The Change Lab Digital Platform
PHASE I
July 2025-June 2026

Summary: A hub for civic education, connection, and engagement tools rooted in behavioral science, connection research, and the advisory board that is representive of Houston's diversity.  It is the foundational space for launching shared learning, encouraging reflection, and connecting people to practical civic tools. The platform anchors The Change Lab’s work as a nonpartisan civic think tank — providing practical tools, trusted information, and strategies for strengthening civic life, local leadership, and community connection.

Goal: To democratize access to tools and frameworks that support social connection and community-led change.

Audience: General public, educators, high school and college students, community leaders, and partner organizations.

Activities:

  • Resource Center: training modules, tools, templates, and conversation guides

  • Calendar of events across communities and networks

  • Registry of aligned organizations and civic partners

  • Editorial and user-submitted stories about everyday civic life and connection

  • Baseline and follow-up surveys to measure shifts in civic awareness and connection

Outcomes:

  • Widened access to high-quality civic education

  • Expanded networks of social connection and shared civic identity

  • Scalable use of frameworks in schools, nonprofits, and communities

  • Measurable increase in public understanding, participation, and shared purpose

  • Ongoing knowledge base that evolves through user stories and cross-sector contributions

OKRs:

  • Publish 12+ training modules and toolkits within Year 1

  • Host 21+ events on the calendar

  • Register 100 aligned organizations in Year 1

  • Reach 2,000 unique users with 30% return rate in Year 1

Frameworks We Use

  • Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) – Focuses on local strengths and existing community assets rather than needs or deficiencies. Empowers people to mobilize what they already have to solve local problems together.

  • Social Infrastructure (Eric Klinenberg) – Emphasizes the role of public and civic spaces (libraries, parks, community centers) as vital for building trust, resilience, and community health.

  • Theory U (Otto Scharmer) – A change management framework rooted in deep listening, shared presence, and co-creation. Guides communities in addressing complex social challenges by sensing and shaping emerging futures.

  • Deliberative Democracy / Citizens’ Assemblies – Promotes structured public dialogue that bridges political divides and invites respectful, representative participation in community decisions.

  • Collective Impact (FSG) – Provides a strategy for cross-sector collaboration to tackle complex social problems. Emphasizes shared goals, backbone support, and data-driven coordination.

  • Othering & Belonging Institute (OBI) – Offers strategic insights and models for expanding the circle of human concern through bridging, belonging, and systems change.

  • Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown – Emphasizes adaptability, relationship-building, and decentralized leadership grounded in biomimicry and grassroots organizing.

  • Adaptive Leadership – Developed at Harvard Kennedy School, this framework helps communities respond to challenges by mobilizing people to make progress on difficult issues.

Proof Behind the Work

  • Poverty, by America (Matthew Desmond): Explores how poverty persists in America not because of scarcity, but because of systems that benefit from exclusion and exploitation. Calls for rethinking responsibility and redesigning systems to support dignity, participation, and shared prosperity.

  • Bowling Alone (Robert Putnam): Demonstrates the long-term decline in American civic life — club memberships, church attendance, and community involvement — and the resulting erosion of social trust. Putnam’s research links civic disengagement to weakened democratic institutions and argues that rebuilding social capital is essential for national resilience.

  • Coming Apart (Charles Murray): Explores the cultural divide among white Americans, showing that lower-income communities experience declining marriage rates, reduced civic engagement, and rising isolation. Murray advocates for renewed attention to shared norms, civic virtue, and institutions that foster community cohesion.

  • A Time to Build (Yuval Levin): Focuses on how institutions shape identity and behavior. Levin argues that rebuilding civic, religious, and local institutions — not just policy — is critical to restoring American community life, trust, and civic character.

  • The Connection Opportunity Report (More in Common): Based on a national study, this report found that over 70% of Americans want to connect across lines of difference but feel they lack opportunities to do so. It emphasizes that the most effective pathways to connection are local, collaborative efforts centered on shared goals.

  • Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation (Surgeon General): Calls social disconnection a public health crisis, linking it to depression, cardiovascular disease, and premature death. The advisory identifies rebuilding social connection — particularly through community institutions — as a national priority.

  • Trust and Distrust in America (Pew Research): Analyzes the dramatic decline in Americans’ trust in institutions over time while highlighting that local trust (in neighbors and small organizations) remains relatively strong — a promising entry point for community renewal.

  • The Social Capital Atlas (Harvard Opportunity Insights): Uses big data to demonstrate that people who grow up with access to cross-class friendships are significantly more likely to achieve upward mobility. Social capital, it shows, is a critical driver of economic opportunity.

  • The Value of Volunteer Time (Independent Sector): Quantifies the economic impact of volunteerism at $187.7 billion annually. Beyond

Research References

Our work is informed by a wide range of research across the political and academic spectrum, reinforcing the value of social connection, civic trust, and local engagement: