Students have fun while tending to Alakoko Fishpond, featured in one of this year’s most inspiring articles, “Revitalize Parks to Strengthen Democracy.” (Photo by Tina Aiu)
These stories from SSIR’s print magazine and website helped to lift our spirits during anxious and troubling moments of 2024. They remind us of why so many people dedicate themselves to social change work: community, connections, solidarity, and lifting others up. We hope they leave you with a feeling of hope as the year ends—and serve as inspiration for the collective work of social change that’s before us in 2025.
* A few of the stories on this list are only available to subscribers. SSIR is a nonprofit media organization that is entirely funded from subscriptions, events, webinars, and donations. We do not receive any monetary support from Stanford University. So, we encourage you to subscribe to help us continue our work.
1. Yielding Power to Youth by Kate Lord & Janae Phillips
Leaders at She’s the First, a global organization that teams up with grassroots leaders to make sure girls are educated, respected, and heard, share what they’ve learned from making the leap into youth-led advocacy campaigns.
2. Closing the Racial Diversity Gap in Medicine by Allison Torres Burtka*
A growing body of research shows a positive correlation between the racial diversity of doctors and health outcomes for underserved communities. Yet data shows a significant disparity in representation across US racial demographics. One nonprofit is working to change that.
3. Revitalize Parks to Strengthen Democracy by Geneva Vest, Cary Simmons & Howard Frumkin
“Envisioning, planning, creating, and stewarding a park exemplifies social infrastructure, enabling communities to address social issues on their terms and replace despair and frustration with hope and action.”
4. Helping Young People Cope With Eco-Anxiety by Zoey England
A warming world is causing adverse psychological and emotional impacts for many young people. Universities may be able to help by building opportunities for students to take relevant action beyond the classroom.
5. The Societal Role of Social Entrepreneurship by Theodore Lechterman & Johanna Mair
How can social entrepreneurship promote social justice? An unlikely source provides an unambiguous and practical framework.
6. How Indigenous Wisdom Can Support Youth Mental Health by Virgil Moorehead Jr.
“As in much of Native America, a vibrant cultural revitalization is underway here, bridging past and present and elevating Indigenous worldviews and traditions long suppressed by colonization. This is good news for our youth.”
7. Interview: Building Solidarity for Transformative Social Change
Leah Hunt-Hendrix and Astra Taylor discuss their new book, Solidarity: The Past, Present, and Future of a World-Changing Idea, with Aaron Horvath, associate director of research at the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, and explore how leaders can build cohesion across differences to organize transformative social movements.
8. Book Excerpt From Relationality: Connection Is Our Lost Superpower by David Jay
“Imagine that year after year for decades at a time our capacity for relationship keeps getting better. The world around us becomes more and more structured to facilitate relationship, and we become more skilled at leveraging it.”
9. CDFIs Transform Rural Economies. We Just Need to Get Them There. by Jerry Kenney, Ines Polonius & Gustavo Lasala
“Whether patiently coaching and mentoring rural entrepreneurs who fall through the cracks of the traditional banking sector, finding creative solutions to help small businesses grow, supporting water and wastewater systems with financing options, or even managing a multi-state donation and delivery of scoreboards, CDFIs are capable of acting as Swiss Army knives for rural development.”
10. Collaboration Across Social Boundaries: A Practical Guide by Karl Haushalter & Paul Steinberg
Every social system has its own unique and self-reinforcing characteristics, practices, and vocabularies. Learning to span these boundaries is a prerequisite for any significant change effort.
11. Designing for Better Mental Health Policy by Sarah Cusworth Walker
“The tools and strategies for better mental health policymaking are available. In embracing a design approach, we can move toward greater balance in values and knowledge, more democratic process, and more responsive services.”
12. No Disabled Child Left Behind by Madalitso Wills Kateta*
The NGO Sightsavers is working to change social attitudes toward disabled children in Malawi so they are not deprived of equal education and opportunity.
13. Prison Cats by Marcie Bianco*
Some unusual residents cohabit with the inmates at the Santiago Sur Criminal Detention Center, in Santiago, Chile: “Prison cat programs help both pets and people, having a profound impact on the health and well-being of prisoners, cats, administrators, and society at large.”
Read more stories by SSIR Editors.