Latest / We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits / 460. How to Be a Change Agent - Tania Bhattacharyya, Tara Abrahams, Alex Aide, and Alia Whitney-Johnson

Transcript

460. How to Be a Change Agent - Tania Bhattacharyya, Tara Abrahams, Alex Aide, and Alia Whitney-Johnson · We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I think anyone working in non-profit NGO you know, civil service etc.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Should call themselves change agents and have that mindset.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: It's having that mindset whether you call yourself a change agent or not, going out into the world every day and saying how can I add good to the world rather than add to its problems?
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: That's crucial when it comes to creating impactful programs.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Hey, I'm John and I'm Becky.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: And this is the we Are For Good podcast.
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: Non-profits are faced with more challenges to accomplish their missions and the growing pressure to do more, raise more and be more for the causes that improve our world.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: We're here to learn with you from some of the best in the industry, bringing the most innovative ideas, inspirational stories, all to create an impact uprising.
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: So welcome to the good community.
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: We're non-profit professionals, philanthropists, world changers and rabid fans who are striving to bring a little more goodness into the world.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: So let's get started, becky, what's happening?
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: Hey, john, do you just want to pinch yourself that we got to have this conversation with these human beings?
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: I do.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: I'm just so thankful that it was recorded.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: I remember sitting listening to this panel and just thinking, my goodness, there is so much here that, when unleashed, literally will change the world.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: Like.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: These are the thoughts, these are the people that are going to power, true world changing.
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: If you track with, we Are For Good.
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: We put together a trend series at the beginning of each season, and one of our trends this year was really stepping into your power to become a change agent, and we really wanted to augment that trend by having some larger conversations around.
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: What does that mean and how can we step into our power, even if we are a one-person shop, you know, at a tiny nonprofit, up to just another, feeling like another cog in the machine and a major grassroots organization?
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: And so we curated this incredibly powerful panel of individuals that we have seen, that are really embracing being a change agent and evolving the world by using their voice, their story, their lived experience and lifting their ideas as an important part of that story.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: So here's the incredible human you'll hear on this recording Tanya Badacharya she's our dear friend and the founder of Lumos Marketing.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: Tara Abrambs she's the head of impact over at the Meteor and the Board Chair for she's the First.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: Alex A Director of Programs and Impact over at Born this Way Foundation, one of our favorite orgs out there.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: And Alia Whitney Johnson she's the COO at LALA, which is the Latin American Leadership Academy.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: She's also the co-founder and board member of Freedom Forward in Emerge Global.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: These are powerhouse people with huge hearts and this conversation is so powerful.
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: So I think I want to start a little bit with how do we become a change agent?
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: And the reason we started this conversation and we wanted to set up this panel is because we have heard from so many in our community that say I want to do more.
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: I want to do more than my day to day work.
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: I am actually looking and seeing the opportunities that exist within our organizations to get more people involved.
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: I'm seeing the harm that's perpetuated by not speaking up and y'all.
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: This is just a moment.
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: It is a special moment in time when never before have we had the level of power of seeing what our missions can produce, how we can bring facts and truth to bear to unite more people around incredible causes.
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: So we want your voice in this.
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: If you're someone who's a little trepidatious about being vulnerable, sharing your story, we hope we're going to give you just a little bit of armor today, because these four people are going to be your hype squad, of course, with John and I, but we really want to talk about how do you get activated.
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: And, tanya, I want to start with you a little bit, and we had talked in an earlier session about we can't just look at the iceberg as what's on the top, because what is really building underneath is the potential of what could be unleashed.
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: So talk about some of those things under the iceberg that people may not see from the outside, but they're so necessary to becoming a really powerful thought leader and a change agent.
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: You have done this beautifully.
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: Walk us through the beginnings of that.
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I love this concept of the iceberg right because so often, like what we see when we look at beloved change agents like the Obamas, like Greta Thunberg, like like Lady Gaga, right, we see certain things visibly from the outside, like awards, being invited to sit on prestigious panels and attend world class events.
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: But there's so many things that are happening behind the scenes under the tip of that iceberg right, and so just a very non exhaustive list like a short list I would say would include, like the slow and tender process of dismantling our own systematically limited beliefs, right, like imposter thoughts, like people pleasing, like perfectionism.
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: What's happening behind the scenes is those brave, thoughtful conversations with the people who don't agree with what you have to say.
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: Right, community organizing strategy and determining who we need to link arms with to have the deepest possible impact, because we are so much stronger together.
• 5:06
  Speaker 4: Right, habits like self care, like community care, which is usually so invisible to the rest of the world, is really key in this work of change me making.
• 5:16
  Speaker 4: And you know, the last thing that I would say and again, this is not the full list, there's so many things under the iceberg, but something that's been really impactful for me is building my own personal board of directors and I call this my campfire circle.
