Social Change

We are experiencing a rapid global shift in social, political, business and natural systems in which almost all traditional and modern structures are in the process of breakdown or reorganization. While these shifts often result in anxiety and confusion, they also provide an opening for forging new agreements and building systems that can be more effective at addressing the issues of today and our hopes for the future.

Growing Edge Partners undertakes a limited number of projects focused on these larger social change opportunities. We take a systemic, multi-stakeholder approach that allows us to build uncommon alliances that embrace a comprehensive view of complex situations. We also employ all of our transformational processes, especially the work on agreements, which unleash deep levels of creative potential.

Current Projects

Los Angeles Neighborhood Revitalization
We are currently co-leading, along with ShadeTree Multicultural Foundation, a project in Los Angeles designed to build new economic and social support systems for residents of several marginalized communities, where gang violence and unemployment have been serious problems.

Too often marginalized communities like these in Los Angeles are subjected to historically repressive, isolating social and economic systems that fail to provide support for families and young people. In most cases, these community problems are addressed in a piecemeal fashion, with resources and methodologies being applied from the outside.

We are attempting to build a new social structure that allows people from within these communities to define their own needs as well as to participate in the governance of the resources that emerge from the process. The vision and structure must address the unique history and qualities of each place and the people of each community.

Initial steps include a multi-stakeholder process to create a sustainable vision and action designed to support healthy community life. Work will focus on: capacity-building and education for individuals, the development of entrepreneurial enterprises with opportunities for ownership and employment, alternative currencies, affordable housing, community safety and health.
Addressing Poverty in Guatemala
In collaboration with CARE and The Institute for Strategic Clarity, we are involved in a multi-year, on-going project which has brought together Guatemalan leaders from 26 conflicting groups in business, civil society, and government. This diverse group succeeded in developing the first shared understanding of what causes poverty in Guatemala and of how to collectively address the causes.

Our strategy-level project incorporated collaborative appreciative inquiry and resource-based systems thinking processes. Implementation is now being carried out by Guatemalan leaders and focuses on micro-credit, global action networks and women’s empowerment. (See PDF article: A Collaborative-Systemic Strategy Addressing the Dynamics of Poverty in Guatemala.)