The Empowered for Peace “Ideas to Impact” Challenge
STARTS: 1 July 2025
ENDS: 30 September 2025
Inspiring Young Minds to Change the World
We're inviting primary schools around the globe to be part of something extraordinary — a free, creative, and impactful challenge that puts problem-solving and peace-building at the heart of the classroom.
The Empowered for Peace Challenge empowers children aged 8 to 12 to answer one big question: “How would you make the world a better place?
Imagine a world where everyone feels safe, happy, and included—what’s one idea that could help us create that world?
No Entry Fees – Just Big Ideas
At Empowered for Peace, our mission is to support the journey of powerful ideas—from imagination to implementation. That means helping young change makers take their ideas all the way from concept, to feasibility studies, and even to the desks of venture capitalists for potential funding and real-world impact.
Because of this, we don’t charge any entry fees. We believe every child’s voice deserves to be heard—regardless of financial background.
Endorsed by Peter Skillman - The Spaghetti Challenge
“The Empowered for Peace Ideas to Impact Challenge creates the foundation for young minds to work together more effectively on a goal that has deep purpose: building a better world. The challenge has always been to drive awareness of how teams can work together to drive the best outcomes. Leadership in this context is about inclusion and leveraging the intellect of even the most reserved people. Through trial and error and embracing early, rather than late failure, you succeed sooner.”
Children from around the world are invited to take part in this global ideas generation challenge.
Why should your students participate?
When young minds come together to share, brainstorm, debate, and collaborate, they don’t just generate ideas—they grow as leaders. This challenge is a powerful opportunity to nurture the next generation of change makers.
All participating schools will be listed on the Empowered for Peace website amplifying young voices on a global stage. The Top 5 ideas worldwide will be featured on the website with an article about the participating school.
The FINALISTS will be reviewed by an esteemed judging panel to select the Top 5 global ideas. The Top 5 global ideas will move up the Empowered for Peace Innovation Pyramid for feasibility studies and potential funding for real-world implementation.
Our young people are not only the leaders of tomorrow—they are the creators of today.
To take part in the challenge, see the 6-step submission guidelines below:
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Decide which classes or year groups (ages 8–12) will take part.
Choose a date and time for the challenge session — it can take place any time between 1 July and 30 September 2025. We recommend using one of your usual classroom sessions. For example, your Social Science class. (Only one session is required for this challenge!)
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Let students know they’ll be taking part in a global change makers challenge — with schools from around the world.
Explain that their class will submit their Top 5 Best Ideas to the Empowered for Peace Challenge to be published on the Empowered for Peace website.
They may also like to know that the Top 5 Global Ideas will be shared up the Empowered for Peace Innovation Pyramid for further exploration and possible development.
(Do not give the challenge question to the students prior to the session.)
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Ask students to self-select into groups — they can partner with a friend or form small groups of 3–5.
Set the timer for 20-minutes and Present the challenge question:
How would you make the world a better place? (Imagine a world where everyone feels safe, happy, and included—what’s one idea that could help us create that world?) -
Students have 20-minutes to write down all their ideas onto Post-it notes (or other sticky paper) and place their ideas in the centre of their table. Remind the students that ALL ideas are welcome in this first stage. No idea should be dismissed.
Once the 20-minutes is over, ask the students to now select their groups Top 2 ideas and place them onto the board at the front of the class. (Allocate no more than 10 minutes for the table discussions to establish their top 2 ideas.)
(Remember, it’s not up to just one person to decide which ideas move forward for voting—Let the children decide together!)
This process ensures every voice and suggestion is honoured.
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On the classroom board, there should now be an array of post-it notes with the top 2 ideas from each table.
Each student now gets to cast their vote for their favourite ideas.
The top 5 highest-voted ideas will be your class or school’s official submissions.
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Once your students have chosen their Top 5 class ideas on how they believe we can make the world a better place, submit them to the Empowered for Peace Challenge.
You can submit them via the website link, or take a photo of the final top 5 post-it notes on the board and email it to:
connect@empoweredforpeace.org
Submissions must be received by 30 September 2025, 5pm AEST.
Click here to access the submission form.
That’s It!
Thank you for supporting your students to be part of this global, world-changing initiative.
VOTING – ROUND ONE
All submissions will be reviewed by our Review Panel—made up of the Empowered for Peace Challenge Team and affiliated experts—to identify the Top 100 ideas. These will then proceed to Round Two. We may also play a WILD Card, because sometimes the most brilliant ideas are hidden.
VOTING – ROUND TWO
The Top 100 ideas will be reviewed by our Global Judges Panel, a diverse group of leaders from around the world, with the goal of selecting the Top 5 global ideas. The judges will be looking for ideas that have the potential to produce real measurable outcomes that improve lives and create a better future. They will take into account the potential scope of impact—how many people the idea could impact positively locally, nationally and globally.
To ensure fairness and integrity:
All judges will sign a confidentiality agreement prohibiting them from disclosing any submission details.
Judges will recuse themselves from evaluating ideas where a conflict of interest exists (e.g., if they are affiliated with a submitting school or student).
Judges will not discuss their scores with anyone—including other judges.
The final Top 5 winners will only be revealed when announced by the Empowered for Peace Challenge Team.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
The Top 5 global ideas will be announced to the world on our website and shared with high school and university students, who will create feasibility studies to explore how these ideas could work in the real world. Empowered for Peace may “pick up” a project and run with it!
We are committed to doing all we can to bring these ideas to life—through partnerships, funding, and implementation—so together, we can create a safer, happier, and more inclusive world.
Abraham Lincoln