In 2024, we spoke with Ian McSweeney, one of the Co-Founders and Co-Executive Directors, about the Sacred Futures living charter journey.

What challenges led you to pursue the living charter journey?

“We were at a crucial juncture, processing and evolving from our past experience with land commons models to create something new – the Farmland Commons model. We needed to hold meaningful conversations and create deep connections as co-founders while developing The Farmers Land Trust as a partnership. Essentially, we were looking for a framework that would connect our vision, purpose, and structure with governance, bylaws, operations, relationships, and people.”

How did the journey help shape these elements?

“The Living Charter Journey was transformative in how it framed and guided our deep conversations. It created a space for sharing and visioning between us as co-creators and directors. Then, beautifully, it reflected all of this back as meaningful content that became our charter’s foundation.”

Have there been any surprising outcomes?

“Rather than surprising, I’d say we experienced wonderful, hoped-for outcomes that have exceeded our expectations. We’ve seen remarkable clarity in our organizational messaging, which has benefited us in three key ways: 1) enhancing community understanding and connection, 2) fostering board engagement, and 3) strengthening our legal collaborations. The depth of supportive and constructive communication between us as co-creators has been extraordinary.”

How has the charter guided your organization’s purpose in practice?

“It serves as our North Star – a framing document we consistently use as we build other aspects of the organization and engage in localized Farmland Commons work across North America.”

You’re relatively new as an organization. How has the charter supported your adaptability?

“At the time of going through the Journey, we were still in our very early stages as an organization. Our Journey together had a primary focus on and benefit to building adaptability as we transformed, evolved and created this new organization, in The Farmers Land Trust, and new land commons model, in the Farmland Commons. The charter is unique in how it synthesizes and refines content that would typically be scattered across various documents. It adds illustrations, visuals, and thoughtful layout in ways that make it an engaging and inspiring resource.”

Would you recommend this journey to others considering it?

“Yes! First, creating, conveying, and understanding your organization holistically is incredibly important, and the Living Charter Journey guides this process expertly. Second, it ensures connection between organizational structure, governance, operations, mission, and work, bringing these elements together into one engaging and inspiring document. Finally, the investment in building and holding space for conversation, visioning, and agreement framing is invaluable for organizational leadership.”

Is your company grappling with questions of self-organizing, decision-making power, participatory governance, roles and responsibilities? Curious about embodying your values as you build an adaptive organization? Get in touch with us to learn more about our Adaptive by Design methodology to organizational development, which begins with the Living Charter formation process.

We sat down with Joseph K. Johnson of Texas Agriforestry Small Farmers, Ranchers, and Landowners, one of B*NET’s founding members, to discuss how Sacred Futures’ Living Charter Journey helped shape the foundation of this emerging enterprise.

What challenges led you to pursue the living charter journey?

“Our primary challenge was complex: How could we develop an organization that represented a diverse leadership and membership team without using a traditional organizational structure? We needed to figure out how to balance national leadership with local autonomy in a way that hadn’t been done before.”

How did the charter process help address these questions?

“The journey provided more balance in everything we did – from how we approached working together on the charter itself to our decision-making processes and collaborative efforts. It really transformed our approach to working together.”

Were there any unexpected discoveries along the way?

*One of the most surprising outcomes was discovering how aligned our views actually were even though we had no shared history of working together. Among our thirteen initial members, our thoughts and vision for the organization were remarkably similar.”

How has the charter guided your organization’s purpose in practice?

“While we’re still in our initial stages, the charter has been instrumental in solidifying our structure and direction. It’s given us the cohesiveness we needed to move forward effectively. The charter development exercise was crucial – without it, we wouldn’t have achieved the level of shared understanding we have today.”

You’re relatively new as an organization. How has the charter supported your adaptability?

“Our charter is definitely a living document. As we continue developing new initiatives, we find opportunities to make adjustments that keep the document aligned with our evolving needs. It’s been incredibly dynamic. Having a clear system and process for how we interact and work together as an organization has been invaluable, especially in developing our dynamic organizational structure.”

Would you recommend this journey to others?

“Definitely! You will gain structure, cohesiveness, and identification of process. I’d particularly recommend it to anyone developing a new organization or even just thinking about starting one.”

Note: TASFRL is a Texas based organization, primarily supporting Small Farmers, Ranchers, and Landowners in Texas.

Are you grappling with questions of self-organizing, decision-making power, participatory governance, roles and responsibilities? Curious about embodying your values as you build an adaptive organization? Get in touch with us to learn more about our Adaptive by Design methodology to organizational development, which begins with the Living Charter formation process.

The Fibers Fund is breaking new ground in the impact investment space as a catalytic fund supporting small U.S. natural fiber and textile producers and processors, with a specific focus on environmental equity.

We spoke with Co-Founder and Managing Director, Sarah Kelley, about how the Sacred Futures Living Charter Journey helped shape this innovative financial vehicle.

What challenges led you to pursue the living charter journey?

“We were creating something quite unique – an equity-focused governance structure that would shift decision-making power to those most impacted by the textile industry’s past and current extractive practices. While we had settled on a two-part structure with an Advisory Council and Investment Committee, we needed clarity on roles, responsibilities, and day-to-day operations. We kept asking ourselves: ‘What are we inviting others into?’ and ‘How will the governance and guidance actually work?’”

How did the charter process help address these questions?

“The process was incredibly comprehensive. The journey helped us move from a general idea to a clear, specific, and carefully thought-through set of governance documents. During scoping, the proposed approach was to provide a ‘living systems’ based charter” - this has proved to be completely true for the Fibers Fund, and even as we have gone through some unanticipated structure changes, the Charter has continued to guide us and be a touchstone for our decisions.”

Have there been any surprising outcomes?

“The surprises came after the journey – we learned that whatever contingencies or changes seem most unlikely at the beginning probably WILL happen! These experiences have really highlighted the resilience and ongoing relevance of our Charter. It has become our anchor and touchstone.”

“it’s vital to create a process where you are required to consider decision-making flows, contingencies, and what ifs and think through how you would proceed in line with your values in such situations—because they WILL happen.” - Sarah Kelley

How has the charter guided your organization’s purpose in practice?

“Having a clear, principled, and detailed Charter was invaluable in helping us share our vision with prospective Advisory Council members and helping us build our beautiful governance team. Since then, it’s been our ongoing reference point for how these bodies should interact. Most recently, during a restructuring process, it’s helped us hold our north star even while dealing with unexpected challenges. The Charter holds enough of our intention and vision to still provide guidance and grounds for decisions in this new phase.”

The charter was designed to be a ‘living’ document to guide adaptive organizations. Has that proven valuable?

