As we navigate the complex, interconnected challenges facing our youth-serving ecosystem, it’s essential to pause and reflect on how each of us is uniquely positioned to shape change. One tool that helps ground and clarify my purpose in moments like these is Deepa Iyer’s Social Change Ecosystem Map. It reminds us that not everyone has to be the “hero”, in fact, sustainable change requires a diversity of roles and approaches. Whether you’re a builder, storyteller, healer, frontline responder, or visionary, your contributions matter. And so do the contributions of those around you.

In times of urgency and uncertainty, this framework encourages us to root in who we are, honor our specific skill sets, and deeply respect the gifts others bring. It’s an invitation to resist overextension and instead align with a purpose-driven, community informed way of showing up.

The same mindset is essential as we move into the next phase of designing California’s Expanded Learning Strategic Plan, The Ecosystem Plan. Much like the roles defined in the Social Change Ecosystem Map, the various work groups and contributors to this plan each bring distinct yet interdependent strengths. When we weave together our passions, lived experiences, cultural knowledge, and professional expertise with intention and clarity, we create something more powerful than the sum of its parts, a strategy that becomes social medicine for our youth, families, communities and workforce.