What to read after Evoke - Developing Skills in Youth to Solve the World's Most Complex Problems?

The Evoke project is designed to support young people as they develop an understanding of these complex challenges, acquire 21st century skills (e.g., creativity, collaboration, critical reflection), socio-emotional skills (e.g., curiosity, empathy, generosity), and gain the confidence to experiment, collaborate, and create innovative solutions. The Social Innovators' Framework is unique in that it brings together the fundamental principles and practices from the social innovation and educational development fields in order to create a multidisciplinary, structured, and active learning experience that is project based and problem posing. The SIF helps students understand the grand challenges and the lived experiences of people in the community by providing an educational model in which they can learn about the social innovation cycle through research and from first-hand experience in the field. The Social Innovators' Framework is the first paper in this three-part series. In this paper, we present the Social Innovators' Framework. In the first section of this paper, we provide an overview of the SIF and the Evoke project. In the second section, then explain the theoretical and empirical foundation that underpins the framework and connects cognitive and socio-emotional skills development to social innovation and social change. In the final section of this paper, we outline the way in which the SIF was designed, provide the detailed framework, and describe how the framework has been developed as part of the Evoke project. This includes: defining the skills, describing how these skills are operationalized in activities and measured using concrete evidence, illustrating how skills are grouped into an integrated and iterative project-based learning process, and articulating the assessment approach.