💡 Community Challenge: Spotting Signals of Change

A practical tool for changemakers to notice, amplify, and build on the positive changes that are already shaping our future.

Welcome to REWIRE Democracy’s first Community Challenge!

Our Community Challenges are your chance to join our growing movement of changemakers actively shaping the civil society space. Each month, these interactive activities will help you take the tools and strategies from our newsletter and apply them to your own work and life. Think of it like… collective homework for creating meaningful change.

This month, we’re focusing on spotting and sharing Signals of Change: small, tangible shifts in the world around us that remind us what’s possible.

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💡 Signals of Change 💡

We learned in the first installment of our newsletter that hope is a powerful tool for change because it shifts our focus toward building a better future.

If we want to re-imagine democracy we need to think about the future. Krizna Gomez, founder & CEO of Tala Strategies explains why:

But, as we all know, thinking about the future can often feel overwhelming, which is why it’s important to go one step at a time. That’s where ‘Signals of Change’ come in. These are small, everyday innovations or disruptions that spark hope and offer glimpses of the world we want to build.

Signals of Change are small or local innovations and disruptions happening today that give us hope for the future. They’re glimpses of the world we want to build. A signal could be a new product, practice, cultural moment, policy, or even technology; they’re real actions or ideas already happening now on a small scale, but if they grow and become mainstream, they can fundamentally alter reality.

Spotting Signals of Change is about seeing the good that’s already unfolding—and amplifying it. By catching these signals early, we as civil society leaders and changemakers can:

• train ourselves to focus on solutions instead of problems,

• build momentum and collective hope for systemic change,

• share what we see with our networks to inspire others,

• and take action to spread, support, or replicate those innovations!

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💪 Now, it’s your turn.

Take a moment to reflect on something that gives you hope for the future. Maybe it’s an article you read, a story you heard, or something happening in your own community. Keep these points in mind as you start spotting Signals of Change:

• Signals of Change are happening now. They’re real events, actions, or innovations, not hypothetical ideas.

• Signals aren’t trends. A trend is broad, like ‘wave of authoritarianism’ while a signal is specific, like ‘Orban re-elected in Hungary.’ Similarly, ‘Fridays for Future’ is a trend, but Greta Thunberg sitting outside Parliament is a signal.

• Signals are not predictions. They show what’s possible now, not a guarantee of what will happen next.

Share your Signal of Change in the comments below! Tell us: what’s the story behind it, and why does it inspire you? The more we share and amplify these signals, the more we can build collective hope and learn from each other.

Try to make it a habit to notice the small shifts happening around you, because even the tiniest ripple can lead to a wave of change.