Our partners are the pioneers of change

At Ashoka, we have an audacious vision of creating an Everyone a Changemaker world where all of us feel powerful and supported to drive change. We know this is not something we could ever achieve on our own. For 40 years, we have been building a network of social entrepreneurs, corporate leaders, young changemakers, media mavens, educators, union leaders, and policymakers who are equally committed to this vision. Will you join us?

National Strategy

Ashoka has always been a leader in systems change, but we have come to understand that to create a massive shift in society and bring about an Everyone a Changemaker world, we must change not only systems, but also mindsets. To do this, we are taking collective action with powerful players in education, government, and media who are equally dedicated to this vision. We cannot reach every child ourselves, but by activating a carefully selected cross-cutting network of collaborators, we can set in motion an irreversible shift toward a future where everyone understands that empathy and changemaking are essential to a child’s success in growing up. 

national changemaking partners
Play Video
Ashoka partners with AFT to find innovative ways to bring changemaker education to teachers across the US. Click below for Ashoka resources under AFT’s platform, Share my Lesson Plan.

Randi Weingarten

President of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT)

"In this historic moment of profound change, we know that for our kids and our communities to thrive, we need a world where young people know they are able to contribute, know they are powerful, know they are changemakers."

Regional STRATEGY

Over the past 7 years, Ashoka has developed a model for systems level change in various communities around the US. Our goal is to involve various facets of any given community – government, schools, teachers’ colleges, youth serving organizations – to integrate changemaking into their institutional culture. Changemaker Communities are connected city-wide ecosystems that value and support children and young people to be changemakers and collectively co- create innovative solutions to re-imagine how children and young people grow up. Through this approach, we are breaking down the silos separating different institutions supporting  young people and seeding the possibility for transformational change. 

changemaker communities program
Play Video
Ashoka is working with various partners in North Central Massachusetts who are coming together to support the next generation of changemakers for their region. By bringing together school districts, colleges, non-profits, and city officials they are transforming the way children and youth are educated and valued.

Maureen McMahon

Deputy Superintendent for Academic & Strategic Initiatives, Anne Arundel County Public Schools, Maryland

“It’s new. It’s outside of the box, but for 80,000 students, we have thousands now who have been touched with the notion of ‘I am a changemaker’. I think it’s very powerful, no matter if you are in a very small district or if you’re in a very large school district. You can do it. Your children can do it. We can change the world, one teacher and one child at a time.”

Partner institutions

We forge innovative partnerships with key organizations to seed the next generation of changemakers. 

Funding partners

Ashoka’s partners are the pioneers of change. We work with individuals, foundations, and corporations to collectively build a world where everyone realizes their power to create change. Our partners are those who are willing to co-create, innovate, and live and breathe changemaking as an institution.

partner logos
partner logos

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

Colleges of Education lead the work of preparing education professionals and advancing the quality of education for all.  In addition to preparing the nations teachers and principals, schools of education produce a broad scope of research and engage deeply with local communities and a wide variety of stakeholder groups.  Ashoka works closely with innovative schools of education and their constituencies to advance a new framework for success in growing up, one in which everyone is a changemaker (teachers, students, principals, parents, etc…) and has found their power to advance solutions for the good of all.

Parents

Parents find new and interesting ways to integrate changemaking into their homelife.  They work to bring the four changemaking skills of empathy, teamwork, new leadership, and changemaking to light in their family’s day to day.   This can be done by encouraging independence of children by asking them to run errands to neighbor’s homes, thinking empathetically about how to support new students at school, or by broadening horizons by learning about another culture. 

Changemaker Identity

Based on our research, we have found that young people begin to see changemaking as a key part of their identity at this part of the journey.

Iteration

Young people tend to repeat this step multiple times before moving on to the next stage of the journey.

Organizations

Youth serving organizations in our network value changemaking culture for their employees as well as the young people they work with.  They help grow changemaker mindsets in their employees and provide opportunities for youth to practice empathy and changemaking at various points in their day.

Companies

Ashoka partners with the most innovative corporations ready to co-create a multi-faceted partnership that engages various parts of their business. Ashoka looks for corporations that embrace changemaking culture internally with their employees as well as within their broader business.

Over the years Ashoka Youth Years US has partnered with over 50 corporations to encourage tens of thousands of young people to become changemakers and grow changemaking culture within their businesses.

Media

Ashoka has many media partners that are dedicated to spreading the everyone a changemaker message. Some of our partners are below.

mtv logo
Forbes logo
The Christian Science Monitor Logo
Huffington Post logo
Bloomberg News logo

School districts

We live in a world of unprecedented change. How are we preparing students to navigate and contribute to this world? We need to re-imagine education to support teachers, parents, and administrators to prepare students to thrive in their rapidly changing world. Our partner School Districts commit to shifting their culture towards one that embraces changemaking by spending a school year integrating changemaking into the mindsets of their teachers, school curriculum, larger systems, and district culture.

A changemaker identity for educators and superintendents is one that will ensure resilience and creativity to overcome the classroom’s and district’s many obstacles. 

click here for resources specific to:

government

Ashoka has defined the field of social entrepreneurship around the idea of systems change. Our work as the Youth Years team continues this work by engaging with visionary policy makers at all levels to ensure that the outcomes which lead to an everyone a changemaker world are solidly embedded in the structure and systems of education in ways that support the next generations of changemakers.

UNIONS

The Unions with whom Ashoka works represent hundreds of thousands of nurses, teachers, paraprofessionals, higher education faculty and public employees who work day in and day out to teach our kids, keep our families healthy and improve our communities. Ashoka works closely with our unions partners and the communities they serve to create a future where everyone can discover their power to be a changemaker and where young people learn to thrive in this volatile and rapidly changing world.