News

We are thrilled to announce the official launch of the School of Social Impact, a revolutionary platform by the Humanitarian Changemakers Network. Founded on a vision to equip changemakers working across various issues, organisations, and sectors, the School of Social Impact aims to empower individual agents of change with the tools and knowledge they need to drive meaningful progress.

Our mission is rooted in the belief that every individual has the potential to create transformative impact. As the founder of the Humanitarian Changemakers Network, I recognised a critical need for accessible resources that support changemakers at the grassroots level. Too often, these dedicated individuals lack the support networks and strategic frameworks available to larger organisations- disparity inspired the creation of the School of Social Impact, designed specifically to bridge that gap.

About the School of Social Impact

The School of Social Impact is tailored for grassroots changemakers working across and between different organisations and issue areas. Whether you’re addressing environmental challenges, advocating for social justice, or driving community development, our platform is designed to support and empower you.

What sets the School of Social Impact apart is our commitment to making knowledge and resources accessible to all. Our foundational tools and resources are available for FREE, ensuring that financial constraints do not hinder your ability to make a difference. Our goal is to democratise the expertise typically reserved for large organisations and consultants, providing high-quality programs at a fraction of the cost.

Our programs emphasise building a robust changemaking toolkit that you can apply to various projects throughout your journey. This approach ensures that the skills and knowledge you gain are not just tied to a single project but become assets you carry forward into future endeavours.

Our commitment to accessibility and inclusivity at the Humanitarian Changemakers Network is reflected in the comprehensive features of the School of Social Impact:

• 1:1 Consulting and Coaching: After years working as an impact strategist, I will offer personalised guidance to help leaders of grassroots movements navigate complex challenges, refine your Theory of Change, and optimise your impact strategy. This unique approach blends consulting with executive coaching for a ‘done-with-you’ rather than ‘done-for-you’ relationship
• Group Programs: Collaborative learning programs environments where you can fill your changemaking toolkit, connect with like-minded changemakers and share insights.
• Online Community Hub: A vibrant digital space for networking, sharing experiences, and finding inspiration.

We invite all grassroots changemakers to join us on this journey. The School of Social Impact is more than a platform; it’s a community of passionate, driven individuals committed to co-creating innovative solutions and responding creatively to the world’s challenges. Together, we will build the knowledge and resilience needed to transform passion into impactful action.

If you’re ready to amplify your impact and be part of a global network of changemakers, visit the School of Social Impact website to learn more and sign up. The journey to a more just, sustainable, and impactful future begins with the right tools and community — and we’re here to support you every step of the way.

Celebrating Our Launch

We kicked-off the launch of the School of Social Impact with a free 5-day challenge, where I offered direct feedback and support to all participants on their visions, theory of change, strategy, and critical path.

As the dust settles from our 5-day Strategy Building Bootcamp, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the remarkable journey we’ve shared. Over the course of the 5 day challenge, grassroots changemakers working across various issue areas built powerful strategies ready to make a meaningful impact in the world. Join me in celebrating our collective achievements. 

A huge congratulations to the winners of our challenge: 

Start Visionary: Tread Lightly Travel (Prize: Changemaker Co. Patches)

Theory of Change Master: Vik Jon (Prize: Changemaker Co. Upcycled Tee)

Super Strategist: Amelia Tran (Prize: Changemaker Co. Upcycled Tee)

These student’s submissions were spot-on in using the frameworks and tools, and they are well on their way to launching some incredible projects that will have meaningful impact in their communities. For those who missed out on joining us for the challenge, you can join the waitlist for our next challenge.

All students who took advantage of the challenge were winners, as over the 5 days of the we explored the blueprint to go from idea to impact and embark on their changemaking journey, complete with the essentials: destination clarity, a map of the terrain, their chosen route, and a GPS to guide them. 

A Vision Unfolded: Clarifying Our Destination

From Day 1, we embarked on a crucial mission: clarifying your vision. We delved into the essence of why we do what we do, uncovering the core values and passions that fuel our changemaking journeys. Watching each of you define and refine your vision statements was inspiring, as you set the course for impact initiatives and projects that truly align with your unique vision.