• 5:29
  Speaker 4: And this came up really heavily when I was a nonprofit ED and I made a public post, a LinkedIn post, in support of a women's reproductive health care organization and I was surprised to see some negative comments and engagement from existing donors of our organization, especially since we were also a maternal health care organization, and so in that moment I was kind of at a loss.
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: I knew I did the right thing for saying what I believed in, right, but I was kind of at a loss, right, it was a sticky situation.
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: So I reached out to a wide variety of mentors and colleagues, all with different perspectives, politics experiences who I knew would share their best wisdom with me, and that gave me that soft pad to land on and decide on a pathway forward.
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: So that's just, you know, a supportive board of directors, a personal board of directors, is just one of the things under the iceberg that just goes hand in hand with change making work.
• 6:24
  Speaker 4: So how does that land with you, becky?
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: I'll pass it back to you.
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: That lands like a soft, warm blanket or mom hug.
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: That's exactly what the bonfire right here on this table.
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: I love that imagery and, alex, I want to tap your brain because I mean which I've done through born, this way, as you've activated thousands, tens of thousands of youth to pour into this work.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: I mean not only just using their story, but really, really using it to power more kindness in the world.
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: So we talk about what's it.
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: Look to get change agents activated at grassroots level.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and first I have to thank you all for the incredibly kind of introduction.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: I think the entire we're for good team having me here and I'm really honored to be on this panel with with everyone here, so so thank you all.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: I love this question.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: You know, born this way, we're all about empowering young people to be changing agents in their communities.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: We believe, right, that young people have the power to make a difference, to create a kinder, more compassionate world, and so, from our end, we provide them with the tools and the resources they need to take action, and maybe even beyond that a little bit.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: We celebrate that young people very often innately see things they want to change in the world and society sometimes tell them, tells them no, like that's not cool, can't do that.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: And we actually take the opposite view.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: We celebrate what they envision changing in the world and, from our end, right, we add on top of that tools to help take, help them take care of their mental health and inspire kindness, whether that's their be their certificate program that you mentioned at the top, or be kind 365 platform that invites people to pledge to an act of kindness every day to help build that kinder world that we all envision, and we also work with partners and organizations to create opportunities for young people to find community together or get involved in causes that really matter to them.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: So by empowering and celebrating young people that want to be change agents, we are not only just creating a kinder world right.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: We're also helping them develop leadership skills that will benefit them throughout their lives.
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: Okay, that's so brilliant and this is why I got to like give born this way Foundation just a shout out, because that ability to listen, to be empathetic, that is just hardwired into your culture.
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: You are truly building and empowering the generation, this next generation of change agents, and letting them know that their voice matters, their lived experience matters.
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: You've all done this beautifully.
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: I love in the chat I've seen somebody that is already crediting oh, tamara is crediting born this way, with connecting her to the youth voices rising.
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: So I love how homogenous this is already becoming.
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: But I got to kick it to Tara because your board chair she's the first you know you had this really unique lens and I got to say Tara is just the board director that everybody wants.
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: She gives all of the power back to her ED.
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: She asked for education and she is just so empowering with the way that she steps, with her volunteerism.
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: But I want you to talk about how can we look beyond.
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: You know the horizon to make changes.
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: You know that will change the systems of tomorrow.
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: Like, talk about what you've seen in your role.
• 9:39
  Speaker 5: Sure and thank you so much for having me.
• 9:42
  Speaker 5: It's such a pleasure and an honor to be virtually with you.
• 9:44
  Speaker 5: I wish we could all have this party in real life.
• 9:47
  Speaker 5: So I think, in an answer to your question about systems, I was thinking about this idea of just listening.
• 9:53
  Speaker 5: To be honest, for me, it really does start with listening and in the case of she's the first which, as you mentioned at the top, becky, it's about really making sure that we are empowering girls to be educated, respected and heard and live the life that they want to live.
• 10:07
  Speaker 5: Girls should be at the center and are at the center of everything that we do at she's the First, and we are really led by them as the experts of their own lives.
• 10:16
  Speaker 5: They are the ones who can most effectively tell us what they need, what they dream of and what they want to see in the world.
• 10:24
  Speaker 5: One of the things that we did, I guess almost five years ago, was GirlSource, as distinct from CrowdSource, a global girls' Bill of Rights, where we talked to hundreds of girls around the world and gave them the prompt of what would you put in a Bill of Rights, in a sort of document memorializing what you believe your fundamental human rights are, whether that's freedom to go to school, freedom to be free from cultural bias, freedom just to walk down the street without being harassed, assaulted or violated.
• 10:53
  Speaker 5: I mean, these are just kind of fundamental things that Girls told us they wanted, they needed.