“Absolutely! When all our other assumptions about Fund structure and partnerships shifted, the Charter endured as our internal guiding document. Without it, we would have had much less clarity and less of a clear rudder to steer through these changes. As we work through our reorganization, we are seeing the Charter come to life as it adapts to reflect the evolution of our Fund.”

What additional benefits have you witnessed?

“The most critical asset was the Charter’s role in sharing our vision with members of our Advisory Council and Investment Committee — I believe the opportunity to review our Charter and understand their roles clearly was critical to engaging these members, and we have since seen our governance bodies come into their own as the leadership of the Fibers Fund. Beyond guiding governance, I believe this thoughtful document has helped strengthen our due diligence materials and responses overall and contributed to recent positive funding news.”

Would you recommend this journey to others?

“Yes! For three key reasons: First, it’s vital to create a process where you are required to consider decision-making flows, contingencies, and what ifs and think through how you would proceed in line with your values in such situations—because they WILL happen. Second, creating a Charter through the Living Charter Journey will provide a living systems document that will be an anchor for your organization as the external world, partners, and goals inevitably shift. And finally, the gifted facilitation process provided by Sacred Futures will inspire, align, and propel your team forward.”

Is your company grappling with questions of self-organizing, decision-making power, participatory governance, roles and responsibilities? Curious about embodying your values as you build an adaptive organization? Get in touch with us to learn more about our Adaptive by Design methodology to organizational development, which begins with the Living Charter formation process.

Permaculture is a design methodology typically applied to bioregional or hyper local landscapes in both rural and urban settings. A word coined by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in the 70s, the idea holds that we are pursuing the design of an agricultural system that is permanent, bringing the diversity, stability and resilience of natural systems into our production methods. The general practice holds solid principles that we can learn from which have deep roots in local traditional wisdom and biomimicry, modeling how Nature develops into self sustaining ecosystems.

In this article, we are going to look one of these principles – ecological succession planning - and explore how it relates to long term visioning and succession planning for a company or organization that is regenerative.

What is Ecological Succession?

Ecological succession is the process during which a diverse community of species within a specific habitat change over a long period of time. If we begin at the base of an old growth forest, we will be witnessing the late stages -of ecological succession. The forest is such a biodiverse, self sustaining and high yielding ecosystems that we can interact with. It feels alive. The richness in the soils is visually noticeable, the different levels of growth and development are everywhere.

With Nature left to her own devices around an undisturbed area, she will evolve an undisturbed area into a diverse ecosystem. But there is a scientific and artistic process in her approach. She employs the assistance of many cast of characters to do so. These characters participate in the evolution of the area to a ‘climax community’, or what we experience as a mature forest.

The Cast of Characters Involved

Pioneer Plants: We know them as weeds in most cases. But that is only because when we encounter weeds, generally speaking they are not in our prescribed plan for a production system. But their role in the ecosystem is quite high stakes and important. Pioneer plants have one main job - to disturb and prepare. These plants are designed to use their roots to make channels into soil that is dead. These channels allow for resources (water, nutrients, etc.) to flow through.

Once the pioneer plants have done their job, in most cases they can actually be used to build up the soil organic matter, when they are cut down and mixed in with the soil. Pioneer plants are the forerunners in creating the conditions for the next participants to do their part and grow into a thriving dynamic ecosystem.

Perennial Plants - these plants come in after the pioneer plants as grasses and shrubs.

Woody pioneers - they are hardy and generally are there to create a protective microclimate for the young trees to develop

Young forest - all members are alive and well, and they are interacting with each other and will be doing so for the next 25, 50, 100 years, however long it takes to grow into a mature forest. Responding and adapting to disruptions as they present themselves.

Mature forest - old growth trees die, fall down and integrate into the soil organic matter, further promoting the next generation of life and plants in the understory.

How Might Ecological Succession Planning Map to Companies?

Planning for succession involves understanding the unique ecology and soil of the organization and the roles of each team member and resources available to the company. With this understanding, you can strategically disrupt the ecosystem by shifting these resources of social capital, material capital, financial capital and political capital to encourage regenerative development.

Soil is the composition, the makeup of the organization’s culture, intended purpose and mission. The conditions of the soil will determine the output or quality of the production of plants, shrubs, all of forest life. Without healthy soil organic matter, the organization falters and erodes away. But we know that longevity in sustaining and advancing healthy ecosystems takes partnership across a whole cast of characters.

The founder and its resource team make up the pioneer plants. They are the disrupters. Noticing an opportunity, to repair soil, to create soil where there is none, the founder team grabs ahold of the purpose and begins to disrupt, to dig, to make way for resources to flow into the soil and mix together for the evolution of the enterprise.

The perennial plants that follow the pioneer plants are the implementers of the enterprise. They have caught onto the vision of the pioneers and are primed to execute operationally within the structures and systems already in place.

The woody plants, those which provide the overstory for the plants to grow, serve as a sort of governance for the plants below. By adding a layer of protection, either from predators or extreme weather patterns, the woody plants main role is to protect and preserve the conditions necessary for the young plants to give way to the young trees that will emerge. For a company, the ‘woody plants’ may take the form of an advisory board or board of directors made up of constituents and representatives who understand the nature of the organization’s intended purpose and can establish rules and parameters to ensure that the growth trajectory of the company goes in the right direction.

The young forest, identified as a robust, diverse and thriving ecosystem, will be existing in this manner, responding to and establishing local and bioregional patterns of being, calling for and repelling other characters who can enhance or deplete the growing ecosystem. The young forest will face tempting offers to alter or shift the ecosystem that is evolving. Whether that be from human or natural disruptions such as harvesting the trees for timber, clearing the land to change land use, or fires. The young forest, left to respond and adapt to the movements surrounding it, and the culture deep within it, will, over 25, 50 to 100 years, develop into an old growth forest.

What might this look like when mapped to a company operation? As a company grows and develops over time, the ecosystem within will be responding to the ecosystems outside of the enterprise. Opportunities to veer off purpose, or make material changes to the company culture are inevitable. An offer to be bought by a larger strategic buyer is presented, major contributors leave the company, a looming recession calls for ways to preserve financial profit, sometimes at the expense of overall long term value.

Does it take a half a century for a company to define its true purpose and grow into its expression of a mature old growth forest? Not necessarily. In permaculture, we ask the question - how do you work with Nature to accelerate ‘development’ into a thriving forest ecosystem? The process in the natural world invites the permaculturalist to plant all of these layers at once, so that they can interact with each other along the development journey.

If you are a founder reading this, you may be thinking about checking out at this point. There’s no way that a founder can identify all of the right individuals, processes, and systems to put them in place early on so as to set the trajectory for becoming a mature enterprise reflecting the tenets of an old growth forest.