Mapping the Terrain: Understanding Our Theory of Change

As we ventured deeper into the bootcamp, we explored the concept of the theory of change—a comprehensive map of the terrain we navigate as changemakers. This understanding allowed us to understand the broader context of change you are working in, and the possible paths that lay ahead. Your insights and dedication to mapping out this transformative journey showcased your commitment to creating lasting change, both in your projects and in the world.

Selecting the Route: Developing Effective Strategies

With our visions clear and our maps in hand, we turned our focus to strategy development. Together, we examined the best path forward and selected the routes that align best with our goals, values, and strengths. We brainstormed, collaborated, and refined our approaches, ensuring that every step we take is purposeful and impactful. Your ability to craft well-defined strategies has set the stage for tremendous growth and success.

Navigating with Precision: The Critical Path

In our final stages, we embraced the concept of the critical path—our very own GPS system guiding us through each milestone. By highlighting priority areas and key tasks within our strategies, we ensured that we remain focused and on track. Your dedication to identifying your next steps from this roadmap exemplifies your commitment to achieving your visions and making a difference in the world.

A Community of Support and Encouragement

One of the most beautiful aspects of the bootcamp has been the community we’ve built together. The shared experiences, insights, and support have created a community that fosters growth, resilience, and innovation. Your willingness to learn, ask questions, and celebrate wins has strengthened our collective journey.

Now, participants possess their very own Impact Blueprints, meticulously crafted to pave the way for meaningful initiatives in their communities. With their strategies in place, our incredible participants are ready to roll up their sleeves and turn their vision into reality. The structured plans and clear targets they’ve set will guide them as they initiate projects designed to address pressing issues, drive social change, and uplift their communities.

You only need to open up social media or turn on your TV to see that we are in the midst of a challenging time for humanity, both here and Australia and abroad. Following the referendum which saw the majority of Australia’s population vote no to a Voice To Parliament, our screens are now dominated by images of the horrific violence faced by Palestinians.

As we face these uncertainties and obstacles, it’s more important than ever to maintain a solutions-focused mindset. Part of being a changemaker means we recognise that within every problem lies an opportunity for positive change, and we commit ourselves to focusing on those opportunities, rather than the problems.

This fortnight, I encourage you to take some time to reassess how you’re feeling, and re-align your efforts with the principles of a solutions-focused approach.

Embrace Diversity & Adaptability:

Regardless of where you stood on the Voice to Parliament, we now know where Australians stand on this issue, and in order to move forward, we need to do so in a way that embraces the diversity of perspectives, rather than fight them. In our newly re-launched season of the Changemaker Q&A Podcast, I explore what we ought to do post-referendum, including:

1. Keeping the momentum going after what I believe is the largest mobilisation of the population on an Indigenous issue that I’ve seen in my lifetime
2. Creating a shared vision for Australia’s future that combines the various perspectives held by people— including progressive & conservative no voters, and yes voters— to inform any theory of change moving forward
3. Embracing the rich wisdom and culture of Aboriginal and Torres’s Strait Islander peoples in how we relate to and make decisions about Country, and recognising “Indigenous history” as our shared Australian history

Adaptability matters, and resilience is not just about bouncing back, but also about bouncing forward, so I encourage you to take time to listen to our episode Australia has voted no, what do we do now?

Communication is Key

I might be slightly biased as a comms PhD researcher, but I truly believe that communication is one of the most powerful tools we have when it comes to driving social change, and this includes social media… but only when used effectively.

My sister has become an ‘accidental influencer’ this year, and she FaceTimed me last week distraught about wanting to take a break from social media, but feeling a responsibility as someone with a platform to speak out about the conflict in Gaza. Together, we put together a plan that would allow her to use social media and avoid the ‘slacktivism’ we see so often, where we equate posting on our socials with meaningful action. I gave her some useful tips and frameworks to help her, and shared them all in this week’s podcast episode Leveraging Social Media for Social Change for you to learn from.