• 10:59
  Speaker 5: Another thing that we love to do at she's the First is really position the girls literally as the experts at conferences and high level events, as distinct from, let's say, the amazing right policy makers or global leaders that are working on this issue at the grass tops.
• 11:15
  Speaker 5: But for us, we kind of even play a little trick on the audience saying come to this panel, come to this session where you're going to hear from experts who are experts, with decades of experience in food insecurity, the caregiving economy, girls' education, public health, water.
• 11:31
  Speaker 5: And then, when the panel starts out, walk four adolescent girls right from Sierra Leone, from Uganda, from Nepal, from Guatemala, because they are truly the experts, and what it takes to change systems.
• 11:44
  Speaker 5: You know, we've heard a lot of the past very challenging few years that these systems are not broken.
• 11:52
  Speaker 5: Actually, right, they're working exactly as they were designed to work, but it's because they weren't designed by us, so they weren't built for us.
• 12:02
  Speaker 5: And so, for me, when I think about changing systems.
• 12:05
  Speaker 5: It's really about turning things over to the people who are closest to what it means when those systems aren't designed and built for us, and we see that in our work at the Meteor as well.
• 12:17
  Speaker 5: Right, the Meteor is all about basically amplifying the voices that are out there but can't get sometimes the traction in the very traditional media landscape.
• 12:26
  Speaker 5: You know they can't break through some of the algorithms.
• 12:29
  Speaker 5: Our job at the Meteor is to make sure that women, girls, gender non-conforming people, the LGBTQ plus community, the indigenous voices, people with disabilities that they have as much access to tell their stories and to change culture and to change systems as anyone else out there.
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: And I just know from spending time I agree, from spending time with Alia like this is so much part of your story I think of when I hear listening.
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: I think of your story and so I just want to give you the floor.
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: I don't want to go to the next question, because I think you have so much insight around just how listening shaped your experience and how that you know, kind of created, emerge, Sure.
• 13:40
  Speaker 6: I mean, as I'm listening to Tara, I'm thinking we should have a panel of she's the first young women here today talking about being a Native right, because they are the people who are making change in the communities.
• 13:56
  Speaker 6: Right, they are the people who are closest to the problems.
• 13:59
  Speaker 6: And how do we amplify those voices?
• 14:02
  Speaker 6: But I just I so appreciate you lifting up the power of listening.
• 14:08
  Speaker 6: I think so often when we come into these spaces where we're asked to provide wisdom or expertise is about talking, and actually I think one of the things that's been most important to me on my journey is just taking a step back and listening to every single young person that I've had the honor of working with.
• 14:31
  Speaker 6: I've worked for about 17 years with young women who've been through unbelievable challenges rape, trauma, trafficking but also have these incredible dreams for their communities and are fighting for their sisters and their families and making the world better.
• 14:53
  Speaker 6: And how do I leverage my position to really understand the change they're trying to make and amplify it and really do my job to listen, because they have the answers.
• 15:12
  Speaker 6: So thank you, tara.
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: I want to talk about and sort of move into chapter two of like how do we foster the right cultures for these right systems, level changes.
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: And I want to go to you, alia, first.
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: Like how does collaboration and coalition building allow you to go further with your impact messages?
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: I know you've seen this play out over and emerge probably also to it, la la like, take us through that and what you've discovered.
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: Thanks.
• 15:39
  Speaker 6: Becky, I'm sure for everybody who's here today, the issues that we're working on don't exist in a vacuum, right.
• 15:45
  Speaker 6: If we're trying to change something, we can go further together.
• 15:50
  Speaker 6: It's impacted by systems, by different actors, by policy, by all sorts of different forces, right, and it really takes all of us coming together to make a big dent in these issues.
• 16:08
  Speaker 6: And so I want to give you a concrete example.
• 16:10
  Speaker 6: About 10 years ago, I moved from Sri Lanka, where I was working on Emerge, to San Francisco, back to the United States, where I was from, and I discovered that San Francisco was a hub of child sex trafficking in the United States, and not only that, but around 70% there's not great data, but around 70% of kids who are in the sex trade in San Francisco grew up in our child welfare system.
• 16:40
  Speaker 6: So these were kids who are state in our city were responsible for taking care of.
• 16:46
  Speaker 6: I left my job as a management consultant and decided I wanted to do something about preventing exploitation, and what I learned as I talked to young people on the street was that not only had there been this pipeline from our child welfare system into exploitation, but once young people were exploited, they were actually not only placed back into child welfare but disproportionately placed into institutional care instead of placed into family-based care.
• 17:15
  Speaker 6: This meant that they went into large group settings, often far away from their communities, where the message they were receiving is you're unlovable, you are far away from people who care about you, and they were basically being primed to be re-exploited.