That may be true! But it’s less about identifying all of the species and plants upfront, and more about sitting with the purpose (in the permaculture sense, that would be with the landscape) and allowing it to develop the approaches and processes that will be necessary at each stage, creating the conditions to develop a thriving ecosystem.

How can company leaders do this?

• Start with what you have, whether that be culture and purpose or an idea. The purpose is inviting you to bring it to life, to create the long term conditions for it to thrive in harmony with the living world and all of the resources flowing through the system.

• Introduce others who hold any missing resources needed. Allow the soil (culture and purpose) to determine who is engaged. As leaders, you can course correct much faster when the purpose is clearly defined along with the roles and responsibilities. This acts as a screen for you to sort out how to move the intention along.

• Add more organic matter - which can take the form of key hires, catalytic investment, mergers or partnership, divestment, transitions in leadership, change in governance structure. All of these elements make up the organic matter of the organization and are in need of interaction to activate appropriate development.

• Choose the right species to accelerate the process. This is where self organizing comes into play. To choose the right species is to look at the composition of the entire organization as a system, beginning at the mindset level, purpose and working your way through structural, behavioral and physical. The right species may include shifting your mindset.

Early on in the company’s lifecycle, it’s essential to establish a clear purpose and set of values to guide collaborative decision making. This intention becomes the incubation for what the organization will be like when it lives. As the company grows, evolves and adapts, you can revisit these values and purpose regularly to stay aligned with the north star of the organization’s intended mission in existence.

Where could ecological succession planning go wrong?

In permaculture design, one can apply strategic disruption to trigger succession and boost productivity of the natural landscape. However, this strategic disruption that is beneficial only emerges from a deep knowledge of the place, the ecology and the soil itself to understand what unique applications would be fitting for the natural advancement one is trying to obtain.

In this transition and application of succession planning as modeled by nature, it would bode us well to be aware of the potential pitfalls that would inhibit the success of the development to a thriving forest-like culture and operation.

Losing sight of the purpose and culture as the foundation for making everything else come alive.

This is very easy to do in our existing system obsessed with rapid growth, productivity and financial success. Be mindful of the scarcity mindset. The alternative reality is that nature is abundant, generous and reveres the slow process of development to ensure that what is developed can adapt to the evolving times.

Not identifying the right structures, people, species to cultivate the right conditions for healthy development.

When building into the unknown, its hard to see into the future and to plan through every contingency when scenario planning. There is a natural amount of risk that comes with pursuing an idea and implementing a course of action. The art of contemplation and reflection is a tested way to empathize, visualize and design for the future that we don’t see yet. It’s about abiding by principles, which are timeless. Integrating core principles and values will anchor an investment, project, or company well into the future with the creative space to adapt over time.

Moving out of order or dismissing certain roles necessary for the ecosystem to thrive.

There is a natural order of things. don’t lose sight of tending to the ‘soil organic matter’ of your enterprise. That is what we’ve done which has caused the depletion of our soils and the reduction in biodiversity. Anchoring to purpose will help us remember the right order of things and acknowledge the wisdom of nature.

Prioritizing external inputs over cultivating what’s already present.

In conventional agriculture, because our society was trying to react to the rapid growth of population, transition into the industrial revolution, moving people farther and farther away from our sustenance, we’ve had to grow our dependence on external inputs. Large corporations and enterprises are built around this framework. However, Nature’s way is to activate what already is. This applies regionally, locally, it applies to whole health medicine in caring for our bodies, its a principle that applies everywhere.

The central concept of wisdom is permanent. Nothing makes economic sense unless it's continuance for a long time can be projected without running into absurdities." - E.F. Schumacher

The principle of natural succession planning, as modeled by old growth forests, is a way we can think about integrating living systems wisdom into our social and economic infrastructure.

As is the case with living systems, this application of the permaculture principle of natural succession planning onto organizational design is evolutionary and adaptive. Over time, as we test out these models and share case studies, we’ll revisit these concepts and adapt as fitting.

The architecture of our conventional financial systems wasn’t built by accident. Our capital markets have been carefully engineered to concentrate power through controlled access to money and knowledge. Yet as any hydrologist will tell you, concentrated flow often leads to erosion and depletion. The future calls for a different pattern – one where capital flows and circulates freely, nourishing entire ecosystems through distributed networks.

Reimagining Capital’s Purpose

During my tenure in investment banking, I realized that we don’t have a shortage of capital issue - there’s ample money to address the polycrises of social and ecological despair. The real obstacle lies in how capital moves, who controls its flow, and what we deem valuable in our investment decisions.

Consider the traditional definition of an accredited investor – a designation that relies heavily on accumulated wealth as a proxy for investment wisdom. This framework not only concentrates power in the hands of the already-wealthy but fundamentally underestimates the capacity of communities to make informed decisions about their own economic futures. It’s time to question these inherited assumptions.

The Sacred Future of Finance

A sacred future in finance roots capital investment in three fundamental principles:

• Relationship-centered deployment

• Local ecosystem development

• Community self-determination

This vision expands our definition of assets beyond traditional metrics to encompass the true wealth of people, experience, and place. It recognizes that genuine prosperity emerges from building autonomy through interdependence with the living world.

The Practice

Sacred Futures serves as an adaptive advisor to capital innovators who are architecting new investment strategies aligned with natural principles. Our work spans:

• Fund Design & Structure

  • Crafting investment vehicles that serve the intended purpose

  • Developing risk assessment frameworks rooted in relationship

  • Creating trust-based underwriting guidelines

• Strategy & Implementation

  • Building investment policy statements that bridge investor requirements with community needs

  • Designing portfolio management systems

  • Establishing impact measurement aligned with relationship

• Team & Culture Development

  • Nurturing leadership capacity for new financial paradigms

  • Creating governance structures that distribute power thoughtfully

  • Developing succession planning for long-term sustainability

What This Looks Like

In our first two years, we’ve advised emerging fund managers and served on investment committees collectively moving nearly $250 million in investment capital toward future-reverent work. Our expertise spans capital markets, real estate, and impact investing, providing the technical foundation necessary to help capital innovators construct financing vehicles for repair and renewal. Our impact speaks through the transformative work of two catalytic fund partners:

Over the initial years of Potlikker Capital’s formation, we worked with the founding team to establish the creative framework of the investment process, reimagining how risk is defined and assessed in agricultural finance. Our guidance included the development of an investment policy statement that bridges farmer and ecological centricity and investor expectations, opening transformative possibilities for moving capital to farmers of color for the repair and healing of our soils and the wider agricultural system.

