Collective Voice: A Major, National Campaign

 

As each Listening Session concludes, we are synthesizing the themes that emerged from the paintings and what the young people said, with the other Listening Session visions.  When the last of the 50 has been concluded, we will have the key emergent themes that we can present to the nation.



Collective Voice: A National Exhibition and Conference is our Vision



In an unprecedented collection of paintings, film, and research, we will hold a national exhibition entitled Collective Voice: The Wisdom of Young People on Education in Washington, DC. This will announce what the collective voice of young people around the country envisions for education in the future. We will invite all of the Listening Session participants to come to Washington to stand with us to present the information to policy makers, educators, administrators as well as others involved in changing education.

The exhibition will feature:
* Displays of the paintings, film and written statements by the students.
* An announcement of the key emergent themes
* Intergenerational Listening Sessions between young people and those in attendance. 
* School tours and student dialog around how they can contribute to change in their own schools.
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All media will be invited as well.



A Published Report



All in attendance, as well as the media, will receive a special report containing the findings as well as documenting the paintings and their content. 



Once the exhibition concludes, it will begin to travel around the United States where it will be used to further spur dialogs between change makers in education and young people.



Student Field Guide



Furthermore, a Collective Voice field guide will be created for young people to use in their local communities to initiate change. Imagining Learning will shift into a more proactive role in supporting and training young people to lead and facilitate change in their communities.  Because the Collective Voice field guide will have the visioning work included in it, young people will have more ability to stand for what can be and not just protest against what is.



There are many more possibilities that will emerge over time, but our key intention is always going to be to present the collective voice of young people to the nation in a way that will create dialog and actions to lead to changing education.