Stories of Change: How a Systems Change Approach is Transforming a Region
ROLE
Lead Researcher, Author & Narrative Strategist
CLIENT
YEAR
Rotary Charities of Traverse City
2022-Present
summary
A landmark body of work documenting how a systems change approach is transforming Northwest Lower Michigan—and a story-based learning practice that became a changemaking strategy in itself.
After years of investing in systemic approaches to addressing complex community issues, Rotary Charities of Traverse City sought to deepen their understanding of and bring greater visibility to the systems change work of their grantee-partners and the transformation unfolding across multiple levels, from the explicit (policies, practices) to the implicit (relationships, power dynamics, mental models). The animating question was one that conventional methods couldn't answer: how can we show transformation that is relational and emergent, that lives in evolving mindsets and deepening trust as much as in measurable outcomes? Together, we developed a research approach that centers ethical storytelling in the belief that narrative can hold what metrics cannot—and in holding it, create the conditions for learning.
The result was Stories of Change: How a Systems Change Approach is Transforming a Region, a 76-page publication featuring four in-depth case studies following three community-led initiatives working on youth/young adult homelessness, food insecurity, and health equity, as well as Rotary Charities' own evolution as a systems change funder. The publication applied The Water of Systems Change framework—a multi-level lens (structural → relational → transformational)—to structure interviews and reveal how the initiatives are collectively shifting conditions at every level. In recognition that learning is change, the research process was designed to create space through pair and group interviews for mutual learning among story-holders and across the groups involved. Each story holds tension and complexity while remaining deeply human—weaving multiple perspectives, including conflicting ones, into a coherent narrative arc.
The work has since expanded into an ongoing body of storytelling, including two additional full-length stories of change (including one focused on behavioral health currently in progress), two story-based impact updates, a facilitated systems storytelling session, and three discussion guides co-developed with Freya Bradford, Rotary Charities’ Director of Systems Change & Learning, for practitioners and funders. It is now a living shared asset between Rotary Charities and the changemakers they support.
key contributions
01
Designed the full research-to-narrative process, including an ethical, systems-based storytelling framework grounded in the Waters of Systems Change; developed interview protocols and conducted 35+ interviews for the original publication and an additional 28+ for the expanded body of work
02
Synthesized diverse and sometimes conflicting perspectives from across the systems into cohesive, multi-layered narratives attending to story at the personal, interpersonal, and systems levels
03
Co-developed three discussion guides for new practitioners, experienced practitioners, and funders in collaboration with Freya Bradford
04
Served on the design team for the companion video, contributing to its narrative arc
05
Co-led the design of a community launch event with Freya Bradford, a landmark moment in which Rotary Charities publicly announced its systems change approach to the region; led portions of the on-stage facilitation for an audience of 200+ community members, including interviews with all three initiatives featured in the original publication
06
Continued the engagement with two additional full-length stories of change focused on organics waste diversion and behavioral health (forthcoming), two story-based impact updates, and a facilitated storytelling session for the Organics Waste Diversion Initiative (profiled separately)
impact
Stories of Change has reached practitioners, funders, and evaluators in 73 countries, and has been used by changemakers across the field to adapt their own practice.
The publication has been presented in multiple learning contexts, including at conferences of Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO), the American Evaluation Association, The Communications Network, the Council of Michigan Foundations, and Great Lakes Funders, a gathering of the Pando Funders Root Circle, and in the Early Childhood Development Action Network's masterclass on systems thinking sponsored by the Harvard School of Public Health. These presentations have brought the methodology to audiences spanning philanthropy, learning and impact, evaluation, communications, and international development.
In 2026, a Stanford Social Innovation Review article named Stories of Change as a shining example of emerging approaches to systems change evaluation, validating an approach that centers narrative, applies a systems lens, and honors the voices of people advancing the work along with those with lived experience.
Rotary Charities has used the stories not just for external communication but to clarify its approach to systems change. The stories have been studied by the foundation’s board and have helped the organization become more committed to longer funding relationships, with several systems change initiatives now entering their eighth consecutive year of support. The stories are also used for ongoing reflection and sensemaking at sessions of the foundation’s Systems Change Community of Practice and are credited with inspiring new experiments and shifts in thinking among grantee-partners and regional changemakers. For example, several initiatives were inspired to broaden participation and make equitable power shifts after learning that the Northwest Michigan Coalition to End Homelessness empowers youth/young adults to participate in coalition governance.
Reflecting on the body of work as a whole, Freya Bradford shares that Stories of Change is actively shaping a cultural narrative about what's possible for the region.
Related links
Testimonial
“Jessica’s storytelling process has a power of its own and deeply reflects the values and practices of systems work. She brings patience, deep listening, thoughtfulness, and trust to every stage of the process. People are given the space to pause and make sense of their work in new ways and appreciate their interdependence. Different perspectives are woven together into stories that capture both the complexity of the work and the humanity behind it.
Working with Jessica has helped me see storytelling, under the conditions she stewards, is itself a systems change practice. It doesn't just chronicle change, it can create it.”
— Freya Bradford, Director of Systems Change & Learning at Rotary Charities of Traverse City