It’s no secret that social change work is complex, multifaceted, and difficult to define, address and solve. Why then does conventional wisdom so often lean towards providing structured, predictable community development interventions? What if we’ve got it all wrong? What if we should be embracing some levels of chaos and uncertainty to foster genuine, lasting change? At Root Change, our …
Request for Applications: Community Power Global Learning Exchange
If you are a non-profit or community-based organization elevating community power in the pursuit of social justice and health equity, we want to hear from you! Root Change, with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is launching an initiative to generate learning between groups focused on community power and health equity issues across the US and worldwide. The primary …
The Community Independence Initiative comes to Malawi
This summer, Root Change is thrilled to introduce the groundbreaking Community Independence Initiative (CII) in Zomba T/A Chikowi, Malawi. The CII pilot project will engage 50 families in a transformative, peer-driven model that seeks to leverage their innate talents, strengths, and resourcefulness. Contrary to conventional development approaches, CII refrains from providing services or advice, opting instead to establish a framework …
The Power of Accompaniment in Partnerships
This is the first in a three-part series exploring Root Change’s experience as a learning partner. Throughout it we will describe some of the experiences we have had as learning partners and share tools that can be useful when exploring your own journey in this role. At Root Change, our mission is to bring people together to question assumptions, think …
Key Themes from Three CBO Convenings in California
This blog was written by Alex Cleveland, who has been working as a Root Change fellow for the last 8 months, supporting with data analysis, content design, and special research projects. She is a recent graduate of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS) where she earned a Master’s in International Environmental Policy with concentration in Natural Resource …
Following Up: Learning Journeys for 3 Social Lab Teams in Cambodia
This blog is a follow-on to an earlier post about a Social Lab that was conducted as part of the three-year USAID-funded Local Organizations—Movement Towards Self-Reliance (LO-MTSR) activity implemented by The Cloudburst Group (Cloudburst) and their two major partners, Partners Global and the DevLab@Duke University. LO-MTSR aimed to increase the organizational resiliency of Cambodian civil society organizations (CSOs). One method …
Highlighting Learning Journeys for 3 Social Lab Teams in Cambodia
These activities are being conducted as part of the three-year USAID-funded Local Organizations—Movement Towards Self-Reliance (LO-MTSR) activity implemented by The Cloudburst Group (Cloudburst) and their two major partners, PartnersGlobal and the DevLab@Duke University. LO-MTSR aims to increase the organizational resiliency of Cambodian civil society organizations (CSOs) across the health, education, food security, environment, and democracy, human rights, and governance sectors …
We Welcome The 2022 Inaugural #ShiftThePower Fellows
The Global Fund for Community Foundations and Root Change are delighted to welcome the inaugural cohort of the 2022 #ShiftThePower Fellows. Twelve Fellows from ten different countries, representing the diversity of civil society and ready to promote change and shift power from the ground up, were selected from over 140 applicants. The Fellows from Brazil, Cambodia, Cameroon, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, …
Introducing Dynamic Reporting for Strengthening Development Ecosystems
Three and a half years ago, Root Change launched the Pando platform. Using collective intelligence to crowdsource relationship and feedback data, Pando is an online participatory network mapping tool that makes it possible to visualize, learn from, and engage with the systems where you work. The technology is the culmination of more than a decade of experience providing training and …
La Iniciativa de Independencia Comunitaria llega a la Costa Central de California
This post is also available on the Root Change blog in English. A principios de 2021, Root Change se asoció con People’s Self-Help Housing (PSHH), la organización de vivienda sin fines de lucro con más años de servicio en la costa central de California para realizar un programa piloto de la Iniciativa de Independencia Comunitaria (CII por sus siglas en …