The Research-to-Change Mentorship Academy (R2CMA), led by Root Change and IREX as part of the 5-year USAID-funded Youth Excel program, was a 10-week, hands-on, virtual course for young researchers, evaluators, or practitioners passionate about using data to make informed decisions within a local organization. Youth under the age of 35 applied to be part of the course in teams of …
CII has Officially Launched in Ulumba, Zomba Malawi
By Meg Bearor & Myson Jambo Root Change is excited to share that after careful preparations and months of planning, CII Malawi launched in Zomba District Council with the Ulumba community. CII Malawi started with 50 families in the Ulumba area under Traditional Authority Chikowi in Zomba. Root Change has partnered with Youth for Development and Productivity (YODEP) to identify …
Research-to-Change Mentorship Academy (R2CMA): Youth-inclusive Implementation Research
Are you a young researcher, evaluator, or practitioner passionate about using data to make informed decisions within a local organization? If so, we invite you to apply for the Research-to-Change Mentorship Academy (R2CMA), led by Root Change and IREX as part of the Youth Excel program. What is Research-to-Change? Research-to-Change (R2C) is an approach that embeds research into implementation, enabling …
Learning from Chaos: Embracing Uncertainty for Stronger Autonomous Community Development
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 …