We were privileged to come alongside RUNWAY in the launch of their first in-house investment fund. “Their advisory support was instrumental in launching our $50M ROOTED Fund. From team development to portfolio management, they helped us build systems that ensure our evergreen fund will continue transforming how Black communities access and deploy capital.” - Jessica Norwood, CEO and Founder of RUNWAY

A New Pattern of Flow

Imagine a world where capital flows like water in a healthy watershed – distributed, nourishing, and cyclical. Where fund managers become watershed stewards, directing resources with the wisdom of natural systems. This isn’t just idealistic thinking; it’s already happening through the work of pioneering capital innovators.

These emerging fund managers stand at the frontier of financial innovation, actively retooling:

• How we define and assess ‘risk’

• The terms under which capital is borrowed and returned

• The infrastructure supporting entrepreneurial vitality

• The metrics by which we demonstrate success

By supporting fund managers, family offices, and impact investors in aligning their practices with living systems, we’re helping to birth a new financial ecosystem – one where capital flows to nourish regeneration, renewal, and relationship.

In boardrooms and business schools, we’ve long been taught that organizations are machines to be optimized and controlled. But a different understanding is emerging – one that recognizes organizations as living systems, guided by the hearts and consciousness of those who tend them. This goes beyond philosophical musings - it is a pragmatic response to our times. When organizations operate solely from the head, disconnected from heart-wisdom and deeper purpose, they inevitably contribute to the very challenges they claim to solve. At Sacred Futures, we’ve discovered that transforming organizations begins with shaping the hearts of those who lead them.

The Heart of Compassionate Leadership

The prevalent narrative of leadership – one of relentless drive, perpetual growth, and ceaseless activity – has led us to a crisis point. Burned-out leaders create burned-out organizations, which in turn deplete our living world. This cycle of exhaustion isn’t just unsustainable; it fundamentally misunderstands how living systems thrive.

Nature teaches us a radical truth: rest is not the opposite of productivity – it is its foundation. Just as forests cycle through seasons of growth and dormancy, leaders and their organizations require rhythms of renewal. At Sacred Futures, we’ve embraced this revolutionary premise: economic prosperity doesn’t require a race to exhaustion. Instead, the future belongs to leaders who build from a place of deep rest and conscious renewal.

Designing Through Holy Constraints

In natural systems, constraints don’t limit life – they create the specialized conditions for its flourishing. A riverbank doesn’t restrict the river; it gives it form and direction. Similarly, we help organizations discover their “holy constraints” – the values, principles, and purposes that give shape to their unique expression in the world.

These constraints become the DNA of the organization, transcending individual founders to guide the enterprise through generations. They answer fundamental questions about how we work, relate, create, and decide – not through rigid rules, but through living principles that can evolve while remaining true to their essence.

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A New Organizational DNA

The heart, as the nucleus of life, pumps vitality to every cell of the organism. Similarly, when we shape enterprises from the heart, every policy, decision, and interaction flows from this life-giving center.

Through the Living Charter™ Journey, we’re helping organizations write new code into their DNA – one that recognizes rest as essential to productivity, constraints as crucial to freedom, and heart-wisdom as the pathway to purpose. This isn’t just organizational design; it’s organizational rewilding, allowing natural principles to guide us back to ways of working that honor the whole of life.

The Practice

Our Living Charter™ Journey guides organizations through four essential territories:

• Purpose Discovery and Alignment: We dive deep into the heart of why your work needs to exist, examining its contribution to a sacred future. This isn’t just about mission statements – it’s about uncovering the living purpose that wants to emerge through your organization.

• Governance and Decision Design: We architect new approaches to sharing power and making decisions, creating systems that honor both individual wisdom and collective intelligence.

• Succession and Circularity: We look beyond current leadership to envision how the organization can become truly regenerative, designing for continuity and evolution across generations.

• Adaptive Architecture: We establish the holy constraints that allow your organization to remain both true to its purpose and responsive to change, much like a tree that bends with the wind while staying rooted in its essential nature.

What Does This Look Like

“The surprises came after the journey – we learned that whatever contingencies or changes seem most unlikely at the beginning probably WILL happen! These experiences have really highlighted the resilience and ongoing relevance of our Charter. It has become our anchor and touchstone.” - Sarah Kelley, Managing Director, Fibers Fund

“The journey provided more balance in everything we did – from how we approached working together on the charter itself to our decision-making processes and collaborative efforts. It really transformed our approach to working together.” - Joseph K. Johnson, Founding Member of BIPOC National Empowerment Trust

“Our vision and thoughts, conscious and unconscious, were put into words and into a path and direction for our organization and for all those coming to work with us. The process helped us clarify and uncover thoughts and goals we weren’t yet clear on. It also helped to solidify and make concrete things we were still trying to figure out. It was made to be eloquent and beautiful and such a valuable product to share and use for internal and external guidance!” – Kristina Villa, Co-Executive Director and Co-Founder of The Farmers Land Trust

As we face the challenges of our time, this approach offers more than just a new organizational model – it offers a path to healing our relationship with work itself. It suggests that the future of enterprise lies not in pushing harder against natural limits, but in aligning more deeply with nature’s own patterns of renewal and reciprocity.

Over a decade immersed in the financial sector, I found myself standing at an edge. Even though my textbook career over the first ten years is in the financial sector, my way of working is as a designer. The designer perspective – the ability to see possibility in constraints, beauty in complexity – has always been a part of me, even as I navigated the structured world of finance. As I’ve matured in my understanding of systems and structures, I now realize that the supposed divide between business pragmatism and creative nurture is itself an artificial construct, a story we had chosen to believe.

What I witnessed in the business world troubled me deeply. Despite their innovative spirit and genuine desire for positive impact, new ventures were consistently emerging from environments of scarcity and fear. These new ventures, despite their aspirations for positive change, were being birthed into environments of scarcity and fear. They were driven to scale before finding a rhythm wholly respectful of its living neighbors in people, place and planet. This cycle, therefore, perpetuates the very problems businesses think they are trying to solve. The designer in me knew there had to be another way.

In 2020, this recognition crystallized into an experiment called Fly Parallel Studio – a virtual venture incubator that dared to ask: What if we could create organizations with the same tender attention that nature brings to all new life? Not through forced acceleration or artificial constraints, but through patient nurturing and attentive care? What if these businesses were launched by leaders aligned in heart and in practice with ancient wisdom found in nature? Fly Parallel Studio became a protected space to explore how we could envision a different way of bringing new enterprises into being.

The Natural Evolution

And so we did a test run with a fantastic enterprise – Space On Space, a media company bringing slow storytelling for purpose-driven brands and artists in a fast pace world. Emily, founder and editor-in-chief of the magazine reflects on venture incubator.

