the largest number of people with reduced mobility to benefit from the service.

The PAVIC association (http://pavic.io/), created in Angers promotes collaborative work, the networking of digital actors, training, as well as exchanges and valorisation of innovative projects that are contributing to the purpose of the association.

1h 30 min to come up with a solution to the challenge 10 min to present it to the group Breaking the cycle of homelessness ‘Breaking the Cycle’ of homelessness in Greater Manchester through co-designed approaches to prevention, relief and longterm independence.

4,428 people in Greater Manchester are currently experiencing homelessness. Of those, 4,329 are living in temporary accommodation and 189 are rough sleepers. In May 2017, Greater Manchester (GM) elected its first ever city-regional Mayor, Andy Burnham. His first formal act on his first day in office was to launch the GM Mayor’s Homelessness Fund in support of frontline efforts to tackle homelessness, and toward his pledge to end rough-sleeping in the GM city-region by 2020.The Mayor donates 15% of his salary to the fund. GM is the first city-region in the world to formally embed the arts into its Homelessness Strategy, and responses which resonate with that pioneering strategic alignment are particularly welcome.

Building on our collective work to date, the theme for this challenge is ‘Homelessness: Breaking the Cycle’. The GM Mayor’s Office invites ideas, innovations and best-practice exchange in response to this broad theme, both in support of our shared mission to end rough sleeping in GM by 2020, and in contribution to a co-developed 10-year homelessness reduction and prevention strategy for GM (to be scoped from January 2018). It is essential that responses are co-designed with people with lived experience of homelessness. Specifically, we invite responses which speak to the one or more of the three pillars of our approach: - Respite - to take people off the street into a safe place - Recovery - to manage issues, to stabilize individuals and to work towards reconnection through support and upskilling - Reconnection – to enable individuals to lead reconnected lives in their communities

The Challenge owners

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The Challenge

The Challenge owners

Cllr Beth Knowles, Lead for Rough Sleeping and Homelessness will act as “champion” for this challenge within the Mayor’s Office. A long-term campaigner and activist in tackling homelessness, and a strong champion and advocate for people with lived experience, she has been pivotal in establishing Manchester’s pioneering Homelessness Partnership and in the co-creation of its Homelessness Charter. She is Chair of ‘With One Voice’, a global practice and policy-sharing partnership focussed on homelessness and the arts.

1h 30 min to come up with a solution to the challenge 10 min to present it to the group

Boosting rural areas and building thriving rural communities The city of Pampilhosa da Serra is located in the interior of Portugal and, although it is only 70 km from the city of Coimbra, it has progressively been losing population. Young people leave for higher education studies and no longer return, citizens of working age, having no available jobs, have to look for work elsewhere and thus leave the city. It is important to state that, even though in the context of the recent economic crisis the unemployment has forced people to return to Pampilhosa, the entrepreneurship index remains low with low self-employment rates. In demographic terms, the municipality shows an accentuated decrease of its resident population: in 10 years, we lost 14% of the population, counting now with about 4500 residents. About 42% of the population is over 65 years old (dependent population) and only 7% of the population is under 14 years old.

Considering this scenario, the municipality has been creating incentives and direct support to the population with the aim of retaining and attracting residents - support to the school-aged population with books from the 1st to the 12th year, everyday equipment free of charge, incentives to housing and urban rehabilitation, support to companies and entrepreneurs to create new businesses. However, the results are not meaningful and the depopulation trend remains.

City in Portugal is looking for solutions to combat depopulation, to respond to the aging population issue, abandonment of villages and rural economic activities, and the low level of entrepreneurial dynamics that persists despite available support.

The City Council represents the local authority and it is in their attributions to support the populations and the development of the municipality, in partnership with the local community.There is a total alignment of the municipal strategy with the identified

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The Challenge

The Challenge owners

challenge. This can be proven in the Strategic Plan available online in Portuguese. Alexandra Tomé is a city councilor responsible for culture, education, health and social support, etc. As a member of the executive, she ensures the connection to the municipality´s political structure with its technical staff to concretize the proposals drawn. She has been part and has accompanied the design of the strategy and municipal projects as well as its results.

