Faces of Change

We are in a moment in time when our ability to work together — and organize ourselves — at a local, national and global level will determine if we can respond effectively to the challenges ahead of us, and build the world we want to see.

The call for new civic leadership to enable this has never been so great. The type of leadership that organizes communities to work together, combine resources and build power for change.

“Leadership is accepting responsibility for enabling others to achieve shared purpose in the face of uncertainty” — Marshall Ganz

It’s easy to turn on the news and feel overwhelmed by all the realities that stand in front of us. However, all over the world people are stepping up to face these challenges by answering the call to leadership.

All of these people are leaders and they are enabling new civic leadership, bringing their communities together and building power for change.

This provides a powerful source of hope in our world. Leadership and collective action that shows us that it is possible to change narratives, shift systems and chart new directions.

More often than not, however, the stories of these leaders and their communities remain unseen, unrecognized and untold.

Behind every one of these leaders is a story of their journey to civic leadership — why they stepped forward. And at the heart of that story is their community; a cause they are collectively fighting for; hopes and dreams and fears; and importantly: a theory of change, strategy and action that is building power, changing systems and improving lives.

Faces of Change exists to tell these stories. To inspire new hope, new civic leadership and action that builds power for local and systemic change.

Unique contexts, but systemic challenges requiring common and joined-up responses.

Every leader and community is working with unique challenges within their own socio-political context —some may be organizing directly under authoritarianism, while others may be working within weakening democracies or under the threat of authoritarianism.

These differences are only in context because our economic, environmental and social challenges are increasingly intertwined. They’re global. They’re systemic. They sit at the root of many of our local and national challenges.

This means, despite our differences, leaders and communities face similar questions about how to build the power needed to create the world we want to see.

Rising to the call for more storytelling that inspires hope and action, Faces of Change will learn from across our different contexts and see how leaders are using leadership-based organizing to successfully build power for change.

What will Faces of Change look like?

Our founder Marshall Ganz will host a monthly Faces of Change podcastseries where he’ll be joined in conversation by a leader that is enabling communities to organize for systemic change. We’ll hear the story of their journey to leadership and the lessons they’ve learned along the way.

Marshall Ganz

We’ll then publish the transcribed interviews here on Medium to build a public archive of stories.

After exploring their own journey, they’ll join us for an online event Faces of Change Live. They’ll share the impact of their work on the ground and how they do it, in an interactive format.

We’ll be announcing our first Face of Change in two weeks — an inspiring leader from the Middle East who is enabling new civic leadership and empowerment of communities in countries like Tunisia, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan, and on issues like education, labor, disability issues and more.

Our first podcast will go live on October 14th and will stream on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Soundcloud, followed by our first Faces of Change Live on October 31st, 2019 from 10am US East Coast time.

Nominate a leader for Faces of Change

Our vision is to build a large public archive of stories to share with new audiences, to inspire hope and leadership by showing the potential for change in our societies.

We invite you to nominate leaders of change to be featured as part of our ongoing Faces of Change series.

Who is a leader you know that is enabling new civic leadership in their communities and impacting change — using the practice of public narrative, community organizing or both?

Click here to submit a nomination!

Here are four other ways you can be involved:

1. Subscribe and follow us on Medium, Facebook and Twitter to keep up with the campaign
2. Amplify the stories by sharing them across your networks
3. Join us at our Faces of Change Live event each month
4. Join our Faces of Change volunteer team as a writer to help us bring as many stories to the world as possible (email James below!).