Shaping Change with Changing Futures

Back in December, we sat down with the Changing Futures team—a programme also working with people experiencing deep, multiple disadvantages.

“It was a meeting of two like-minded programs that share a system-change philosophy,” Matt Bell noted after the session.

What struck us wasn’t just the overlap in goals—housing, mental health, trauma-informed care—but how aligned we were in approach. Both projects are grounded in trust, relationships, and a refusal to oversimplify complex lives.

We didn’t come away with a five-point plan. But we did leave with something just as valuable: shared language, shared curiosity, and new possibilities for collaboration.

System change can feel big and abstract. But meetings like this remind us it starts with alignment—of values, of vision, and of relationships.

We’re not alone in this work. And that gives us hope.