Social media can be a tool for good, but it can also be draining, so it’s also important that you take care of yourselves. Incorporate moments of mindfulness into your screen time, and take some screen-free self-care time if you need to… you can’t pour from an empty cup!

Continuous Learning

Wherever you are in your changemaking journey, the journey should remain one of curiosity and commitment to learning. If you’ve read our social change handbook The Changemaker In You, you’ll know that I’m a huge advocate of place-based learning through travel, and ‘experiencing the world’ was a huge part of my changemaking journey — which I also shared in our first podcast episode of the season, where I (re)introduced myself to our community.

As we approach the years end, it is the perfect opportunity to take some time to use travel as an opportunity to seek knowledge beyond your comfort zone, explore new possibilities. I’m stoked that we’ve partnered with some of the travel industry’s leading accommodation, transport, and tour booking platforms to support Changemaker Q&A.

Through our Changemaker Travel platform, you can book your next travel experience with our partners, and a portion of the sale will go directly to supporting the work of the Humanitarian Changemakers Network (at no cost to you!)

It’s partnerships like this that allow us to create free educational content like the podcast. Changemaker Q&A is now available in video format, so you can watch the full episodes on Youtube or Spotify, listen on your preferred podcast platform, or read the episode transcripts on our website. Just like previous seasons, we’ll be answering all of YOUR questions about anything related to making change happen, so we encourage you to ask us your questions (anonymously if you prefer.) Don’t be shy, we’re sending out Changemaker Co. goodies like our patches to anyone whose question is answered on the pod.

Remember, tough times are temporary, but our impact can be lasting. HCN is here to support you as you explore and implement the solutions that will drive positive transformation.

The importance of academic research in promoting social change cannot be understated. By conducting rigorous studies and publishing their findings, academics are able to shed light on crucial issues and offer solutions that can help to improve the lives of people all over the world. In addition, academic research can help to raise awareness of social problems and mobilise support for change. Whether it’s research on the link between poverty and poor health that has helped to galvanise public support for initiatives to combat poverty, or research on the harms caused by child labor that has led to calls for laws and regulations to protect children from exploitation, we know that academic research can be a powerfully tool for promoting social change.

Our founder Tiyana J has become acutely aware of the barriers to allowing academic research to promote social change, particularly when it comes to those at the grassroots being able to access innovative and current research… which is why in the midst of her PhD, she set out to launch an academic journal that prioritises real-world impact and innovation. There’s a lot of important knowledge locked up in academic journals. But unless you’re a student or researcher at a university, you probably don’t have access to most of it. And that’s a shame, because this knowledge can be used to improve people’s lives. Making academic journals and knowledge accessible to everyone would allow us to identify the gems that could make a real difference in the world. So, we’re ready to lead the change by opening up the ivory towers and let the good ideas flow!

With a vision founded on becoming an internationally-recognised trans/multi-disciplinary publication, the ChangeMaking Journal (originally to be titled the Changing Times Journal to align with our transmedia news platform) takes a transmedia approach to research and storytelling for social impact, whilst retaining academic rigour and integrity. The aim of the journal is to make the latest innovative research accessible to those engaged in grassroots action and promoting social change, and to allow lived experience, Indigenous knowledge, the arts, and citizen-lead projects to inform academic research.

A Transmedia Approach

What is transmedia storytelling? In a nutshell, it’s telling a story across multiple platforms. This could involve anything from creating a website or app to complement a movie or TV show, to developing an entire universe of characters and stories that span multiple mediums. Why transmedia? Well, for one thing, it allows storytellers to engage with audiences in new and exciting ways. It also enables stories to be told in a more immersive way, blurring the lines between fiction and reality. And last but not least, it gives audiences the opportunity to interact with the story in a variety of ways, making for a more personal and unique experience. There’s no denying that it’s a powerful tool for engage audiences and transporting them into new worlds; and we don’t think that the world of social change should be exempt from offering transmedia experiences.