1h 30 min to come up with a solution to the challenge 10 min to present it to the group Give Blood Now! Blood is not produced in laboratory and it cannot be substituted with other substances.

Blood donation is essential to save lives of who is affected from diseases like thalassemia, leukemia, hemophilia, but it’s also necessary in routine surgery (such as cesarean section and transplantation) and first aid (such as bleeding and burns).

In the next future the Blood Transfusion System will face the following social challenges: - Progressive aging of the population, with a consequent decrease in supply and increase in demand for blood; - Insufficient generational replacement of blood donors (today only 30% of donors are under 35 years old); - Contrast between the spontaneity of voluntary blood donation and the local collection planning.

Furthermore the recent events have demonstrated how the communication has a low efficiency in case of emergency for disaster strikes or in case of fake news.

Therefore the challenge stems from the need to contribute proactively to problem’s solution detected in Molise as in the rest of Italy: increase blood donations, involving young people, in order to guarantee, already today and even more in the next future, the self-sufficiency of the national transfusion system Increase the involvement and retention of young blood donors and promote the culture of planned donation in the area of Isernia. Use new technologies to promote blood donations in the city and province of Isernia in order to: -Bring people (expecially youngs) closer to blood donation; -Combine the spontaneity of blood donation with needs of territory planning; -Make blood donors aware.

The Molise Region has about 320.000 inhabitants, spread over a mainly mountainous territory and with a gradual aging of the population due mainly to the current socio-economic situation that forces the new generations to move where the job offer is greater.

Challenge Owner is very active in promoting the culture of blood

donation, while the new social dynamics and the progressive aging of the population impose an evolution of the adopted approach requires the use of instruments calibrated for the millennial segment and the development of specific models that are, replicable, easily and economically sustainable, to ensure the dissemination and adoption of the scheduled blood donation culture by the new generations.

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The Challenge

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Reconnect generations The evolution of modern Western societies and retirement pensions appearing after Second Word War led generations to be freer one to another. In France, the country that interests us for this challenge, it has become very rare to encounter three generations of a same family living under the same roof.

This situation has advantages but disadvantages too. Grandparents when retired are not here anymore to take care of the little ones which leads to many parents’ common issue of baby sitting and day care. Growing old and dependency appearing, grandparents are very often isolated, active and working parents not living in the same place cannot take care of their own parents and when the case logistics may be very difficult.

It is observed that society is cut in two parts of people: people who are well and enjoy life and the other ones, invisible, who are dependent, disabled or old and who result to be on the fringe of society. Those two parts are disconnected. The solution will aim at reconnecting those two parts of society and implicating all kind of people and generations.

Help us to reconnect generations with each other while guaranteeing trust and benevolence between people. We are looking for a solution that locally recreates social cohesion between generations that have been weakening in Western societies over the past decades and more especially targeting populations that are isolated due to age, dependency or disability.

Lotus Blossom  To explore a structured brainstorming method  To develop strategies to tackle Erasmus+ youth challenges in teams  To improve the ability to generate creative ideas and flows in a short time.

120-150 min Working stations

Materials Description

Debriefing Resources Title of activity Learning objectives

Flipchart papers, sticky notes, markers Invented in Japan by Yasuo Matsumura, the Lotus Blossom technique adds focus and power to classic brainstorming. Once mastered, the technique helps you create more and higher quality ideas for products and services, plan your projects and communication campaigns and help you solve a variety of problems you frequently encounter.

The Lotus Blossom technique focuses the power of brainstorming on areas of interest. It does so through the use of a visual representation of ideas and is similar to a mind-map, but is more structured and pushes you in ways you don’t experience in classic mind-mapping.

One starts off with a central idea or theme and then expands outwards with solution areas or related themes in an iterative manner. Once you have eight different general ideas, you place each into the larger diagram so you can generate eight more specific ideas related to each original idea. The goal is to generate eight interesting and creative ideas all related to the central idea. No answer is wrong. Just put it in for consideration.