“Soulful, extremely thoughtful, brilliant and innovative. When I was in business school, it felt like everyone was taught to launch as fast as possible. But Charity’s approach was so intentional and brought wisdom to my strategy. She helped me create a balance in my work process, integrating breath and intentionality to the otherwise structured business development process.” - Emily Logan

After this and other coaching engagements, I went back to the drawing board. I wanted to find a pathway for bringing this approach also to the financial sector in the launching of new investment vehicles in the impact investing world. What emerged from this inner retooling was Sacred Futures and centering living systems and heart-aligned work in the practice itself. What I found was that regardless of the industry, sector, mission, leaders were longing for protected spaces where new organizational forms and methods of work could develop organically. I saw nature’s wisdom in rhythms and patterns to be the guide for all of us.

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The leaders who seek us out share a common vision. They recognize the limitations of traditional organizational models built on mechanical, extractive principles. They’re ready to pioneer new paths but often find themselves asking: What does a truly regenerative organization look like? How do we build something different with tools we’ve never used before? They sense that the traditional rush to market, the pressure to conform to conventional models, often results in enterprises that struggle to embody their true purpose. They come to us ready to participate in a more intentional process of becoming.

Holding Space for Emergence

Our response evolved into what is the Sacred Futures Approach. Like skilled birthworkers, we understand that each enterprise, and the leaders of these ventures, goes on a unique journey of emergence. We create conditions where purpose unfolds naturally and where structure develops in harmony with function. Building adaptive organizations requires more than just new strategies – it demands a fundamental shift in how we perceive and participate in organizational life.

Guardians of New Possibility

At its heart, Sacred Futures exists to demonstrate that a future-proof enterprise is an adaptive organization, and an adaptive organization is a flourishing ecosystem. We serve as organizational architects, helping leaders craft blueprints that are as organic and true as the natural systems they seek to honor. When pressure mounts and tension builds, we step in as re-imagineers, offering another way forward. And as guardians of emergence, helping leaders create protected spaces where new possibilities can take root and flourish.

We understand organizations or business enterprises not as machines to be optimized, but as living systems to be nurtured through and for the people and places they interact with. Our approach weaves together innovative organizational design with nature’s time-tested patterns, creating a new paradigm for how enterprises can come into being. Through this work, we are helping to write a new story of what business can be – one that recognizes and honors our fundamental relationship with nature and with each other.

The winter desert sun of January has its way of bringing me into a reflection mode. I’ll be honest, I’ve mostly been living day by day. In total survival mode. Being humbled by my reserved capacity.

Yet it is refreshing to look back and see what a wild journey the last year in particular has been. A lot can happen in a year. And for me - it’s felt like five years have gone by in a span of twelve months.

Can anyone else relate?

The Ongoing Metamorphosis

A whirlwind. That’s the only way I can make sense of 2025.

On a personal note, my little family of three moved. Three times in 18 months. And yes, while moving with a baby turned toddler has its own stressors, the moves themselves weren’t what taxed us. It was what they represented—the physical manifestation of deeper upheaval. And there was not one arena of health that was left untouched - mental, emotional, physical, relational.

Uprooting. Disorientation. Loneliness. Loss of vision. Confusion. Grief. Sadness. Anger.

A real metamorphosis.

2025 was hard. It was disruptive.

How do you plan when you can’t vision?

Set a direction without hope?

Dream when you can’t sleep?

You’re Not Alone

Through many intimate conversations with friends, clients and partners, I recognize that this wasn’t just my experience. These amazing leaders leading movements of change are caught in the same whirlwind. All while grieving the loss of loved ones. Carrying the weight of pregnancy loss. Navigating care for partners and parents with Alzheimer’s. Tending to the endless demands and joys of growing children. Losing family homes and communities to fires and hurricanes.

There’s a lot more happening behind the end of the year impact reports. I can feel it, can you too?

These are real losses, journeys of suffering, arriving in the most human form. When your body fails you. Or your brain functions differently than the world built around you. When your heart is aching so deeply from unresolved grief. Why are we told to move on? Power through it? Get over it?

And Yet, You Build

And yet.

These leaders continue to care. And straddle these worlds in opposition to each other. The world as it is and what it will yet be - the liminal space. They care enough to build new infrastructure with dwindling resources for a world we have yet to see. All while holding some of the most sacred work of caregiving in their personal, daily lives.

What I’m noticing is that the leaders I’m so honored to work with through Sacred Futures have an immense capacity to care. It has me curious about the motivations behind caring and how leaders are nurturing their capacity to care when all systems - political, financial to name a few - are at odds with their work.

I see a through line of the most intimate forms of loss and suffering actually shaping how these leaders lean in. These are the markings of compassionate leadership. Where they embody ‘suffering with’ and are compelled to action beyond just the feeling. Every. Single. Day.

These compassionate leaders are carrying a deeply felt, embodied message for their communities. I’m experiencing them everywhere. Financial innovators mobilizing impact investors for reparative capital. Funders pushing past conventional definitions of risk and return. Cultural leaders standing up to protect heritage and storytelling. Farmers being resourced to tend the land and feed their communities.

They’re also the ones teetering on the brink.

Running on steam that is about to give out. Losing their own health to see ideas through. Wondering if there’s enough left in them to keep going. They may have a flicker, an ember still burning, but the fuel is running dangerously low.

Where do they turn for rest? For vision that feels possible rather than crushing? For permission to pause without abandoning their people? The leaders building the future we need are the ones willing to feel it all—the sorrow, the joy, the exhaustion, the hope.

What We’re Not Resourcing

Here’s what I’m noticing: We’ll fund the innovative AI tech integration, celebrate the community-centered governance design, applaud the integrated capital framework. But we won’t fund the leader’s soul care. We don’t honor their need for sabbatical or non-working retreats. We won’t hold space for them to grieve.

Living organizations require living leaders. The legal structures and financial resources flowing through an organization are shaped by the personhood of its leaders. Their capacity for care shapes the culture. Their relationship to their own suffering shapes how they hold complexity.

I’ve watched leaders barrel through for years without pause—celebrated for their dedication while the organization’s evolution stalls in their exhausted oversight. I’ve seen brilliant shared ownership models fail to take root because we funded the legal structure but not the deep culture shift required in the leaders implementing it. The framework was sound. But the heart-level work? Unfunded. And so the impact stays shallow.

If we are serious about systems change and organizational transformation, we must be just as serious about resourcing the whole person of the leaders carrying it through.

In 2026, I’m finding renewed hope in the exploration of offering ways to answer these questions with compassionate leaders. The work of Sacred Futures is evolving into this focus: resourcing compassionate leaders to renew, dream, and build. This means attending to their capacity to care—the deep well from which everything else flows.

