Suzanne Cummings is community development outreach communications manager and Jessica Grant-Domond is a senior community development analyst, both in Regional & Community Outreach at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

While the concept of “systems change” is not new, it is being used more frequently by a variety of public- and private-sector leaders in their work. Within the Boston Fed’s Working Places (WP) initiative, we use the term “system” to describe how things like institutions, policies, customs, and culture work together to affect the achievement of community goals. In this context, “systems change” is the way we transform the conditions that keep systemic problems in place to clear the path for better outcomes.

Using systems change to solve community problems means changing policies and procedures and how we make decisions and use our resources to make civic efforts and institutions more successful. The intent is to tackle the root causes of issues—treating the source of problems, not just their symptoms—by removing obstacles, filling gaps, and addressing disparities that keep people from having fair and equal access to opportunity. This is different from a program approach, in which problems are addressed simply by creating new efforts.

In this Invested Interprets, two WP initiative leaders discuss what systems change looks like in their communities and how their teams determined residents’ most critical needs and made transformative changes to address them head-on. Emily Lev is the former initiative director for Working Communities of Lamoille County, Vermont, and Alisa Costa is a consultant and former initiative director of Berkshire Bridges in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

The views expressed are not necessarily those of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston or the Federal Reserve System. Information about organizations, programs, and events is strictly informational and not an endorsement.