Bringing Innovation to Scale for Children and Families

Our nation, built on ingenuity and optimism, does not always meet the needs of children, families or communities. Human services systems -- as well as Health and Education systems -- too often operate in silos with separate governance, leadership, funding streams, and outcome measures. As a result, the systems most in need of coordination and innovation are isolated from one another inhibiting the sharing or new business strategies, technologies and effective leadership practices.

Stewards of Change is dedicated to providing human service organizations with the latest cross-sector innovations to take social change to scale and improve the outcomes for the children, families and communities. Stewards of Change facilitates cross-sector learning, catalyzes innovation, and is building a national vision for a connected health, education and human services system through its Human Services 2.0 – InterOptimability™ theory of change model. We approach our work as social entrepreneurs and are structured as a business with a social mission. We act as thought leaders, trusted advisors, professional conveners and marketing and communications experts.

Historically, discussions about how to catalyze innovation and change have been limited to groups with limited ability or incentive to cross boundaries, sectors or disciplines. To make a substantive and sustained difference for children and families and to capture the imagination of the public, Stewards of Change is deeply committed to engaging both the public, private and nonprofit sectors in an ongoing discussion of how to effect positive social change.

A Head for Business; A Passion for Social Change

Stewards of Change began in 1998 when a small group of business, marketing and child welfare professionals initiated a marketing and business improvement project for Aspiranet, one of California’s largest nonprofit foster care and adoption agencies — with more than 31 sites throughout the state. Building off the work in California the group was selected by the New York City Administration for Children’s Services to provide similar business, marketing, research and training programs for the city agency and its multiple private providers over a five year period of time.

What began as a business project turned into a passion for finding new ways to improve outcomes for abused and neglected children and their families. A partnership was born to explore effective, new ways to bring innovation to the child welfare and subsequently to a wider audience including human services, health and education through the use of business practices, models and tools

Stewards of Change officially launched its efforts in October 2005 with a two-day symposium at the Yale School of Management in New Haven, Connecticut. With funding from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the conference brought together 75 of the nation’s most influential professionals, including government leaders, agency directors, academics, family policy experts, foundation executives and non-profit leaders, judges, and senior business executives from the finance, technology, law and manufacturing fields. The purpose of the symposium was to explore the role of innovation, business and entrepreneurship within the world of human services.  The response from conference participants was overwhelmingly positive and has propelled SOC towards becoming a nationally recognized thought leadership consultancy.  SOC has continued to convene annual national conferences and has begun demonstrating some of the ideas and approaches originating across the United States.