I believe the bold ideas and radical frameworks we need for healing and repair reside with compassionate leaders. They’re expressing a form of heart-led leadership that’s missing from conversations about innovation, technology, impact investment and the future.

A Different Kind of Support

Compassionate leaders—what do you need?

This is the question shaping the evolution of Sacred Futures in 2026. I’m exploring what it looks like to resource leaders not just with strategic frameworks and organizational design, but with the deeper support that tends to the source of your capacity to care.

I’m beginning with one-on-one advisory work this spring, creating space to explore together:

• How your capacity to care is shaping the way you lead and adapt

• What your suffering, loss, and grief have taught you about the kind of leadership you want to embody

• How to build rhythms that honor both your public work and private caregiving

• What financial models can nourish work without depleting life

This is creating a protected space where you can think out loud about vision while holding the weight of any pain or loss you carry. Where you can examine what’s working and what’s breaking. Where you can right-size your operations so the mission doesn’t consume you.

Over time, I envision expanding this into gatherings for renewal, tools for integration, and resources specifically designed for leaders carrying both public vision and private care. But I’m starting here, in the intimate space of one-on-one partnership, because this is where the deepest work can happen.

You Are Seen

Before I invite you into this work, I need you to hear something:

The care you give that doesn’t make it on the LinkedIn post or in the pitch deck or at the board meeting—this is also sacred work.

The 3AM worry about your parent’s declining health. The careful navigation of your child’s needs. The quiet presence with your partner through chronic pain. The grief you carry for losses that have no public acknowledgment. This isn’t separate from your leadership capacity. It’s integral to it.

The presence required to sit with suffering. The living systems thinking needed to coordinate complex care. The fierce advocacy developed through navigating institutions and extractive systems on behalf of the communities you serve. These are leadership capacities forged in the fire of love.

Your caregiving work is crucial to the public movement work we celebrate. It shapes your clarity about what matters. It teaches you about dignity, presence, and what it means to show up when everything is hard. It’s why you lead differently.

I see you moving in these liminal spaces. I’m interested in what’s happening behind your thought leadership posts. What’s going on between meetings. What’s stirring inside you that you haven’t had space to name.

Your need for rest, renewal, spaces to dream, tools to reframe and build—they’re shaping my work and the direction of Sacred Futures. Because you deserve support that honors the wholeness of who you are and what you carry.

Let’s Talk

I’m opening a number of dedicated advisory seats for spring 2026.

This work is for leaders who are:

• Creating from a place of deep care while navigating complexity

• Carrying visions that feel urgent but need to be sustained over time

• Building organizations that can adapt with grace in good times and hard

• Integrating the formation of suffering into their leadership and decision-making

We’ll meet regularly to tend to your vision, your capacity, and the organizational forms that can hold both. This is deep work that requires presence.

If you’re reading this and feeling that pull—that sense of “yes, this is what I’m trying to do”— I’d love to talk. Reply to this email or send me a DM, and we’ll find time to explore what support might look like for you.

Here’s to a year of community. Of conspiring in liminal spaces together. Of finding refuge. Of sharing tools that tend to your capacity to care—for your communities, your audiences, your loved ones, yourself.

Let’s do this work together.

With gratitude for what you’re carrying,

Charity

• Collaborating on a research project on the infrastructure for shared ownership with Purpose Foundation, OneProject and Common Trust;

• Crafting a purpose charter for the organizational design of The Farmers Land Trust; and,

• Working with a group of farmers forming the BIPOC National Empowerment Trust with Potlikker Capital.

As we acknowledge the winter solstice that is upon us, we happily embrace the quietness that comes with it. A time of inwardness, of celebration with loved ones, a time of warmth and layers and refreshing for the new year.

Typically in American culture, we can become obsessed with the reset that January 1 signals. But in nature, January 1 is just the beginning of the winter season. Spring is nowhere to be found. Trees are barren, snow has fallen, rain doesn’t stop and we can't go as fast as we want.

Embracing our limits. I was recently reminded by Bette Dickinson that perhaps limits are not obstacles, but invitations. The winter season paired with the holiday season reminds us of our limitations. Though we might splurge and push right past it. Whether its the deadline of work that needs to be done before 12/31 or those delicious desserts we want to eat plenty of before we start the new year with our favorite fast.

Could it be that limitations are a gift to allow us to find our breaths again? This solstice is special for so many reasons. And so I am entering with the full embrace of my limitations. Setting pause on the things that are not yet complete. But what if completeness is there, and we just need to let go?

Here's my signal to let go, to enter this winter solstice with all the tasks and deliverables in a neat tracker that will sit for me ready to engage on January 8. How might you enter this winter solstice?

This has been a beautiful year of surprises, advancement, and expansion with new partners and exciting lines of work. But for now, we'll hold those updates for the next season, when a different cadence and rhythm will meet us.

❄️Sacred Futures Winter Closure❄️

We will be closed from Friday, 12/22 returning Monday, 1/8. Happy new year!

❄️Winter Readings❄️

Here are a few readings from the archives to inspire you . . .

Where I sit in Southern California, the spider webs are out, the persimmon buds are turning yellow, and a heat surge is on its way through.

What signs of summer transition are you noticing?

When the seasons begin to morph, it's a great opportunity to look back and notice what has occurred, where growth or pruning is necessary, identify the cadence of the season and respond accordingly.

The power of art is to inspire and shape us. This piece is titled, A Blue Moon by Megan Gabrielle Harris. One gallery states “in this work, the artist has captured the importance of isolating oneself in order to reflect inwards.” Thank you to integrative life coach, photographer and artist, Sarah Shreves, for sharing the discovery of this artist through her newsletter!

Be inspired to find rest and rejuvenation, as this is the place where true creativity and ingenuity emerge.

Subscribe now

✨Activity Highlights 

This summer, I visited the island of Oahu for a learning journey among communities and to visit local famers to understand the history, heritage, and challenges of restoring sovereignty, preserving foods of cultural significance, and healing waters to the Hawaiian people.

I’ll be sharing deeper reflections on this trip through a multi-part essay series, expected to be released soon!

Sacred Futures was a sponsor of the Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Funder (SAFSF) conference in DC. Conversations and debate ranged from management of agricultural water to identifying where the real rate of return is for impact investment. There were challenges presented to the funding community by the funding community about how we measure impact.

Is the true expression of a circular economy one in which we measure how often the dollar invested is circulated and regenerated within the community?

If you have thoughts on this question and want to contribute to this dialogue, hit reply and let me know what you think!

✨Partner Highlights

The Fibers Fund was launched in full swing back in spring. I was selected to be on the inaugural Investment Committee with Co-Managing Directors, Sarah Kelley and Teju Adisa-Farrar. Check out the feature here learn more about the initial investments made to textile businesses and artists!