• 17:35
  Speaker 6: And so, when I looked at this full system, one of the biggest places we needed to make a dent was changing the way foster care was structured.
• 17:46
  Speaker 6: I had two people in my organization.
• 17:48
  Speaker 6: Foster care is a giant system.
• 17:51
  Speaker 6: There's policy, there's money, there's state actors right, I'm coming in from Sri Lanka.
• 17:58
  Speaker 6: I don't know how any of this works, and at the time I was not even 30, right?
• 18:01
  Speaker 6: So I'm like holy moly and I'm not a lawyer, right?
• 18:04
  Speaker 6: What am I going to do about this?
• 18:05
  Speaker 6: And so this is where the power of collaboration and collective action comes in.
• 18:10
  Speaker 6: Right, we started doing convenings.
• 18:12
  Speaker 6: We brought young people in.
• 18:13
  Speaker 6: We brought folks kids who were in the underground street economy in.
• 18:16
  Speaker 6: We brought people who had been caregivers in the foster care system in.
• 18:19
  Speaker 6: We brought frontline service providers in.
• 18:21
  Speaker 6: We brought policy makers in and we said what should this system look like?
• 18:25
  Speaker 6: Let's reimagine it.
• 18:27
  Speaker 6: And then, once we had a plan and we kind of looked at what worked and didn't work across the US and finessed it for San Francisco.
• 18:36
  Speaker 6: We went to the state and we said none of us can do this alone.
• 18:40
  Speaker 6: We want to do it together.
• 18:41
  Speaker 6: And guess what?
• 18:42
  Speaker 6: We got funded.
• 18:43
  Speaker 6: We're the only group in California that got funded.
• 18:46
  Speaker 6: Boom, and that is the power of collective action.
• 18:50
  Speaker 6: There is no way any of us could have done that alone.
• 18:54
  Speaker 6: But that became the demonstration project to say how do we transform, foster care for this group of kids and test it and pilot it and take what works and change policy for an entire state.
• 19:09
  Speaker 6: And it was only possible because we all came together.
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: I mean, I'm thinking of I'm going to quote Tanya Batacharya, but she's on the call so she should quote herself but I think of just moving like a pack of starlings that are just in movement with each other.
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: The power of the collective is so much stronger and it seems like that's just the balm to all of our missions as we get people around it.
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: And I want to kick it to you, tara, I mean with the meteor, with she's the first talk to us about how we can really look beyond the horizon to make decisions that will change these systems.
• 19:44
  Speaker 5: What I think about is looking to the people around me who are doing that, in fact, and thinking about what it is that they are seeing.
• 19:57
  Speaker 5: Right around the time that I first started at the meteor a couple years ago, a mentor of mine back to Girl Rising Days, this global campaign focused on girls' education.
• 20:06
  Speaker 5: That actually film came out about 10 years ago.
• 20:08
  Speaker 5: Just this year International Women's Day but one of my mentors said something that really stuck with me, which is this idea of artists see round corners.
• 20:17
  Speaker 5: So artists, activists, journalists, who are really looking into deeply embedded injustices in our systems, people like Alia, tanya, alex, all of you they can see round corners to help us look ahead to, frankly, the thing that we may not be paying attention to, that we need to be, even as we're embedded in the daily work of the issues that we're focused on.
• 20:46
  Speaker 5: So we know that there's an incredibly powerful and volatile, I might say, conversation happening right now in our country about reproductive rights and reproductive justice, and the people that we listen to at the meteor, for example, as all of this was starting to come to a head, let's say, a year ago, two years ago, were the people who were saying to us you know what.
• 21:18
  Speaker 5: You can't just pay attention to reproductive rights and reproductive justice.
• 21:21
  Speaker 5: There's also something coming for the rights of trans people in our country and these things are connected.
• 21:28
  Speaker 5: You can't detach them and you can't separate them and unfortunately we can't just work on one in isolation.
• 21:35
  Speaker 5: We need to actually come together and work on all of it and that foresight to have a sense of what's coming to me.
• 21:45
  Speaker 5: Those are the people that I look to, because those are the people who are kind of standing on the edge right.
• 21:50
  Speaker 5: They're meeting the horizon.
• 21:51
  Speaker 5: I'm kind of back a little bit.
• 21:53
  Speaker 5: I'm in the daily grind of what I'm doing, but these are the folks who are really, as we like to say, on the front lines and are deeply embedded in the work and so can see where this is going and a 10 chest moves down the board, and to me, that's the most critical thing.
• 22:13
  Speaker 5: Again, it goes back to the listening comment, but it is about finding those people around you.
