Philosophy of Systemic Change at Sisters Of The Road
On this page, you’ll find a brief description of our philosophy of systemic change. For information about our Systemic Change Program, please click here.
Systemic change is a repetitive process that honors a whole system and views the impact of change on all parts of that system as interconnected. A systemic change approach examines the system in terms of relationships, and its ability to recognize and include all of its partners. It requires reflection leading to new thought and new models.
Systemic change usually doesn’t occur because the current system wakes up one morning and decides it needs a change. At Sisters, our experience has shown us that our community (people who experience homelessness, poverty, and oppressions at the hands of the current socioeconomic system) ARE the catalyst for the change that is needed. They are the outside force working to end oppressions and are too frequently met with resistance and oppression from the current system.
Our systemic change work is informed in part by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Signed by the United States in 1948, it guarantees a full range of economic human rights including the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of oneself. Education, food, clothing, housing, medical care, a living wage, necessary social services, and to be a member of a community are also guaranteed rights.
We believe -
- Poverty and homelessness are a result of the current economic system and are violation of our Economic Human Rights. Poverty is an enemy to human dignity and an enemy of justice. By helping one another to think differently about poverty and to tell our stories in terms of human rights we help to remove the hunger and isolation that poverty creates and end it forever.
- The current system uses violence to control every aspect of our lives. To create the change we want to see, we will not cooperate with violence. We will lay our bodies and minds down on the systems of oppression and control that the current system creates and bring its workings to halt. Through nonviolence we will create the world that is possible.
- We will help to foster a social movement led by people experiencing poverty, homelessness, and oppression that will change the system by creating a vision for what we want the new system to look like. Through analysis, sharing of struggles, reflection, and repeating of the process, we will create systemic change that will be lasting and beneficial for all people and our planet.
