Changemaker Citizen Sector Organizations / Non-profits

We partner with innovative, aligned and influential citizen sector organizations and non-profit organizations to use the “everyone a changemaker” framework to deepen the quality of their services and/or expand the scale and impact of their work. We also leverage Ashoka’s global network and experience to support our partners with case studies, best practices and innovations from Ashoka Fellows around the world.

We do this through 2 main pathways:

• Customize a Changemaker Journey to the unique needs of the organization.

• Develop a Changemaker Fellowship to engage and mobilize the stakeholders of our partners.

Case Study: Partnership with Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence

The Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence (YCEI) Changemaker Fellowship, in partnership with Ashoka, was designed as an opportunity for Connecticut-based educators to be on the front lines of making Connecticut the first emotionally intelligent state. The fellows participated in the 10-month journey, where they learned and applied the skills of emotional intelligence and the mindset and personal agency of changemaking to develop projects that emotional well being at their schools districts communities.

Why Changemaking?

According to a Yale study with 26,000 students in 2017, the three pre-dominant emotions U.S. high school students experience are being tired, bored and stressed. In this same study, teachers reported feeling stressed, overwhelmed, and frustrated every day. This combination is not a very fertile soil to practice changemaking.

We believe that the key to change in education is for educators and school communities to be equipped with the skills of emotional intelligence, and further use those skills to foster greater compassion, equity, and engagement in school settings.
 
 The Yale Changemaker Fellows collaborated with their cohort of like-minded educators, as well as YCEI faculty and staff, and envisioned, crafted, and implemented emotionally-intelligent and contextually-responsive projects for their respective communities.

How We Do It

With the Change team from the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, we selected 34 educators from 14 school districts across Connecticut, who participated in a 10-month fellowship and launched projects aimed to create emotional well-being in students, school staffs, parents, and the larger community. The participants included from superintendents, teachers, social workers, and district administrators.

To see the projects the participants launched visit https://bit.ly/2y9N96u

To see the full brochure of how we do it, click here.

Impact

To see the full impact evaluation report for this partnership, click here.

“The fellowship has given me the tools and confidence…it has also allowed me to reach beyond myself and my school district to influence educators from other districts as well.”

— Yale Changemaker Fellow