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.
What is a Listening Strategy?
Meaningful solutions begin with lived experience. Across California, we are hosting listening sessions in communities and regions to learn together and shape the future of Expanded Learning. These approaches are designed to honor people’s time, wisdom, and lived experience– ensuring their voices guide strategy, learning, and action.
The Ecosystem Plan’s Design Team and Ecosystem Advisory Team are currently piloting the “EXL Statewide Listening Toolkit– a Flexible Guide for Decolonized Data Collection and Collective Meaning-Making”. This artifact is rooted in the wisdom of communities, practitioners, and partners who have gathered in Ecosystem Plan design spaces– relational spaces for reflection, co-design, and responding to what is alive in the system, rather than predetermined outcomes.
What has emerged is a clear call to center those most impacted by systems and decisions, while engaging the full youth-serving ecosystem from education and housing to behavioral health, nutrition, juvenile justice, and beyond.
As we listen, we are also learning. The toolkit is being intentionally adapted through this pilot phase, shaped by lived experience across communities. In late Fall, it will be released as a shared offering that supports strengthening relationships in the broader youth serving ecosystem through deep listening and invites a shift from “power over” to “power with” in how we shape the Ecosystem Plan together.
How will your input be used?
What we hear will directly inform the emerging strategic priorities in the Ecosystem Plan, guiding future partnerships, investments, and system design across sectors. We are committed to sharing what we learn and ensuring communities can see themselves reflected in the work.
Deep listening is not just a step in this process; it is a relational strategy we are actively practicing to stay connected, build trust, and share resources in real time. These ongoing feedback loops help move beyond traditional “strategic plans,” allowing this work to remain alive, relational, and useful over time. We hope this becomes a consistent, nurturing, embodied practice we carry forward for years to come, keeping us grounded in the evolving needs of the youth-serving ecosystem.
How to Participate?
- Attend a “Voices in Community Virtual Listening Session” (drop-in virtual listening session spaces to share your voice, reflect, and help shape the future of youth development in California- more details to come.)
- Participate in the monthly “Sound Wave” survey, which can be found in our monthly newsletters.
- Request a Listening Session for your next meeting, gathering, conference, family night, or retreat– email Vanessa Hernandez @vhernandez@afterschoolnetwork.org for more information.