Ecosystem Design and Plan

Overview

Strategic Design Process: An Ecosystem Plan to Leverage California’s Expanded Learning Infrastructure
2025 and Beyond

Word cloud for the What Types of Spaces are Needed in the Expanded Learning field right now?

Building on the foundation of the collaborative work to design and implement A Vision for Expanded Learning in California, Strategic Plans 1.0 and 2.0, California’s Expanded Learning Leadership has begun an expansive strategic design process to build an Ecosystem Plan to Leverage California’s Expanded Learning Infrastructure. The California AfterSchool Network is excited to partner with the California Department of Education Expanded Learning Division to co-host a Strategic Design Process that elevates Expanded Learning as an essential partner in California’s Education, Health and Human Services, and Workforce Development ecosystems.

More than just a strategic plan, this Ecosystem Plan is a collective care response—a coordinated effort to elevate Expanded Learning as a wellspring of community, healing and opportunity. In a time of uncertainty, we are building a future of abundance—one where young people are not just supported but uplifted by a community that deeply cares for the next generation.

Learn more about the process!

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Where We Are and Where We're Going Ecosystem Timeline

Process & Timeline

As of April 2026, we are currently in a listening and sensing phase. No decisions have been made yet. This process is designed to move at the speed of trust, gathering voices, building relationships, and making meaning together before we act. Here’s where we are and what’s ahead.

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Ecosystem Advisory Team Promo with images of water flowing and ovals for each supgroup

Who is Helping Design The Ecosystem Plan?

As mentioned, the California AfterSchool Network is excited to partner with the California Department of Education Expanded Learning Division to co-host this Strategic Design Process. Along with our teams, we hold deep gratitude to our Ecosystem Advisory Team and the Ecosystem Design Team. 

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Image that says: Inviting California’s youth-serving ecosystem to listen together

Statewide Listening Strategy & Resources

We are listening across California to understand what young people, families, and the workforce need to truly thrive. As systems transform, our most powerful tool is deep listening that is rooted in relationships, community wisdom, and lived experience. The Dream, a Vision of the Future, is a statewide listening effort shaping a shared Ecosystem Plan designed to strengthen Expanded Learning as a platform for whole-child, family, and workforce health and well-being.

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Participants sitting in the galleria Library while panelists are on stage in a fireside chat

Guiding Values & Principles

Grounded in Equity and Collective Imagination: Practice designing from the margins, using healing-centered engagement and compassionate systems thinking to imagine new pathways for collaboration and systemic transformation. Our approach to this process is rooted in the following: