December 11th, 2025
Image via iStock by Mary Long
In recent years, California has leaned heavily into what it calls “community engagement.” The state began hosting listening sessions, convening advisory groups and forming youth advisory councils, important efforts that are in many ways long overdue.
However, those efforts have led many communities reeling from what feels like a one-way extraction of information that leads to little or no change. Too often, these engagements lack a commitment to act on what was heard, reducing them to check-box exercises rather than authentic opportunities to shift power, inform policy, and deliver real improvements for communities. This dynamic leaves community members feeling used rather than valued and reinforces suspicion that the state is unwilling to share power or act on what it hears.
I often refer—lovingly—to the work that community-based organizations do on the ground as “God’s work.” It is humble, urgent, and deeply human, often responding to immediate and basic needs of young people and their families. These organizations hold a unique understanding of how state policies either support or harm the communities they serve. Their insight is invaluable when crafting large-scale policy solutions. Yet doing “God’s work” is laborious and often makes it difficult for these organizations to be present in the Capitol in a fight for long-term systems change. This is precisely why partnerships with full-time advocates are essential.
Children Now’s connector strategy is built on reciprocity. We collaborate with organizations to elevate and advance the policy solutions they know will make a difference in their communities. At the same time, we inform them of any harmful policies or programs emerging from the state and help them to mobilize against these policies. By advocating for funding, organizing nonprofits to speak in solidarity, and amplifying the voices of organizations too overwhelmed by frontline work to engage in policy spaces themselves, we ensure that community perspectives do not just inform change – they drive it.
Systems change work is hard and lengthy because it takes sustained, coordinated pressure to reform hegemonic structures that were built to discourage change. It requires navigating bureaucratic processes, political realities, and competing interests. This isn’t the kind of work that ends with a single policy win. It’s a continuous cycle of advocacy, monitoring, and course correction.
Achieving meaningful change often involves showing up repeatedly – to legislative hearings, state-run meetings, and budget hearings that stretch late into the night. As advocates, we must be present, informed, and ready to speak up—through letters, testimony, and public comment—to ensure community voices shape outcomes and are not just used as token participation.
The glow of a policy win is often tempered with the realization that it is only half of the work. Implementation determines whether the change envisioned on paper becomes real in practice. Without ongoing accountability, monitoring, and feedback from the ground, state agencies can drift, programs can stall, and funding can be misdirected. Real systems change requires long-term vigilance—someone must watch the State.
True community engagement requires us all to move beyond performative listening sessions and toward accountable action. Because without sustained advocacy pressure and community insight, even the best policies remain unfulfilled promises.
