Systems Change
L.A.B.
Local Action Blueprint — Golden, Colorado — Founding Pilot 2026
"If we don't have the future in the room when we're designing the future, what are we doing?"
Golden is building something new
The Systems Change L.A.B. is an intergenerational civic innovation program that brings together 24 Golden youth ages 8–14, 3–6 Golden High School interns, 3–6 Colorado School of Mines university fellows, and cross-sector community leaders to design real solutions to Golden's civic challenges.
The program culminates in a Local Action Blueprint — a structured civic proposal delivered directly to Mayor Weinberg and Golden city leadership. Not a report that sits on a shelf. A document the city can act on.
Golden is the founding pilot city — the first to prove this model works. What gets built here becomes the blueprint for cities everywhere that want to design their futures with their youngest citizens.
Golden Pilot at a Glance
HEAL · DREAM · BUILD · LAUNCH
Trauma-informed spaces where youth and adults feel safe, heard, and ready to lead together. Safety comes before everything.
Youth explore root causes of Golden's real civic challenges and envision bold futures — unconstrained by "how things have always been done."
Teams prototype real solutions with mentors and experts from across Golden's ecosystem. Ideas get stress-tested against real-world constraints.
Youth ideas become a Local Action Blueprint delivered to Golden's city leadership — and shared with thousands of global viewers in August via the DREAMCAST broadcast.
Three generations.
One team.
Golden young people are not observers or advisors. They are co-creators of real civic solutions. Their ideas drive the entire Local Action Blueprint. The future should be in the room when we're designing the future.
Colorado School of Mines students serve as the Leadership Triad — City Lab Lead, Community & Impact Fellow, and Story & Systems Fellow. They translate youth ideas into implementation-ready civic proposals. Stipends funded by Mines.
Educators, entrepreneurs, city leaders, philanthropists, and civic builders who open doors, provide expertise, and carry the work forward after August. This is the intergenerational architecture that makes systems change stick.
Golden High School students join as volunteer fellows — taking on real roles in documentation, photography, storytelling, and community outreach. Supervised by JJ, our Local Program Director. Clear role expectations and deliverables.
Mayor Weinberg is not a figurehead. She convenes the room, sets civic priority areas for the youth teams, receives the Local Action Blueprint, and brings the program's credibility to every funder and partner conversation. NLC board member.
Dream Tank created the Systems Change L.A.B. and wove together a decade of tested civic innovation models into this program. PEAC Institute (Rebecca Irby) brings double-blind research-validated systems change and power mapping methodology — the same model applied in work that contributed to nuclear disarmament and a Nobel Peace Prize. Rebecca sits on the Board of the UN Conference of NGOs (CoNGO) and has pitched the Systems Change L.A.B. to the UN Learning Academy. Golden is the founding pilot of a program poised for global UN distribution.
What the summer looks like
All Mines Leadership Fellows and HS volunteer students begin. Two full weeks of intensive training in facilitation, systems thinking, civic leadership, and intergenerational collaboration. A Civic Priority-Setting Workshop with Golden city leaders confirms 1–2 focus areas for the summer.
24 Golden youth ages 8–14 join for a 5-day innovation sprint. Mines fellows and HS planning interns co-facilitate. The week culminates in a public pitch event on Friday June 19 — 100+ community members — where youth teams present their ideas to Golden city leadership and the cross-sector council.
August 10
Fellows lead stakeholder interviews across Golden's civic ecosystem, validate youth ideas against real community needs, draft implementation pathways, and build the Evidence Pack. The cross-sector council stays actively involved throughout.
The final Local Action Blueprint is delivered to Mayor Weinberg and Golden city leadership — a structured civic proposal with youth-generated ideas, feasibility analysis, and implementation pathways the city can act on.
2026
Golden's work is shared with an international network of cities. What gets built here becomes the proof-of-concept for cities everywhere that want to design their futures with their youngest citizens.
"What Mayor Weinberg has specifically championed is the intergenerational design — young people, university students, business leaders, educators, and city officials all working together on real civic challenges. That's what makes Golden different."
Experience you can stand on.
Look at this room. A founder who spent 25 years building toward this. A mayor and a civic innovator who met at Brown University years ago. A Nobel Peace Prize-connected systems change researcher on the UN board. Two former Golden city council members. A public health expert with 30 years of collective impact experience. All women. All in.
25 years at the intersection of social entrepreneurship, civic innovation, and youth leadership — including White House roundtables, UN convenings, Davos, and programs across Boulder, Providence, New York, Washington D.C., and internationally in Kenya, South Korea, Rwanda, and more. Heidi created the Systems Change L.A.B. because she saw what was missing if we were serious about solving the SDGs: the future wasn't in the room. Now it is. Heidi leads all fellow training, the Future Cities Accelerator, and Blueprint delivery.
Mayor of Golden and board member of the National League of Cities. Laura and Heidi met at Brown University — and years later, Laura became the civic champion who made this pilot possible. She sets the city's priority areas for the youth teams, receives the final Local Action Blueprint, and opens every door the program needs. Her involvement is what makes this a genuine city partnership.
Founding Partner and Board President of PEAC Institute. Rebecca's double-blind research-validated systems change and power mapping methodology was applied in the work behind nuclear disarmament — the kind of systems change that wins Nobel Peace Prizes. She sits on the Board of the UN Conference of NGOs (CoNGO) and has brought the Systems Change L.A.B. to the UN Learning Academy. Golden is the first city in a model that will scale globally through the UN network.
Former Golden city council member with deep roots in Golden's civic ecosystem. Jennifer leads council curation, community activation, the April 6 Council Launch Gathering, and oversees Golden High School volunteer fellows throughout the summer. She is the reason this program feels like it genuinely belongs to Golden — because it does.
30 years of public health, collective impact, and program evaluation — including decades at Jefferson County Health Department. Also a former Golden city council member. Pamela leads grant writing, program design coordination, and community partnerships. Her public health rigor is what turns this program from a vision into something that can be evaluated, replicated, and funded.
The council is the intergenerational fabric that makes this work. Educators, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, civic leaders, and community builders who open doors, share expertise, and carry the Local Action Blueprint forward after August. The council launches at our April 6 gathering. Request an invite →
Real deliverables.
Real civic impact.
A structured civic proposal — youth-generated ideas, stakeholder-validated, implementation-ready — delivered to Mayor Weinberg and Golden city leadership in August. Not a report. A document the city can act on.
A 5-day innovation sprint (June 15–19) with 24 Golden youth ages 8–14. Facilitated by Mines fellows and HS planning interns. Culminates in a public pitch event with 100+ community members on June 19.
Full documentation of the program: photos, stakeholder interviews, engagement metrics, process notes, and a replication guide — so the next city can learn from everything Golden built.
Golden's work shared live with thousands of viewers across an international network of cities in August. What Golden proves this summer echoes outward. This is the founding story of a movement.
Become part of
the Golden Thread
Golden goes first. This summer, our city becomes the founding proof that communities can design their futures with their youngest citizens — and deliver something real to city leadership at the end.
Your gift funds the world-class team and program infrastructure that makes this possible — from expert facilitation and curriculum to fellow training, the Future Cities Accelerator, and the August Global Broadcast reaching thousands worldwide.
