Welcome to your Change Lab dashboard — your central hub for civic tools, local impact, and connection. Whether you’re dipping your toe in or doubling down on change, this is the space to begin, grow, and organize your momentum.
Choose from four Engagement Levels that meet you where you are — from getting curious to organizing for impact. Explore eleven civic Pathways rooted in what matters: food, housing, justice, education, systems change, belonging, and more.
Use the Content Types to filter by what moves you: stories, events, toolkits, podcasts, books, partners, and more. The control panels on the sides help you navigate, explore, and plug in.
Habitat for Humanity of Montgomery County
In one of the fastest-growing regions in Texas, affordable housing is increasingly out of reach for many working families. Habitat MCTX provides a pathway to homeownership through a model rooted in dignity, equity, and community partnership. Their approach reduces generational poverty, creates stability for families, and builds stronger neighborhoods from the ground up.
Convergence Center for Policy Resolution
At a time when political polarization threatens both governance and the social fabric, Convergence offers a proven model for collaborative policymaking rooted in trust and mutual respect. Their work helps leaders—and the public—move from conflict to consensus, from gridlock to solutions.
Do you actually know what affordable housing is?
When most people say they want more “affordable housing,” they usually mean housing that more people can afford. But within policy and development spaces, that phrase carries technical definitions—often involving things like LIHTC, deed restrictions, or income thresholds that many outside the field have never heard of.
The City We Make Together: City Design and Participatory Culture
This book reframes city-making as a collaborative cultural process—shaped by stories, rituals, and relationships, not just bricks and regulations. It offers a vocabulary and set of practices for embedding empathy, pluralism, and public imagination into civic infrastructure, directly aligning with The Change Lab’s mission of building social cohesion and systemic change from the ground up.
The Aspen Institute
The Aspen Institute is a global nonprofit think tank and leadership organization committed to realizing a free, just, and equitable society. Founded in 1949, the Institute convenes leaders across sectors to tackle the world’s most complex challenges through dialogue, research, and action. With a strong belief in values-based leadership, the Aspen Institute creates space for bold ideas, civil discourse, and meaningful impact.
Headquartered in Washington, D.C., with locations across the U.S. and abroad, Aspen serves as a neutral ground where changemakers collaborate on solutions across lines of difference.
We’re a brand new organization focused on connection, civic participation, and shared understanding. This is our temporary website while we build out a full online platform to better serve our community. In the meantime, we’d love your support and input as we grow. You can support our work or schedule a conversation to learn more and get involved.