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What WiLEAD’s First Year Taught Us About Environmental Action as Democratic Practice
July 30, 2026 / Program UpdatesWhen we first shared the story of the Wisconsin Labs for Environment and Democracy, or WiLEAD, the labs were still unfolding. Students were mapping environmental challenges, building relationships with community partners, and designing small experiments to test what might move people from concern to action. Now, after a full year of work across three labs,
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From Classrooms to Communities: Inside Wisconsin’s Labs for Environment & Democracy (WiLEAD)
February 27, 2026 / Program UpdatesWiLEAD labs are now underway, and across Wisconsin, students, professors, community organizers, and local leaders are rolling up their sleeves to bridge divides and co-create solutions to the state’s most pressing environmental challenges. Each lab is a living experiment in how people can come together—across sectors, generations, and differences—to tackle shared problems while strengthening local
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Introducing WiLEAD: Where Environmental Action Meets Civic Trust Building
September 19, 2025 / AnnouncementsWhat is WiLEAD? Root Change is excited to announce our new WiLEAD (Wisconsin Labs for Environment & Democracy) program! Funded by Mosaic, a fiscally sponsored project of the Tides Center, and in partnership with the Whitburn Center for Governance and Policy Research at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh (UWO), WiLEAD (pronounced “We Lead”) is a
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Introducing the Youth Equity Index: Measuring What Really Matters in Youth Engagement
August 12, 2025 / White PaperToo often, youth are invited to the table only to be handed a script someone else wrote. At Root Change, we believe it’s time to flip that script and the Youth Equity Index (YEI) is our latest step in doing just that. Developed under the USAID-funded Youth Excel program (2020-2025),
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Phnom Penh Youth Social Lab Completes First Cohort!
October 29, 2024 / Program UpdatesRoot Change is thrilled to celebrate the completion of the first-ever youth Social Labs cohort, which took place in Phnom Penh, Cambodia as part of the USAID Advancing Youth Leadership (AYL) Program! Over four months, twelve teams of ambitious young people came together to address some of their community’s most pressing challenges. The projects that
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Launching Youth Social Labs in Cambodia
April 17, 2024 / AnnouncementsRoot Change is excited to announce that we have joined the USAID Advancing Youth Leadership (AYL) program. In partnership with Chemonics International and local capacity development organization, VBNK, we are running Social Labs designed to empower Cambodian youth by guiding them through a hands-on, transformative journey of personal growth and community development projects. The Social
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22 African Youth Are Now Certified Research-to-Change (R2C) Mentors!
November 9, 2023 / AnnouncementsThe 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
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Research-to-Change Mentorship Academy (R2CMA): Youth-inclusive Implementation Research
June 5, 2023 / Program UpdatesAre 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
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We Welcome The 2022 Inaugural #ShiftThePower Fellows
June 28, 2022 / AnnouncementsThe 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,
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Kisumu’s Issue-Based Collaborative Network Creates Collective Knowledge and Collective Impact
June 12, 2022 / SnapshotYouth Excel’s Issue-Based Collaborative Network (ICON) activity is engaging 11 youth organizations in Kisumu, Kenya. Through the ICON, organizations have been practicing Implementation Research, in which they develop learning goals for improving their program implementation. Root Change has been supporting the ICONs by helping to build a collective mindset, tasking
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Register for DPMI’s January 2022 Certificate Program
October 4, 2021 / AnnouncementsRegistration is now open for DPMI’s 2022 certificate program, taking place January 4 – 21! The 3-week intensive Program on Design, Partnering, Management and Innovation (DPMI) equips activists, students, and young professionals with social change tools, skills-based learning, and theoretical knowledge to spark change both domestically and internationally. Throughout the program, participants develop a portfolio
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Launching the Global Youth Excel Network Map
June 9, 2021 / AnnouncementsWhat if you could connect with other youth-led and youth-serving organizations out there who are passionate about the same cause? What if you could access additional knowledge, skills, or funding to advocate for youth in your community? Or what if you could share what you’ve learned with important sector leaders? Could you grow your impact?
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Youth Excel: Using Feedback to Foster Equity and Collaboration
May 10, 2021 / Program UpdatesThe USAID-funded Youth Excel program officially launched last week! Youth Excel will support young leaders and youth-led and youth-serving organizations to conduct implementation research to improve youth programming, build youth networking skills, and generate dialogue between young people and adult decision-makers to shape better policies, programs, and development agendas. To do this well, Youth Excel
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DPMI Moves to Its New Institutional Home: Root Change
February 26, 2021 / AnnouncementsWe are thrilled to announce that the Program in Design, Partnering, Management, and Innovation (DPMI) has transitioned to a new institutional home in 2021, Root Change! Launched in 2003 at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, the 3-week intensive program now has 2,200 alumni. The shift from a graduate school to an innovative,
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Root Change, IREX & Partners to Implement USAID’s Youth Excel: Our Knowledge, Leading Change
September 1, 2020 / AnnouncementsRoot Change is delighted to announce that we have been selected to be a part of the Our Knowledge, Leading Change consortium with IREX to implement YouthPower Youth Excel, a global five-year U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) program to strengthen youth leadership in local development. This program will empower young people and youth organizations
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Lean experiments generate local solutions and capacities
October 25, 2018 / Program UpdatesRoot Change has partnered with Children International and their 13 country agencies to clearly identify challenges facing their communities and test solutions using lean experimentation and design thinking. Local staff have been testing rapid, low-cost organizational changes in areas such as internal communication, partnership development, as well experiments related to child wellbeing. Worldwide, over 50
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