An Introduction to Systems Change
Systems change for well-being and equity involves rethinking and reshaping how interconnected social, economic, political, and environmental systems affect community health and quality of life. Unlike interventions that target individual problems, systems transformation aims to overhaul structures that create and sustain health disparities. This holistic perspective builds more equitable and resilient communities by addressing the drivers of inequity and poor health outcomes.
Systems change is undertaken by stewards—people or organizations who coordinate to create the conditions that all people need to thrive. Stewards believe in the power of working across differences and in solidarity with marginalized communities and work together to reshape systems in ways that promote equity, resilience, and sustainability.
Shifting Systems to Change Outcomes
Policies, institutions, and other structures comprise the systems governing our lives. These systems are designed to produce certain results, which are not always fair, just, or equitable. By design, our systems produce inequitable outcomes, with observable disparities by race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and gender.
In education, for instance, disparities in funding and access to resources disproportionately harm marginalized communities, leading to lower academic achievement, fewer economic opportunities, and poorer health outcomes. The legacy of redlining, a discriminatory practice that has historically denied access to home loans and investments for communities of color, has greatly impacted educational funding. Because public school funding is often tied to local property taxes, communities with higher property values can raise significantly more school revenue than lower-income communities. This funding model increases educational disparities as well-resourced districts invest in smaller class sizes, advanced technology, specialized programs, and better-compensated teachers, while less-resourced schools face overcrowding, use outdated materials, and have limited extracurricular opportunities. These systemic advantages and disadvantages add up to real disparities in well-being outcomes.
But systems are changeable—and can be redesigned to achieve new results.
By redesigning our systems, we can create foundations for thriving, sustainable communities where everyone has what they need for their well-being. The Vital Conditions for Well-Being framework provides a roadmap for this transformation by focusing on the essential conditions people and places need to thrive—such as basic needs for health and safety, reliable transportation, and meaningful work and wealth. By fundamentally reorganizing systems to ensure equity, inclusivity, and long-term well-being, we can build a future where all individuals and communities flourish.
An Introduction to Policy, Systems, and Environmental (PSE) Change
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Systems Thinking
Reorganizing the interconnected systems affecting poverty, health disparities, environmental degradation, educational inequities, and other problems means dismantling their systemic drivers—the underlying forces that shape vital community conditions. By identifying and targeting systemic issues, we can get to the root of problems and achieve real, lasting change. Structural solutions—like overhauling funding mechanisms, reforming discriminatory policies, or redesigning institutional practices—lay the groundwork for more equitable systems.
The best solutions will address both root causes and multiple challenges at once. Multi-solving—working across sectors to address multiple challenges with one policy or investment—accomplishes more with the same budget and aligns constituencies for greater impact. The Just Transition framework is a prime example of multi-solving. The framework supports a shift to a sustainable economy while ensuring fairness for workers and communities dependent on fossil fuels. By investing in renewable energy, creating green jobs, and retraining workers for emerging industries, the Just Transition framework addresses economic inequality, mitigates the climate crisis, and fosters community resilience. This integrated approach reduces greenhouse gas emissions and ensures the community is at the core of our transition to a greener future. Multi-solving!
Systems thinking encourages a shift in mindset: from one that is reactive and crisis response-driven, to one with long-term vision that sets communities up for success for generations to come. This involves emphasizing forward-looking strategies that build engaged, resilient communities capable of adapting and thriving in the face of future challenges. The so-termed “Seventh Generation Principle”, which comes from Indigenous knowledge, exemplifies long-term, intergenerational thinking. The Haudenosaunee concept requires decision-makers to consider the welfare of people seven generations into the future before acting. This kind of intergenerational thinking shifts our gaze to the future and challenges us to consider future needs alongside those of the present.
New systems capable of producing the equitable outcomes we seek will actively reshape relationships between community members and solutions. The design of these systems will center the experiences, solutions, and leadership of people with lived experience. It will shift power to community through strategies that build civic muscle, strengthen democracy, and restructure capitalism like shared ownership and participatory budgeting. Systems thinking requires us to shift mindset about power and process.
Transforming Systems Together
Transforming systems for health and equity requires stewards to work together as a collective with the shared goal of all people, in all places, thriving, with no exceptions. The work requires all of us; we can achieve more together. By coming together in shared stewardship and aligning a systems strategy, we can set in motion systems change. Importantly, strategy should be co-created with community members and people with lived experience of inequities.
Our capacity to transform systems together grows as we strengthen the Vital Condition of belonging and civic muscle. Belonging and civic muscle empowers collective advocacy for change, holds systems accountable, and influences decisions that shape equitable policies, ensuring diverse voices are heard. Building belonging and civic muscle builds our capacity to transform power structures and policies. Promoting civic engagement and engaging in policy advocacy are places to start. Engaging people of color, low-income people, immigrants, and other often-underrepresented groups in political processes and policy will help transform systems for well-being and equity.
Transforming systems for well-being and equity requires a comprehensive approach addressing the underlying structures and processes perpetuating inequality and poor health outcomes. By transforming social, economic, political, and environmental systems, we can build communities that are more equitable and resilient. This process requires collaboration across sectors, a commitment to social justice, and a focus on tackling the root causes of inequality, such as discrimination, lack of access to resources, and imbalances of power. Ultimately, systems transformation is about creating a society that values and supports the well-being of all communities.
Transforming Systems for Wellbeing and Equity
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Additional Resources
Building Systems Change for Equitable Public Health Systems
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Community Approaches to Systems Change
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