• 22:19
  Speaker 5: Is it the young people like the ones you talked to, alia, when you first got back to San Francisco, to say what has your experience been, what are the ways that you're experiencing this system as broken?
• 22:30
  Speaker 5: Or is it going to those journalists and understanding what are the stories that you're chasing down and finding those people.
• 22:36
  Speaker 5: I thought about this word as I was preparing for the panel.
• 22:39
  Speaker 5: Is it a seer right, a sort of someone who has a kind of sense of premonition?
• 22:44
  Speaker 5: But because they've looked at data right, I remember a key TED Talk and I will just be honest I'm not a TED Talk person and we are, for good, podcast person, of course, but I'm not necessarily loving that.
• 22:55
  Speaker 5: But I went to TED Women and I heard a talk by Dr Catherine Wilkinson, who's the co-editor and, of course, incredible climate activist.
• 23:07
  Speaker 5: Along with Dr Ayanna Elizabeth Johnson, she gave her TED Talk about climate justice.
• 23:11
  Speaker 5: I walked into that room.
• 23:12
  Speaker 5: I was thinking to myself I'm not a climate person, I'm a girl's education person, I'm a women's person.
• 23:18
  Speaker 5: And Dr Wilkinson had me in tears Because she was making all of those connections for me.
• 23:25
  Speaker 5: She was the seer, she was the one who was seeing around the corner to say if you care about girls, you better believe, you better care about what the planet is doing and what we're doing to the planet, brother.
• 23:36
  Speaker 5: Because what she said was mother earth is dying.
• 23:39
  Speaker 5: And guess who are the ones who suffer disproportionately in climate emergencies?
• 23:44
  Speaker 5: It's women and girls, it's vulnerable people, it's people who are living at the edges every single time.
• 23:50
  Speaker 5: So that's kind of how I think about that horizon setting.
• 23:53
  Speaker 5: I'm just looking for the people who are standing right there at the edge.
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: We're taking a quick pause to get real with you, friends.
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: Because, let's face it, it's a new world.
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: Donor expectations are higher than ever and donors want to know what their personal impact will be, which means we need to start by building a truly resonant message.
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: And if you follow, we Are For Good.
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: You know we're advocates for nonprofits' need to disrupt and adapt in order to grow, and our friends at Foster Avenue agree.
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: You might know Foster Avenue by their former name, Snavely Associates.
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: But here's the thing they're evolving alongside the sector too.
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: As a philanthropic communications consulting and creative agency, they see how campaign communications are facing a revolution these days and, luckily for us, they're sharing their insights.
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: The Foster Avenue team is sharing a 10-point checklist for creating campaign communications that meet the moment, and we want to get this checklist into your hands so you can start refining your messaging right away.
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: Grab it today at fosteravenuecom backslashgood.
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: So, whether your campaign launch is three years away or six months away, foster Avenue can help you accelerate to the next phase.
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: We want to see your campaign have all kinds of success, so I hope you will check out Foster Avenue.
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: That's fosteravenuecom slash good.
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: I want to kick this to Alex because I think, alex, you can just hit your wagon onto this beautifully with the work that you all have done in your programs over at Born this Way.
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: But I want to talk about this mindset of being a change agent, because everybody we've met at Born this Way has this mindset of the responsibility they have, not only within the organization but just in this lifetime.
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: And I want you to talk about how having that right mindset, how it changes and impacts programs, how it changes cultures, and we want to know how you're thinking about systems level change in your work and what can be drawn from it for our listeners.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah Well, first of all, I'm obsessed with this title change agent because I've never called myself that, but I think anyone working in nonprofit, NGO, civil service, et cetera, should call themselves change agents and have that mindset.
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: It's having that mindset, whether you call yourself a change agent or not, going out into the world every day and saying how can I add good to the world rather than add to its problems.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: That's crucial when it comes to creating impactful programs, and it goes without saying to everyone on this call right, we've all seen it through our work and change really starts at the grassroots level, and that means what we've been talking about on this panel so far, which is listening most of all, working with communities directly to identify their unique needs, their challenges at a micro level across the board, and then systems level change right, it's critical if we want to create real, lasting impact, and that's why we all need to really be thinking about working with partners, working with advocates at all levels, not just, you know, at the federal level or at a global level.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: We need to be thinking truly from you know, local, grassroots nonprofits, all the way to the top, to really advocate for policy changes, highlight what people are saying on the ground for the world to know, and creating movements, and that way we make our communities, you know, more, just more equitable, and then by keeping that mindset throughout of being that change agent, we're able to really just create programs and invest in initiatives that will have meaningful impact on the world.
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, I mean so much synergy and I feel like so much hope in this conversation that we're talking about really heavy hard things, but it feels like it's possible in community.
