Your Name and Title: Elaine France
Library, School, or Organization Name: Flow In Action
Co-Presenter Name(s): n/a
Area of the World from Which You Will Present: Switzerland
Language in Which You Will Present: English
Target Audience(s): Public Librarians, School Librarians, Educators
Short Session Description (one line): How libraries can capacity-build their community's skills for taking real climate action using futures-thinking sessions.
Full Session Description (as long as you would like):
This session explores how libraries can use futures-thinking sessions to engage and empower people of all ages in their community in sustainability and climate action.
We will explore:
- How futures-thinking actively uses the tools of imagination and creativity to explore new futures that we want to unfold.
- How exploring new futures connects individuals to their resilience and well-being.
- How to use these sessions to inspire community action for sustainability.
You will leave the session with an:
- Overview of how to run a futures-thinking session to engage people of all ages in your community in taking climate action to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals at a local level.
- Understanding of how using imagination to build empathy, using your library's resources, increases resilience and wellbeing.
- Understanding of how explorations of sustainable futures inspires hope and action.
Websites / URLs Associated with Your Session: https://www.flowinaction.org/
Your Bio(s): Elaine France is the Founder of Flow In Action, working with youth, librarians, educators and entrepreneurs. She uses futures-thinking to connect people to their unique creativity and resilience, to empower them as problem-solvers for the planet, particularly in the design of nature-based solutions.
Her activities inspire a journey from imagination to ideas to impact; enabling each individual to connect to their unique voice and creativity and to share it in collaborative problem-solving. She uses futures-thinking and imagination activities as the starting point for developing resilience and creative thinking skills: playing with ideas to explore real-world sustainability challenges and the UN SDGs. These activities evolve to develop design and systems-thinking skills, as well as develop entrepreneurial mindset. Elaine runs workshops for youth, train-the-trainer activities for educators and librarians; and designs and delivers futures-thinking sessions, innovation challenges, curricula, events and programmes with youth-focused organisations. She is a qualified librarian and an experienced innovation and entrepreneurship consultant, coach and trainer, bringing together 25 years of expertise from across sectors. Elaine is an Associate Board Member of Webster University Geneva’s Center for Creativity & Innovation; and a consultant for UNITAR’s Learning Solutions Roster. She partners with UNCTAD’s Division of Investment & Enterprise (DIAE) to run the Start-Up for SDGs youth entrepreneurship pitching event as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week Geneva.
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