The Children’s Rights Innovation Fund (CRIF) is a global youth participatory grantmaking fund and donor learning community.
To illustrate what we have learned from youth leaders and their allies, CRIF created a storybook called the Tiny Cave and the Magnificent Creatures. The Tiny Cave is a metaphor for the stifling constraints that philanthropy and international development can impose on young people’s expansive imaginations.
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This metaphor led to the development of a children’s picturebook, now used as a tool through which we spark critical conversation with professionals in this field.
As people engaged with the book, many asked for a companion text to help them facilitate conversations within their own organizations- this led to the development of the Tiny Cave workbook.
The response to both the Tiny Cave story book and the workbook invited us to explore new possibilities in the digital space — giving birth to the Tiny Cave puppet film.
The Tiny Cave storybook and workbook have sparked virtual and in-person conversations among kindred spirits and communities woven across organizations. This has unfolded through our deliberate crafting of spaces of reflection — manifested in bespoke dramatic readings, immersive learning experiences, and site-specific pop-up concepts at conferences.
The Tiny Cave storybook and workbook have sparked virtual and in-person conversations among kindred spirits and communities woven across organizations. This has unfolded through our deliberate crafting of spaces of reflection — manifested in bespoke dramatic readings, immersive learning experiences, and site-specific pop-up concepts at conferences.
We invite you to explore the story and its many expressions – and to join the community by sharing your own responses to it.
Every project like this is shaped by many hands. Here we celebrate the artists, educators, puppeteers and world-builders who helped bring it to life.
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