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: You know, it's possible as we kind of talk about this and I want to kick it to you, tanya, I mean as we start to get to some application of like, how can we really activate on the things that we're talking about?
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: A big part of that is using our voice, using our story.
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: I'm seeing the thread here that I appreciate of not exploiting those stories but doing it in a dignified way.
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: You have the superpower, tanya this is why we always tap you.
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: You have a superpower of how you can connect with people through story, specifically on LinkedIn, but in social in general.
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: What are you?
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: You know, how do you advise nonprofits to use their storytelling and to just activate an army of people around them through it?
• 28:32
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, storytelling is definitely a superpower, right, and it's not just a superpower, it's a survival skill.
• 28:38
  Speaker 4: Humans don't have as many physical evolutionary adaptations as lions and tigers and bears, right.
• 28:44
  Speaker 4: We don't have like super big, sharp teeth or claws, but we have storytelling, right as a very specific way to escape predation, to work together as a community, to like innovate for systems level change, just like Starlings right, flying in a memorization, and so before appeal letters and advocacy emails and podcasts, like stories have always been how we have created change.
• 29:08
  Speaker 4: And so, just in terms of like a case study for how organizations can lean into that superpower and I shared this on the podcast on we Are For Good as well, but it bears repeating because I think it's such a powerful case study If we look at the abortion ban in Ireland being overturned in 2018.
• 29:26
  Speaker 4: And so what happened is thousands of people with abortion experiences were encouraged to share their personal stories as part of this larger sort of like large scale grassroots campaign, and so groups partnered with the Minister of Health and you know, pledged to share their personal stories.
• 29:44
  Speaker 4: They created conversation cafes where people could come people kind of who were on the fence right could come and hear real stories.
• 29:51
  Speaker 4: There were badges that people could wear in their daily life that said talk to me about repeal.
• 29:57
  Speaker 4: You know there was storytelling trainings as part of this campaign right, including messaging templates, and as the vote got closer and closer, they would match up undecided voters with people willing to share their story.
• 30:11
  Speaker 4: Right, and so, at the end of the day, stories is what really turned this issue around, which was previously before you know 2018, so stigmatized and unspoken, about which so many of the issues we work on really are.
• 30:24
  Speaker 4: And, to speak to what Tara was saying earlier, like, I'm sure that this work created even bigger picture conversations about the other intersectional issues related to reproductive justice.
• 30:35
  Speaker 4: Right, and so I think there's a lot from that case study that nonprofits can learn from and incorporate into their own processes.
• 30:42
  Speaker 4: And, that being said, right, it is a deeply personal and intimate decision to decide that you're ready to share your lived experiences, but if you do decide that you are, I want you to think about who out there needs to hear your story, because it will motivate them towards action, right on those round corners that you see, and you're sharing your story for them.
• 31:04
  Speaker 4: Right, it's an active service for the world that you are envisioning, and so just to kind of, the last thing I'll say is this thing I say all the time is, as nonprofit leaders, we often hesitate to get into the limelight because it's like all about the mission, right, it's all about the organization.
• 31:19
  Speaker 4: But when you step into the limelight, it always reflects light back onto your mission, right?
• 31:24
  Speaker 4: So storytelling is a superpower, for sure.
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: Totally.
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: I mean, I feel like you just nailed it right there and, I think, making sure that the story is not one sided.
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: I mean, here's just a couple of pro tips Tag some people into your posts, people that you respect.
• 31:39
  Speaker 3: Make the conversation bigger than just yourself.
• 31:43
  Speaker 3: Add those tags in there and I want to keep going on this act of dignified storytelling.
• 31:49
  Speaker 3: We talked about not exploiting the story, making sure that we're walking ethically through our work and, maliya, I feel like you have done that beautifully.
• 31:58
  Speaker 3: I mean, you are a founder that truly walked away from the organization you founded to give up your power and give it back to your Sri Lankan girls, which is just one of the most aspirational things I think we've heard yet.
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: So I want you to talk about the power of listening and ethical storytelling and just understanding the importance of the weight of your words and how long they can stick around on the Internet and how we really want to champion representing a population of people for whom we speak in the most dignified way.
• 32:29
  Speaker 3: Talk about what you've learned in that and how people can apply it.
• 32:32
  Speaker 6: Thanks, Becky and John, I have to say I don't know how you're keeping up with the chat while facilitating this Superman, remarkable Superman, superman.
• 32:41
  Speaker 6: So first let me just say yes, I'm a two time founder, and I did.
• 32:46
  Speaker 6: I walked away, actually, from both of my organizations as a gift of love, and the first was an organization I started in Sri Lanka for girls who had survived rape, and these young women are extraordinary and they have such big plans and dreams for their country.
• 33:08
  Speaker 6: And I started this organization when I was 19 and I was working with teenagers and they used to.
