Take Your Place in The Shift: Engage, Support, Participate (Vol. 2, No. 1)

Leaders Up
6 days ago
3 min read

By John “JR” Roberson

The Shift | Vol. 2, No. 1 – The Unfinished Work: Pushing Forward to a Collective Future

The Work Isn’t Finished—And 2026 Is Calling Us Forward

As we close out the year, we’re not wrapping things up—we’re carrying things forward.

This moment calls for honesty about what remains unfinished: The systems that still fail to recognize talent, The pathways that remain fragmented, And the voices of young people are still too often invited only after decisions are made.

At LeadersUp, we’ve spent this year laying the essential groundwork—building relationships, gathering insights, and establishing early-stage structures — for lasting systems change. But systems don’t shift on timelines—they move when people consistently show up to shape them.

That’s where you come in.

From Programs to Power: Why Your Participation Matters

Our work has never been about short-term programs alone. It’s about building inclusive ecosystems—networks of employers, educators, policymakers, community leaders, and young people working together to redesign how opportunity is created and shared.

Two of the most important ways we’re doing that right now are through Dream Sessions and Future Maker Studios. These aren’t events for observation. They are platforms for co‑creation.

What Are Dream Sessions?

Dream Sessions are community-centered conversations that surface the lived experiences, aspirations, and challenges of young adults and ecosystem partners. They’re where imagination meets insight—where we ask not just “What’s broken?” but “What should be possible?”

Dream Sessions help us:

Ground workforce and economic strategies in real experience.
Identify system gaps—not just service gaps.
Build shared ownership of what comes next.

When you participate, you help shape the direction of future pathways—not react to them later. Register for a Dream Session here.

What Are Future Maker Studios?

Future Maker Studios turns the learnings from Dream Sessions into action.

These studios are collaborative design spaces where young people, employers, educators, and system leaders co-create:

Career pathway models.
Inclusive employer practices.
Demonstration projects that show what equitable systems look like in real time.

Future Maker Studios transform ideas into proof points—and proof points into policies, practices, and standards that can scale. This is where systems change stops being theoretical.

The Most Active Way to Push the Work Forward in 2026

If you’re wondering how to move beyond support into tangible impact, the answer is simple—but never passive:

Show up. Bring others. Stay engaged.

The most active allies in 2026 will:

Participate in Dream Sessions and Future Maker Studios.
Recruit young people, employers, and partners into these spaces.
Share insights, data, and lived experience openly.
Commit to learning alongside others—not just funding outcomes.

Systems change thrives on continuity. Your presence—across conversations, design sessions, and follow‑up actions—helps us move from pilots to practice, and from practice to policy.

How Immediate Action Creates Lasting Change

When you engage now, you’re not just supporting a single initiative—you’re fueling a movement toward:

New standards for high-road employment.
Stronger, more aligned regional ecosystems.
Policies shaped by real experience.
Talent pathways designed with young people, not for them.

This is how short-term actions compound into long-term transformation.Every Dream Session sharpens the insight.Every Future Maker Studio strengthens the model.Every connection expands our collective power.

Standing With Us—Into 2026 and Beyond

As we head into the new year, we invite you to do more than watch this work unfold.

Stand with us—to learn, to show up, to take action.

Because the future we’re building won’t be shaped by one organization alone, it will be built by communities bold enough to stay engaged until systems truly change.

The work isn’t finished. But together, we’re building what comes next.

John “JR” Roberson is the Vice President of Stakeholder Engagement at LeadersUp, driving transformative partnerships and systemic workforce equity through cross-sector collaboration and policy influence.