Creating Change Through Social Innovation

Vision alone will not build an equitable economy. It requires discipline, structure, and a culture to push the work through. At LeadersUp, we frequently discuss systems change in the context of external factors: policies that must change, pathways that need to be configured, and partnerships required to move from intention to impact. However, beneath every external template there is an internal one.

Earlier this year, leaders responsible for connecting young people to education, careers, training, and long-term economic opportunity gathered around the same table with a shared question: how do we stop asking young people to navigate systems that were never designed to work together?

A more equitable economy and society is not built through vision alone, but through models of resilience and solidarity that hold up under real-world conditions. Every May, the United States observes AANHPI Heritage Month to highlight the contributions, accomplishments, and presence of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities across the nation.

In this episode of Lead The Shift, Jeffery Wallace sits down with Caroline Bhalla, Director of Civic Engagement at the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate, for a compelling conversation about what it takes to build real power for young people and communities.