• 33:14
  Speaker 6: I used to tell them, like, look at what we've accomplished together, you can do this too.
• 33:18
  Speaker 6: And they would tell me I could do it because I was white and because of my American passport, and I felt it was really important for them to see themselves in the position of power, and so I just wanted to say that we'll get into ethical storytelling.
• 33:32
  Speaker 6: But you talked about walking away and I think actually not only do words matter, but like, these actions of like, who represents and who is the leader matters when people are witnessing change.
• 33:48
  Speaker 6: I think it matters a lot to what is possible, and there are times when it's my time to step in and there's times when it's my time to step to the side and like how do I know when those moments are there?
• 34:00
  Speaker 6: But because we were dealing with issues that are highly stigmatized.
• 34:07
  Speaker 6: Ethical storytelling is everything, and I'm a big believer that Our words matter, our images matter.
• 34:18
  Speaker 6: They help create the realities we are manifesting in the world and, as a sector, we have an obligation to not only shine a light on the darkest places that we're trying to change, but also to shine an even brighter light in the reality that can be Right, like the reality we are trying to build, and to see people as full people.
• 34:51
  Speaker 6: So the young women I've worked with, yes, they've been through horrible things, but they're also.
• 34:56
  Speaker 6: They're children, they're teenagers.
• 34:57
  Speaker 6: Some of them are mothers or sisters, they like to dance and play and they're silly and naughty, and some are shy and some are boisterous, and some want to be teachers and doctors and lawyers, and one wants to be the president, and they've gone on to start businesses and go to college and that is beautiful and that is what we're working for.
• 35:19
  Speaker 6: I'm not working for their darkest moments, I'm working for who they are Right and we have an obligation and a responsibility to hold that and I want to just extend this.
• 35:37
  Speaker 6: There was something in the chat earlier about lived experience and I.
• 35:41
  Speaker 6: Lived experience is so important, like we need all different kinds of wisdom and all of our movements, and I have hired hundreds of people in my career and many of them have come into my space because of things that you've experienced, and it is so valuable, it is so needed.
• 36:05
  Speaker 6: And one thing I would like to say is that sometimes the first bio I get starts with what they've been through and why they're there, and I am all for owning your story and owning your power, and if you're ready to step into that and work with Tanya and think about the change you want to make, go for it.
• 36:29
  Speaker 6: If you think that I only hired you because of that, you're wrong.
• 36:35
  Speaker 6: Right Like.
• 36:37
  Speaker 6: You are bigger than your darkest moment.
• 36:40
  Speaker 6: We all have to be Right, like we probably have people in this audience who've been through divorce or cancer or rape or all sorts of hard things, and that is not the only thing that makes us who we are.
• 36:54
  Speaker 6: It is a really important thing, but it is not the only thing.
• 36:59
  Speaker 6: And so once we put something on the internet, even if we change it, it is always there, and I cannot tell you how many people I've worked with who have shared their stories at Gallas or in newspapers or in bios, and then, 10 years later, they've come to me and they've been like not with my organization, but with others.
• 37:16
  Speaker 6: I feel used or exploited, and I don't want my children to think this is the only part of me.
• 37:22
  Speaker 6: And so I just say that because, while lived experience is so important, we also have it's not just ethics as a responsibility to hold this with care and to really not re-objectify or re-exploit when we are trying to transform systems and realities that exist around us.
• 37:49
  Speaker 6: And we have a big part to play in that in our sector as well, and we have a big part to play in how we educate our donors in our community, and that's on us.
• 37:59
  Speaker 6: So I just want to leave us with that.
• 38:03
  Speaker 6: It's important, but it's not the only thing.
• 38:06
  Speaker 6: We're bigger than that.
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: And I see Tara's comment that's getting the love that their trauma is not who they are.
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: I mean, that's beautifully said and, okay, I am like grieving because the countdown clock is telling me we have four minutes and you know how we round this out.
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: We have to have a one good thing moment and you've given us so much, each of you.
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: I want to thank you for your presence today and your wisdom and sharing space.
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: Thank you for everybody in the chat, but, alex, I'll start with you.
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: Share a one good thing you would leave us with to kind of round out this conversation.
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, kindness is free and it has real, measurable impact on our collective mental health, whether that's us performing an act of kindness, the recipient of that kindness and even the witness of that kindness.
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: It has a real, measurable impact on our mental health and in a world where nearly everything has a cost, it's still free, so I'll leave you with that.
• 39:05
  Speaker 3: The lawyers telling us kindness is everything.
• 39:07
  Speaker 3: You are the ultimate disruptor, Alex.
• 39:09
  Speaker 3: Okay, Tanya, what about you?
