Think Like a Genius® Challenge
The CYL Think Like a Genius® Challenge invites youth programs and organizations to assemble teams of young leaders between the ages of 14 and 19 to work together to address pressing community issues using the Think Like a Genius® Process.
The TLG Challenge Goal
To work as a team and utilize your community resources to creatively design and implement a youth-focused solution to drive positive change to a critical community issue.
During the Challenge, youth teams and their adult mentors develop and implement the most creative and effective solution to a critical community issue. At the end of the Challenge, the teams present their solutions to a panel of community members and their peers, to be awarded monetary prizes and the opportunity to become project mentors for local non-profits for the continuation of their project design.
The Challenge Timeline
2023 Challenge Question:
How can youth create solutions to improve the safety of their communities by addressing community violence, mobility, and substance use awareness?
CONNECT
Facilitated Me Model™, We Model™ & Roadmap to Success™ sessions
Teams receive Challenge focal question & start connecting with the needs of the community
DISCOVER
The Challenge Kickoff
Last Saturday in June
Fun-filled day of leadership exploration, team building, and workshops to help teams be successful during the Challenge
INVENT
Engage in service & leadership opportunities to more deeply understand the focal question & the communities impacted
Teams work to identify solutions addressing the critical community issue
APPLY
The Final Challenge
Last Saturday in July
Teams present their project results & receive feedback from community members on originality, creativity, sustainability and more!
Throughout this challenge, every participant will gain real insight into their own interests, passions, priorities, and goals. They will learn how to uncover the resources available to support them, and learn that asking for help is okay!
The key to gaining this personal growth is in the Challenge’s use of a unique process of building 3-dimensional symbolic models to show and describe thoughts, feelings, and ideas. During the Challenge, each team will engage in facilitated Think Like a Genius® modeling workshops for the Me (individual) Model™, We (team) Model™ and the Roadmap to Success™. The modeling workshops expand innovative thinking and the Roadmap to Success™ focuses and organizes young people’s visionary ideas into actionable plans with a specific goal. This process engages young people to envision and create a world of possibilities and opportunities for themselves, and to positively impact their communities.
Applications for team registration are open now for organizations who are interested in participating for the 2023 Challenge!
Judging Criteria
During the Final Challenge, all teams showcase their leadership skills and present their projects to a panel of judges consisting of community members from nonprofit, private and public sectors who are working within or committed to the critical community issue. The final team projects are judged and grants are distributed based on the following judging criteria: actionable, creative, collaborative, effective, measurable, organization, and sustainable.
Additionally, each team will have the opportunity to judge the other teams and select winners for each of the following categories: most sustainable, most innovative and most community-focused. Winning teams will receive prizes for their initiatives, and have the opportunity to receive project-based grants in order to continue to implement their solutions in their communities.
Past Challenges
Take a look at Challenge questions from previous years. Each question addressed how teams created and implemented youth-led solutions to the following critical community issues
2022: Promoting healthy communities through sexual, mental and physical health
2021: Addressing social inequities that have become more prevalent during the COVID-19 pandemic
2019: Reducing and/or preventing sexual harassment in your communities
2018: Protecting and nurturing positive mental health for youth in your communities
2017: Preventing bullying in your communities (school, social media, etc.)
2016: Increasing food security for youth in Denver Public Schools
2015: Supporting homeless children and youth in Denver
Student Stories
Watch inspiring stories of youth who have participated in past Challenges.
Thank You
The CYL Think Like a Genius® Challenge is supported by these community partners