The Community Alliance with Family Farmers elected me to the Board of Directors in July! This 46-year old organization has been serving small producers across the state of California since its inception and through its evolution. Learn more about their work and policy objectives here.

✨Special Mentions

Sacred Futures was featured in this Smiley Movement article, thanks to Emily Logan of Space On Space for the introduction!

Here’s my favorite highlight from the conversation:

“Nature has rhythms that include rest and repair and so for us to attend to nature, I think it’s really important for us to reflect those patterns of rest and repair in our person, but also in our organizations.”

✨Featured Engagements

One of the products central to Sacred Futures’ offerings is what we call the Purpose Charter Journey. This immersive experience combines visioning and deep listening to discover deep purpose, locate relationships within the ecosystem, and create the conditions to align the decision making (governance) and culture development with the intended purpose, marrying the wisdom of nature through this process. Our partners walk away with a governing charter and grounded approach in activating their purpose.

We are excited to be actively working with catalytic partners to guide them on this journey. If you or someone you know is at a stage where developing a charter for an enterprise, initiative, or project would be beneficial, share this note and reach out!

Here's what others have said about this process:

“The facilitation was so critical. I gained much clear understanding of differences between roles, and my role became very clear.”

“The way that [Sacred Futures] prepared the space allowed for us to have impactful conversations with each other. Her process brought so much clarity.”

Curious to learn more about what Sacred Futures does? Hit the button below to find out and be sure to connect or share when relevant with your network.

Explore the Offerings

✨Latest Insights from the Field

In Sacred Futures’ latest blog post, we introduce elements of what it means to participate or create the conditions for a future to be revered and secured as sacred.

Read the full post here.

✨ Join Our Curiosity

One of my core values is curiosity. I’m always exploring, gathering insights to inform our approach. Below are a few of the ideas explored this summer and thought I’d share with you!

🔎 Summer Research:

• Participatory Investment in Banking

• Expanding Participatory Design with More-than-Human Concerns

📖 Summer Reads:

• One Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka

• Humanocracy by Gary Hamel & Michele Zanini

• Ways of Being by James Bridle

• Queen Sugar by Natalie Bastile

🎥 Summer Viewings:

Here’s a short list of illuminating documentaries exploring cultural diversity among human connection with the land.

GATHER - “Gather is an intimate portrait of the growing movement amongst Native Americans to reclaim their spiritual, political and cultural identities through food sovereignty, while battling the trauma of centuries of genocide.”

GAINING GROUND - “In this film, Emmy Nominated Director Eternal Polk examines the causes, effects, and what is being done to fight the exploitation of Heirs Property law and how black landowners are reclaiming their agricultural legacy and creating paths to generational wealth.”

DIGGING IN - “From land ownership to corporate control, from the hollowing out of rural America to paying the price of a changing climate, follow your guide Masika Henson as she digs into the American food system.”

FOOD, EARTH, HAPPINESS - “Inspired by the work and philosophy of Masanobu Fukuoka, artist Patrick M. Lydon (USA) and editor Suhee Kang (South Korea) spend four years meeting and studying with multiple generations of modern day natural farmers. The result is a film that weaves breathtaking landscapes and an eclectic original soundtrack together with stories and insights from an inspiring cast of natural farmers, chefs, and teachers.”  

✨Looking Ahead . . .

Rest is another one of my treasured values. As such, I am careful to build a rhythmic practice between travel, rest, work and play.

As we head into fall, extensive travel engagements will be focused on core sector events. Here are a couple of events through the end of the year that you’ll see me at!

NYC Climate Week - we’ll be joining the movement for the first few days (September 18 - 20, 2023) and then taking some time offline in the Southwest desert lands!

Women Transforming Food and Finance - November 14 - 15, 2023 in Atlanta, GA

Thanks for reading this edition of the summer chronicle!

Be well,

Charity May

In the 20th century the Greenwood District

emerged out of necessity to respond to the segregation in America.

Out came ingenuity in the face of

bigotry and violence led to

self-sufficiency

this community believed in the power of local economy.

The dollar invested in

reinvested to circulate

not once,  not twice, but 19 times

multiplying within uplifting

from within inspiring

from within reaching

up and out.

In one day less than 24 hours

a white mob executed on their commission

to execute this great expression

of the African American story

of strength and beauty.

Crushed immediately

wiped out entirely

massacred deliberately.

There was no return to what was there before

hidden and misunderstood 50 years

when will we tell the story

of a people that believed in and

envisioned a culture beyond

what they could see.

How do I

How can one find themselves without

facing history our stories

intertwined giving insight into

the path we are to take.

On a journey from the west to the east

I pause for a moment

in the south to hold the pain suffering injustice

to see what remains of a massacre

of a beautiful community of black Americans

in the era of Jim Crow.

Standing on the backs of these elders who witness these atrocities

once many times before having

no means to rebuild.

We gain the excellence that stood

on its own

how can I who sit

within these systems and industries

which perpetuate the exclusion and destruction

of colored excellence.

What is there to see?

In the moment in front of

the monument I found

an expression of joy.

Resiliency rises from the ground and it floods my soul

I find myself smiling knowing that my existence

is connected to the rebirthing

of the collective economy.

Life itself is a learning lab. The atmosphere of today’s world is one macrocosmic classroom. Amidst the civil unrest, young people have found the power of their voice. When they stand up and stand out, demanding justice and change, they can in fact see the world change and make things happen. Our education system must continue to adapt to recognize this. Because these are the elements of becoming a well-rounded human who learns empathy, justice, policies, and systems change.

Alternative modes and models of education once slow to adopt are beginning to make a lot more sense under the current circumstances. Advocates for education reform have long been calling for some of these changes, but there hasn’t been the colossal disruption that we are now facing which has suddenly brought everyone running to the table to figure it out.

I am having ongoing dialogues with educators, consultants and families of students. The concerns I’ve heard raised sent me searching for ideas to design solutions to these problems altogether. We must constantly explore ideas that will help us build the necessary infrastructure to thrive in the future.

THE PROBLEM WE FACE

The pandemic did not discriminate based on the type of school a kid went to. District schools, charter schools, and even private schools - most forms of education are facing a brutal disruption with no clear path of recovery. State budgets are frantically looking across departments to find money once the CARES Act funds run out. The K-12 education budgets will take the brunt of these assaults. There is little consistency in the reopening plans, leaving families and students at a loss for how they will make up for the disruptions experienced this year.

