“Move at the speed of trust. Focus on critical connections more than critical mass — build the resilience by building the relationships.”
— adrienne maree brown, Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds

Co-creating futures that reflect the many forms of whole child, family, and community wellness is at the heart of The Ecosystem Plan ExL Strategic Design process. The collective wisdom, dreams, grief, struggles, and hopes expressed throughout this journey form a powerful force of interdependence—helping us grow, stay grounded, and act with purpose.

In March, we officially welcomed the broader youth-serving ecosystem into this work through our Strategic Design Virtual Kickoff. This gathering celebrated expanded learning as a vital partner in advancing whole child, family, and community wellness. It was a space where critical connections were nurtured—across experience levels, sectors, and relationships: from youth and adult, to colleague and colleague, organization to organization, and system to system.

As we continue this collective journey, we remain committed to moving at the speed of trust. Strengthening the relationships that weave us together will be an ongoing practice in relational intelligence—one we embrace fully as we transform together.

We are extremely grateful for the love and wisdom that was graciously shared from the Strategic Design Kickoff’s “Tides of Wisdom” Guest Panel. Here are some important words to help us orient to each other and the work ahead:

“This partnership that we are talking about isn’t just with education..we’ve demonstrated in our schools, in our communities, in our districts the role, potential and power, the magnitude, the impact of expanded learning.”

– Diego Arancibia (he/him), Executive Director, ASAP Connect

“It has always been known that supporting a whole human in their development, cannot be done alone…family, school and community partners are essential.” 

– Jeff Davis (he/him), Executive Director, California AfterSchool Network

“Every student has had these ideas that seem kind of outlandish or seem unrealistic. We, as expanded learning, are able to create programs and opportunities for these students.” 

– Erik Palomera (he/him), Program Coordinator, Afterschool All Stars

“Every day is not easy but we have to find ways to motivate our kids to be the voice for themselves, to be the voice for their community and be the voice for their families.”

– Brittany Hamilton (she/her), Program Coordinator, Afterschool All Stars

“Healing is important for our youth and families because if you grew up like I grew up.. we weren’t taught to heal. We didn’t have practices in place to navigate what life throws at us….We talk about SEL, we talk about the Quality Standards, healing aligns with all of those things and it is applicable for everybody.” 

– Nathaniel Wilson (he/him), Founder, Beautifully Brown

“Healing happens in many ways. Healing just like us as people is multi-dimensional… and systems have told us otherwise..it’s not by chance but by design and we have to acknowledge that. Healing is happening at a family engagement night that’s modeled as a block party which is what is respected to that community….” 

– Rosalinda Mancillas, (she/her/ella) Youth Development, Organizational Psychology, Anti-Racism and Equity Consultant