Small is good, small is all. We invited many small, locally rooted listening practices to unfold across different contexts

Our April-July statewide listening strategy has come to a close, marking the completion of one important cycle in our broader participatory design process. The Design Team and Advisory Team designed the listening strategy to ensure the Ecosystem Plan is shaped by the diverse voices, visions, values, experiences, and needs of California’s youth-serving ecosystem. Through this strategy, members of the Ecosystem Design Team and Advisory Team practiced ecosystem stewardship by serving as listeners, facilitators, and sense-makers, hosting locally rooted listening sessions and weaving youth, family, and workforce wisdom into the development of the Ecosystem Plan.

Together, in the months of April-July, we:

• Listened and learned from 500+ participants
• Reached communities across 7 California regions
• We strengthened trust with 10 key groups, including youth, families and caregivers, community-based organizations, school day staff, health and mental health partners, social services, workforce and employment partners, and government departments.

As we begin our August-October Strategic Design Process Cycle: Making Meaning – The Whole Lives in the Parts, our focus shifts from gathering insights to collective sensemaking. We will work collaboratively to identify patterns across local, regional, and statewide experiences, honor lived experience as an essential source of knowledge, and translate what we have learned into strategy priorities and coordinated action for the implementation phase of the Ecosystem Plan.

Opportunity to Get Involved:

While this listening cycle has concluded, the listening itself does not end here. The Ecosystem Plan is intended to be living, relational, and adaptive, continuing to evolve through ongoing reflection, partnership, and future cycles of listening, learning, and action.

Join us for our next Ecosystem Plan Collective Sensemaking Space with our evaluation partner, Innovation Network. During this space, we will hear key findings and insights from the statewide listening strategy. Register Today!