• 39:11
  Speaker 3: What's your one good thing?
• 39:12
  Speaker 3: Oh my gosh.
• 39:13
  Speaker 4: Well, I think it's probably this quote by our fairy godmother, Brené Brown, which sums a lot of this up.
• 39:19
  Speaker 4: And it's one day you will tell the story of what you overcame and it will become part of someone else's survival guide.
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: I love that quote so good.
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: My bad quote, Mara what's on your mind?
• 39:32
  Speaker 5: Sure, I mean it's come up so many times throughout this amazing discussion, but for me, the word that I want to leave everyone with is interconnectedness.
• 39:39
  Speaker 5: Just quickly, I think some of you know that I started a girls magazine print magazine called Kahani, which means story in Hindi, telling the stories of girls around the world.
• 39:50
  Speaker 5: I don't know if people know, including Alex and Alia, that both la-la and channel kindness have had young people submit and contribute stories to recent issues of Kahani, and so it's just to say look at the power of what can happen when we come together and recognizing that all of the issues that we're working on individually as part of our organizations have deep and powerful connections to one another, and so really be looking for that.
• 40:21
  Speaker 5: See those connections, seek them out, because our work is going to be stronger if we do.
• 40:26
  Speaker 3: The world is so small, you know, when you think about this work and we need everybody pouring into that.
• 40:31
  Speaker 3: Alia, round us out and bring us home.
• 40:33
  Speaker 3: What's your one good thing?
• 40:35
  Speaker 6: I love it.
• 40:35
  Speaker 6: Some of our young leaders have applied.
• 40:37
  Speaker 6: Thanks, tara, mine is, and I shared this on a podcast cast episode with you, but it's the theme of my year.
• 40:44
  Speaker 6: In a world that's been so dark and heavy, don't forget to play.
• 40:48
  Speaker 6: There is such value in play and it is so underrated as adults.
• 40:57
  Speaker 6: Play helps us be more creative.
• 40:59
  Speaker 6: It helps us be more innovative.
• 41:00
  Speaker 6: It helps us connect with each other in new ways and use new parts of our brain.
• 41:04
  Speaker 6: It helps us level power dynamics in ways that are extraordinary.
• 41:10
  Speaker 6: So bring play into your work.
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: What a beautiful way to round this out, and I'd love that the link to Kahani got dropped, because I know you all are looking for stories to all the time, tara, of women that want to step into their power, girls that want to step into this and have their story amplified.
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: So y'all Can we?
• 41:30
  Speaker 3: add a one good thing, please do.
• 41:31
  Speaker 3: Here's my one good thing for y'all Do a 1% shift.
• 41:35
  Speaker 3: When you leave this session today, I want you to write something down that's going to make a little 1% shift in the way that you are going to embrace being a change agent.
• 41:45
  Speaker 3: Do it at your comfort level, do it at the speed that makes you know that feels good to you.
• 41:49
  Speaker 3: But let's make a shift, because I think you can feel the energy, the love, the warmth and the desperation in meeting these stories, meeting this interconnectedness.
• 42:00
  Speaker 3: We need to know what's happening within your community.
• 42:03
  Speaker 3: We need to know what you see, what you're feeling, what opportunities exist, because we are not defined by the harm.
• 42:10
  Speaker 3: We are defined by the opportunities that go on afterward.
• 42:14
  Speaker 3: Let's create those opportunities for others.
• 42:16
  Speaker 3: You have the power to do that with your lived experience, with your heart.
• 42:20
  Speaker 3: You've got your Hype Squad right here.
• 42:23
  Speaker 3: All six of us, we are rooting for you.
• 42:25
  Speaker 3: Let's pull together.
• 42:26
  Speaker 3: Let's make this movement one that is all about change and empathy.
• 42:30
  Speaker 3: Thank you so much for joining us.
• 42:32
  Speaker 3: Thank you to our guests.
• 42:34
  Speaker 3: We are humbled by what you do and we're humbled by every one of you in the chat for how you pour into missions.
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: Go find these incredible humans, follow them, soak up their wisdom.
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: Thank you for joining us.
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: What an honor to have you here.
• 42:46
  Speaker 3: I appreciate you all.
• 42:47
  Speaker 3: Thanks for joining us today.
• 42:50
  Speaker 2: Thanks so much for being here.
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: We hope you're loving the Summer of Evolution series and to learn more you can head over to weareforgoodcom slash evolution for all the playlists, resources and other ways to help you get inspired and activated this summer.
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: We'd also love for you to join the conversation, share what you're learning on social media or join us at our free community at weareforgoodcommunitycom.
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: Bonus points for snapping a picture and showing us where you're listening from.
• 43:14
  Speaker 2: Can't wait for the next conversation.
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: See you soon, friends.