3 Learning from Community Changemakers

I have been a macro-focused social worker for over 20 years now. I find myself extremely motivated now by who I see as community change-makers and how they are engaging in their work. It is exciting. It is motiving. De Sio (2021), author of The Changemaker Playbook, expresses that we are in a period of significant societal transition which he describes as a ‘new game’ (pg. 5). He uses three primary characteristics:

1. Increase in personal agency and individual ability to lead and contribute to change
2. Technology which can efficiently be used to communicate messages to masses of people and mobilize quickly
3. Leadership which can be accessible to most people rather than only those who historically possessed social or economic capital

This is partly what is so exciting about our current times. The issues are complex and can quickly be overwhelming, but the reality that leadership is more expansive and likely much more diverse in perspective should translate into solutions that are much more innovative and, dare I say, radical. Could the next 10-20 years be a time of liberation from oppressive forces that have perpetuated the injustice that we are witnessing and experiencing now? We desperately need this.