NOTE: this is a double-length sessionIn a world where technological and societal change is outpacing human ability to adapt, the traditional models of education no longer meet our needs. The gap between the rapid pace of change and people’s cognitive, emotional, and physiological ability to process it has created a crisis of meaning and action. Education must evolve to support society in navigating this transformation.
The Journey Framework, developed at Georgetown’s Red House with a global consortium of experts, offers a new approach to addressing this gap by blending science, systems thinking, and humanistic problem-solving in the age of AI.
In this session, Red House Senior Fellows Dr. Mays Imad, Kate Woodsome, and Research and Program Associate Kendall Bryant will introduce The Journey Framework, an ecological methodology built on more than 50 years of research and practice in trauma and community psychology. This framework equips educators, students, and changemakers with tools to understand and engage with interconnected crises — such as climate change, misinformation, political polarization, and mental health challenges — on an intellectual and embodied level. We recognize that these are not abstract concepts, but are challenges affecting the wellbeing of students and educators in real time.
The Journey Framework fosters new ways of understanding the relationships between people and the communities and systems around them. This interrelated systems approach allows students and educators to identify and forecast the ripple effects of policies and practices, empowering them to spot opportunities for healthy, constructive transformation on a personal, communal, and societal level.
The workshop explores three core principles:
- Science of Trauma, Healing, and Resilience: Understanding how trauma shapes our nervous systems and impacts our ability to engage with systemic challenges.
- The Journey Framework: Connecting the science and sociology of trauma and healing to practical tools for critical thinking, problem solving, and transformation.
- Systems Change: Helping educators and students engage with complex problems from a multi-dimensional lens to support meaningful individual, communal, and systemic transformation in service of collective wellbeing.
Through hands-on activities and group discussions, participants will explore how to apply the methodology to their own contexts. Attendees will leave with the Journey Framework workbook, actionable tools and community for navigating complexity and making change from a more grounded, resourced state.