Embracing Non-Traditional Forms of Academic Knowledge

There’s more to academic knowledge than the traditional empirical forms of knowledge, that can add their own value to the tapestry of human knowledge and how we make sense of the world. you learn in school. In fact, there are many different forms of knowledge that can add value to both communities of research and practice:

• Lived experience: What you learn from your own life experiences can be just as valuable as what you learn from a textbook. After all, who knows better than you do about the things that have happened to you?

• Community knowledge: The things we learn from the people we work with can be invaluable. Whether it’s learning about a different culture or simply getting a different perspective on an issue, community knowledge can broaden our horizons and deepen our understanding of the world.

• Expertise: If you have expertise in a particular field, particularly from hands-on experience tackling the issues you care about, that knowledge is also valuable. Whether you’re an expert in history or science or art, or the oral histories of your community, your expertise can add another layer of understanding to the things we know about the world.

All of these forms of knowledge are important, and each one can contribute to our overall understanding of the world.

Addressing the Practice-Research divide

In many fields, there is often a disconnect between researchers and practitioners. Researchers may be focused on conducting studies and publishing papers, while practitioners are focused on working directly with clients. This disconnect can lead to a lack of communication and collaboration, which can ultimately hinder social change.

There are several reasons why the gap between researchers and practitioners exists. One reason is that they often have different priorities. Researchers may be more interested in pursuing knowledge for knowledge’s sake, while practitioners may be more interested in applying that knowledge to help people in need. Another reason is that they often have different skillsets. Researchers generally have more training in research methods and statistics, while practitioners generally have more training in social work practice. Finally, they often operate in different contexts. Researchers typically work in academia, while practitioners typically work in direct service settings.

Despite the challenges, it is important for researchers and practitioners to find ways to collaborate effectively. When they do, they can create a powerful force for social change. By pooling their resources and expertise, they can develop innovative solutions to complex social problems. They can also serve as check on each other’s work, ensuring that it is of the highest quality possible. Ultimately, only by working together can researchers and practitioners hope to make a lasting difference in the world.

How you can get involved

We are currently seeking editorial board members. If you’d like to be a founding editorial board member of the Changing Times Journal, please send your CV & cover letter to the HCN team!

All members of our editorial board must have a background in research with relevant qualifications, and demonstrated experience taking grassroots action or promoting social change, or relevant lived experience. Members of the editorial board span across disciplines, but share a passion for creating knowledge in a collaborative spirit, and openly sharing innovative research for real-world impact. These commitments guide us in defining our editorial policy and processes, which aim to be fair and constructive to authors, effective and efficient.

The Editorial Board is not financially incentivised to accept articles— this ensures an independence between the publisher’s (Humanitarian Changemakers Network) responsibility to grow and promote the journal and the responsibility of the editors to shape the direction of research.

Associate Editors

Associate Editors are high-impact researchers with a recognised affiliation, and recognised leaders in their field. Associate Editors make an initial assessment to ensure a submitted manuscript fits within the scope of the journal and is academically robust. They invite suitable Specialty/Field Editors and Review Editors to engage with authors during the collaborative review process. Based on the recommendations these reviewers provide, and ensuring all quality, validity and ethical standards have been met, Associate Editors make the final decision on acceptance and work alongside the author to explore options and create transmedia content to disseminate and communicate the research to the wider community.

Specialty Editors

Specialty Editors are active experts in their field, with a proven track record of research experience. Their role is to determine whether manuscripts (submitted by community members or non-academic researchers) will provide useful insights that are relevant to researchers or the broader academic community.

Field Editors

Field Editors have an established career with a broad understanding of their whole field and an extensive network of fellow experts or people with lived experience. Their role is to determine whether manuscripts (submitted by researchers) have the potential for real-world impact.

Review Editors

Review Editors should hold a PhD and have post-doctoral experience, or an equivalent degree with several additional years of academic work, or the equivalent number of years to a recognised qualification in the relevant field of research. Review Editors should also have a recognised affiliation and a proven publication record in the specialty area. Review Editors receive regular invitations to provide an expert review of submitted manuscripts in a collaborative, transparent, and efficient manner during the peer review process. They provide an independent review report after which they interact with the authors directly to help improve a manuscript.