Initiatives of Change USA (IofC) is part of a global network comprising multi-sector leaders in more than 100 countries who are working in diverse community, state, regional and international contexts to transform inequality and conflict through systems of honesty, accountability, justice, equity and peace.
Our key programming includes the Caux Scholars Program (Switzerland and Asia Plateau), Community Trustbuilding Fellowship, Narrative Change Collaborative and Faith Rooted Revolution. We also provide consultant services in strategic planning, facilitation and dialogue.
Over the course of nearly 100 years, IofC has created innovative methods, tools and strategies in trustbuilding that develop greater cohesion, understanding, representation and expression between communities of difference across the world. Although varied and locally situated, communities are also marked by matrixes of power that are historically and systematically unequal, hierarchal, and violent. Practices are designed by concepts of supremacy and inferiority (race, gender, religion, politics, language, and education) so that only a few are accorded access to full human rights, resources and opportunities to the exclusion of many others.
Inspired and informed by our expert network, Initiatives of Change bridges gaps in understanding, interpretation, translation and representation between those of competing identities and interests. IofC facilitates and forges deep partnerships between community leaders, activists and influencers, technical organizations, government agencies, educational institutions, nonprofits, the business sector and individuals.
As an organizational network, we practice traditioned innovation through
4 point process of transformation:
We provide responsive capacity techniques for global leaders to take on robust community leadership interventions, build spaces for truth-telling about our histories, and ongoing mechanisms for inclusive dialogue. IofC is an accompanying presence to our alumni, partners and larger communities, offering tools of solidarity, fellowship, compassion and compassion, and wellness to help strategize effectively for our futures. By equipping leaders at multiple scales, we create and sustain processes of personal and community change beyond conflict.
Traditioned Innovation
A Practice of Present Presence
Through traditioned innovation, Initiatives of Change USA is consistently moving forward, learning and growing but also carrying the valuable lessons and legacies of our history with us. Traditioned innovation is a practice of present presence that is hybrid, multi-focal, and speaks to our current moment as a way of bridging our past with an infinite future.
We are amplifying our capacity to walk with community partners, government leaders, educational and cultural institutions, faith based centers, and creative entrepreneurs to better sustain the good work they are accomplishing. Through this work we recognize that individual and collective truth-telling and reconciliation processes are necessary. We are doing the inner work to reflect honestly, ask deep questions, stir in discomforts, admit the challenges, and move forward with the outer work and a plan for ongoing growth, connection and building with others.
As a nonprofit organization, this approach builds accountability internally so that we can work more sincerely with communities in honest ways where communication is based on mutuality, reciprocity, exchange and learning - essential practice for cross-cultural understandings across social differences and divides.