Once you have completed the eight ideas for the first category, move on to the next category and go through the same exercise.

By the time you're done filling out the Lotus Blossom, you will have 64 different ideas for your challenge. And if you want to dive deeper into any one idea, you can always create another blossom, putting your favourite idea in the centre and building 64 more ideas around it.

The possibilities are endless, but the process is organized and manageable on your own or in any group setting.

Challenges to be given to the participants in 3 groups: Challenge 1: Digital Transformation of youth work services Challenge 2: Environment and fight against climate change Challenge 3: Inclusion and Diversity The participants will have to introduce their How did you find the method?

In which contexts/environments you can find it useful?

What are the most useful ideas of interventions?

Handout with the Lotus Blossom Ideas Marathon - 6 thinking hats ● To become familiar with parallel thinking and 6 thinking hats method ● To generate solutions to improve the current services offered by the youth NGOs. ● To improve group discussion and decision-making by getting your group thinking in parallel with one another and sharing the same framing lens, as an alternative to a discussion based on quick feedback and opposition.

Activity room Materials Description

Working station Flipchart papers; markers; post-its; cardboards for characters; a white sheet; lights, worksheets with the 6 thinking hats The trainer should collect challenges from representatives of partner organisations or challenges that the young people are facing in their local communities prior to this activity. (4-5 challenges) The trainer will invite the participants to create 3-4 different groups. Each group will receive a challenge connected to youth workers.

Then, they will receive each one of them a set of small hats that they have to use each hat, on different rounds during the brainstorming.

Step 1: With the group, the facilitator identifies a topic for discussion.

Step 2: The facilitator passes out a worksheet with descriptions of the Six Hats to each group member.

Step 3: With the group, the facilitator determines an order to use the hats. de Bono recommends that you pair complementary hats, such as White/Red, Yellow/Black, Green/Blue, and that you determine the full order of the hats you’ll “try on” before you start your discussion. It’s often useful to begin and end with Blue. Hats can be repeated.

Step 4: With the group, the facilitator determines a time limit for each hat. Times can vary according to the importance of the hat.

Step 5: The facilitator then leads the group through each hat, reminding the group of each hat’s focus and keeping time. The facilitator may need to remind participants to contain their responses to the parameters of the hat.

Put on the blue hat to gain an overview of your big idea.

Describe the process surrounding your idea. Consider what you want to explore, the problems you’re having and your goal for the big idea in question.

Next, with your imaginary White hat and explain the facts about your big idea. Ask yourself what you know about your big idea and what facts do you possess? wear your Green Hat for being more creative about your big idea. That means asking questions like: How can I approach my big idea using fresh thinking? What new ideas do I have?

- Generate at least 50 solutions to this idea - Decision-making techniques: How-Now-Wow, Impact & Effort matrix Your Red Hat is for articulating emotions. Ask yourself what your instinct or gut tells you about your big idea?

Wear your Yellow Hat to explore the benefits of your big idea.

Ark what benefits your big idea offers and how will tackling it

Debriefing

help you or your audience? Be optimistic and hopeful about how things will turn out.

Wear your black hat and view your big idea logically. Ask how you can approach your big idea in a sensible way? Your black hat thinking will help you become more critical of your big idea before you start working on it.

How was this experience for you?

What was your AHA moment?

What would you do differently in the future based on these learning experiences?

What are you grateful for?

Additional resources 1) My creative type quiz, by Adobe - https://mycreativetype.com/ 2) A complete MOOC about Creativity and Innovation in Youth work with videos, assignments, brainstorming methods here: https://learning.monomyths.ro/ 3) Books we recommend:  Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi  Insight Out: Get Ideas Out of Your Head and Into the World, by Tina Seelig  Six Thinking Hats, by Edward de Bono  The Innovator's DNA: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators, by Jeff Dyer  Environments: Make Space: How to Set the Stage for Creative Collaboration, by Scott Doorley  Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days, by Jake Knapp  Design is Storytelling, by Ellen Lupton  Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action, by Simon Sinek  Ten Faces of Innovation, by Tom Kelley