Systemic Change Resources

On this page:

An Introduction

Concepts of Systemic Change Mini-Course

Tips for Systemic Change Trainers

Collaborate With Other Vincentians From Your Region

An Introduction

Society as a System

When elements that influence the lives of people within a societal system — family, institutions, jobs, housing, food and drink, health care, education, moral values, spiritual development, and more — function together positively, people thrive. If one or several of these elements are lacking, the whole system begins to break down.

Changing Structures – Changing Lives

In works among the poor, our focus must be broader than any one particular problem; we must aim beyond providing food, clothing and shelter to alleviate the immediate needs of the poor. Systemic change focuses on assisting the needy to change the overall structures within which they live. It looks to their being able to develop strategies by which they can emerge from poverty.

Five Criteria of Systemic Change Projects

Long-range social impact: the project helps change the overall life-situation of those who benefit from it.
Sustainability: the project helps create the social structures that are needed for a permanent change in the lives of the poor.
Replicability: the project can be adapted to solve similar problems in other places, in a variety of circumstances.
Scope: the project has spread beyond its initial context and has been used successfully in other settings.
Innovation: the project has brought about significant social change by transforming traditional practice.

Scripture Passages

Nehemiah 5:1-13, Psalm 12:5, Isaiah 11:4, Psalm 72:13-14, Romans 12:2, Deuteronomy 16:20, Jeremiah 22:16, Ecclesiastes 5:8-9

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Concepts of Systemic Change Mini-Course

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Learn the key concepts of Systemic Change in an easy-to-follow, visual format. To begin, select a language below.

Tips and Suggestions for Systemic Change Trainers

As a trainer, you don’t have to know everything, but you do have a responsibility to know:

The goal of your training session
Your audience
Your biases
Your resources/technology

Collaborate With Vincentians From Your Region

Projects will have a greater impact if we collaborate with all those who work for the eradication of poverty, and obviously with other branches of the Vincentian Family, our natural network.

Quotes

“You must not be content with tiding the poor over the poverty crisis; you must study their condition and the injustices which brought about such poverty with the aim of a long term improvement.”
–Frederic Ozanam, 19-year-old founder of the St. Vincent de Paul Society

The poor sometimes suffer more from lack of “order” than from lack of charitable persons.
–St. Vincent (SV XIII, 423)

“Action on behalf of justice, and participation in the transformation of the world, are integral elements in the preaching of the gospel.”
–Synod of Bishops, 1971, Justice in the World in MS LX III ( 1971) 924