Systems Change Framework: Understanding how systems shape outcomes—and how to change them.
EquityWork applies systems intelligence to understand how workforce and employment outcomes are produced and how they can be changed. Our approach combines system analysis, institutional insight, and applied strategy to identify and shift structural conditions that shape access to work.
How Employment Outcomes Are Shaped
Employment outcomes are not determined solely by individual effort or program participation. They are produced by interconnected systems that influence access to opportunity. Key conditions shaping outcomes include:
- Employer decision environments
- Policy and structural constraints
- Labor market access and dynamics
- Narratives and assumptions about work and risk
"In the context of justice-impacted employment these system dynamics are especially pronounced. The following diagram illustrates how the justice-impacted employment system is structured and where outcomes are most often constrained."
Figure 1. The Justice-Impacted Employment Systems Model
Source: EquityWork Institute
The Justice impacted employment system is exclusively designed around the Individual Readiness Fallacy. Learn more
Workforce outcomes don't fail. Systems do. When systems fail, individuals are often blamed for barriers they did not create.
Understanding how systems produce outcomes is the first step. Changing those outcomes requires identifying where and how to intervene.
How System Change Happens
Our approach combines insight, field coordination, and institutional influence to shift the policies, practices, and narratives that determine employment opportunity.
Our Core Strategies
Our work centers on 4 core strategies:
1. Systems Insight & Analysis
We produce analysis and frameworks that reveal how justice-impacted employment systems function and where structural barriers persist.
2. Field & Institutional Influence
We engage employers, workforce leaders, and policymakers to influence the decisions and practices that shape employment opportunity.
3. Policy & Structural Reform
We advance policy reforms and institutional changes that remove barriers and expand access to meaningful employment.
4. Field Building
We strengthen alignment across organizations working within the justice-impacted employment system.
Systems change occurs when the conditions shaping opportunity shift across institutions, policies, and the broader field. We evaluate progress across four dimensions:
I. System Conditions Shift
Changes in the policies, institutional practices, and structural barriers that shape justice-impacted employment.
II. Field Alignment & Influence
Growing alignment among organizations institutions and policymakers working to advance structural change.
Opportunity Expansion
Improved access to stable employment and labor market participation for justice-impacted people.
Institutional Capacity for Change
Employers, workforce systems, and public institutions developing the infrastructure and practices needed to sustain reforms.
These strategies take shape through targeted interventions that shift systems and practice.
What Systems Change Looks Like In Practice
Systems change requires shifts in institutional practices, policies, and field-level coordination.
EquityWork advances these shifts through interventions designed to expand employment opportunity–particularly for justice-impacted individuals.
Shifting Systems. Expanding Access.
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