The Nebraska Department of Correctional Services (NDCS) participated in a TEDx event, hosted at the Nebraska Correctional Center for Women (NCCW) on May 18.  “Being part of a TEDx event is a unique experience,” NDCS Director Scott R. Frakes said. “It brings an almost indescribable energy to the facility, which will be inspiring to participants and viewers alike.”  The event at NCCW is licensed by the nonprofit TED organization in New York. The license allows for 100 people in the live audience, all of whom are incarcerated women at NCCW.

The NCCW event featured talks by six incarcerated women; Director Frakes; Lucy Wallace, founder of Dance to be Free and Jewel Rodgers, one of the speakers from a 2017 TEDxLincoln event.  Randy Bretz of TEDxLincoln brought the idea to NDCS and worked with the facility to make the event happen. He learned of the idea of hosting a TEDx event in a prison while attending a TEDx Summit meeting.  “I knew right away that this was an opportunity to get the women at NCCW involved in something positive,” Warden Davidson said. “The women here have a story to tell, but they also have great ideas and that is what they will share during the event.”

Editor’s Note:

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TED Talks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized. (Subject to certain rules and regulations.) In addition to Nebraska, there have been more than 24,000 TEDx events in every state and 190 countries.

TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or fewer) delivered by today's leading thinkers and doers. Many of these talks are given at TED's annual conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, and made available, free, on TED.com. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Nandan Nilekani, Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Sal Khan and Daniel Kahneman.

TED's open and free initiatives for spreading ideas include TED.com, where new TED Talk videos are posted daily; the Open Translation Project, which provides subtitles and interactive transcripts as well as translations from thousands of volunteers worldwide; the educational initiative TED-Ed; the annual million-dollar TED Prize, which funds exceptional individuals with a "wish," or idea, to create change in the world; TEDx, which provides licenses to thousands of individuals and groups who host local, self-organized TED-style events around the world; and the TED Fellows program, which selects innovators from around the globe to amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities.

Follow TED on Twitter at http://twitter.com/TEDTalks, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/TED or Instagram at https://instagram.com/ted.

Interested parties can watch the event at youtube.com/watch?v=mNT_QrYCBAw&feature=youtu.be.