Emotions are high - fear, frustration, disappointment, despair - for parents, students and educators alike. How do you foster consistent engagement under remote learning? How will parents juggle the demands of their jobs and support their kids with their studies? What about the teachers who have been let go or are grappling with how to educate their students during this tumultuous time? Will the unknown answers to these questions force existing learning gaps to expand beyond our responsibility to close them?

ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY

Perhaps this is a moment during which we can take a step back, and start to re-imagine things. Maybe this is another opportunity to look at the rubble from the disruption and find a new place to start rebuilding. Re-imagining education during and after this pandemic is going to be an uncharted undertaking, but a necessary one. Our students are seeing the world shift and evolve like never before. They are being called into civic engagement, raising their voices to address injustices all around us. The best thing we can do as stewards of their precious future, is to listen to their cry, and to give them the tools so that we can, together, create long-lasting change for the future that lies ahead.

In Sir Ken Robinson’s book, Creative Schools, he lays out the foundation for and several models of ‘a personalized approach to learning that is customized to both student and the community’. Today, educators are tasked with the responsibility to make sure our kids ingest so much information so that they can regurgitate in a standardized test. However, learning how to think is really what is needed in this ever increasingly complex world. Learning how to think requires ‘slow education’, and a personalized learning approach can support this process.

Some districts and educators are leaning into this moment to suggest an alternative way. They are working collaboratively to design a structure that will champion their students in ways where the existing education model has gaps. In Ohio, the Cleveland Metropolitan School District is doing just that. The superintendent is looking at the gap in grade mastery that was widened by the pandemic shutting down schools earlier. He is asking broadly how to level the playing field to support students as they return. They are exploring offering grade bands and focusing learning outcomes on true mastery of a subject and skill set.

WHAT COULD IT LOOK LIKE?

What could alternative methods of education look like during this pandemic? What if the instructional setting was redesigned to be smaller classrooms, or pods, made up of a designated number of families? Smaller learning cohorts either in the school building or within homes could provide a solution to the new normal of social distancing. Designated learning ‘pods’ or ‘bands’ of families within each of the schools could connect and share resources in a manner that is conducive to building equity and adhering to the COVID-19 safety guidelines.  They could be formed organically or assigned by school administration.

Take, for example, the YDH IDEA Learning Pod Co-Op that Yolanda Hamilton is launching for her son and other children in Cleveland, OH. Yolanda is a facilitator, trainer, and diversity consultant whose mission is to build equity in every sphere. Like many others during the pandemic, she was furloughed from a stable job. This unfortunate circumstance birthed an opportunity for her to dive deeper into her personal work and also explore what resources her son was going to need as an elementary student in this unprecedented time. 

She says her motivation is “to create what my son needs and I want other children to benefit from this as well.”

Yolanda is wrestling with the question of equity on a daily basis. What she finds, though, is that a lot of people talk about it without putting in the sweat and teasers to get it done. So that’s why she took her son’s education in her own hands and is thoughtfully crafting a solution that brings equity front and center.

Older students are more conditioned to spend hours on electronic devices, whether that be for instruction or play. That’s much harder for younger grades, who need to have the space to interact and play to activate their imagination and problem solving skills. When she found out that her son’s school was not going to meet this need without a hefty price, she started looking elsewhere. And she quickly realized the answer would come from the intellectual capital she had in the form of relationships. Yolanda pivoted to building a learning co-op that would bring affordability front and center. She launched a crowdfunding campaign. “The program will be pay-what-you-can for the families who participate. I want to be an educational refuge in the midst of the pandemic.”

By asking the direct questions about what her son needs and what working parents might need, she crafted a program that would accommodate safe, hands-on learning during three hour blocks of time. This pilot program will consist of a 1:4 parent-child ratio and parents will share responsibilities on a rotating basis to lessen the burden. The bi-weekly learning sessions will be hosted on an urban farm situated in a community where there is a food desert. Bumper Crop Farm will hold children of color in an ecological space where there is little representation of people who look like them. The location will also serve as a bridge between the social and economic divide in the surrounding area.

The programming is so deeply thought out and intentional. By incorporating a Montessori -inspired approach, Yolanda and the other parents are able to “discover the inner gold of the child”, the children will have hands-on learning about growing food, composting, addressing food insecurities, and environmental science. These kids will inherently be contributing to the wellbeing of the neighborhood through their education. 

Yolanda is the first to say that the YDH I.D.E.A. Learning Pod Co-op, which will start September 8th, is a true labor of love. Creating equitable access and curating a unique experience to serve the learning differences of her son is the hard work worth doing to cultivate bold, kind, and engaged leaders of the future.

Yolanda’s passion and drive is at the intersection of equity and education. So while this learning co-op is starting off small, I could see it growing into a thoughtful, caring and inclusive movement. She isn’t afraid to ask some of the tough questions to hold our educational standards and processes to the fire. Perhaps this moment, where none of us truly understand what the outcome is going to be, is the very moment we need to push the envelope and create lasting change.

WHAT’S IT GOING TO TAKE

There is no doubt that public policy will need to address this rapidly changing environment that is impacting our students. The call to action for policy makers and advocates is to support the creative educational outlets and give our students and families the tools they need to master skills that will carry them into a life of possibilities.

Yes. Every Kid., an education group that engages in policy discussions, put together a playbook that offers some intriguing ideas on how we might build a bridge between what is working and what might need to change. A key component to implementing some of these ideas is equalizing internet access. For example, in California, one out of every six students does not have internet access at home. This must change. Furthermore, expanding the resources and grants available to low-income families, can empower them to add customized learning opportunities catered specifically to the needs of their children. New philanthropic sources, like the Vela Education Fund, have opened up to help address this specific need.

I like what Sir Ken Robinson says about not waiting for direction. We are either going to make changes within the current system, press for changes to the current system, or take the initiatives outside the system to build something new. All three approaches are valid and necessary. We must recognize which approach best fits the talents and skills you have and can bring to the table. I am learning from the policy makers and advisors who are pressing for changes. I am learning from the educators who are improving the system from within. All efforts are to be celebrated.

To survive in the world we live in today, and the world we are creating for the future, you need skills, not just knowledge. You need to know how to learn, how to interact with other humans, how to care for the earth, how to bring an idea into reality, how to adapt and heal, how to stand up for justice. If you know how to learn, you can study whatever profession you desire and earn a living that way. We have a duty to this generation to help them navigate this world we are living in.

Students and families are asking the right questions and seeking practical changes. We are revisiting our philosophy and what we believe to be true about education. And this is leading to proposals for policy changes. I believe that this is a moment in history during which great strides in education can be made to lift all students, and especially our students who have been consistently left behind. Our living systems are complex and they evolve. Now is a moment during which education can do the same.

Learn more about the YDH IDEA Learning Co-op!