Systems Change
L.A.B.
They’ll inherit it. Let them design it.
"If we don't have the future in the room when we're designing the future, what are we doing?"
A model, designed with the people who'll inherit it
The Systems Change L.A.B. is a model for designing the future with the generation that will inherit it. Young people start where they always do at Dream Tank: with their own spark, their own joy, their own gifts. They are not here to carry the world on their shoulders. They co-create from what lights them up, alongside university students, elders, and community leaders who stand with them. It runs in more than one format, and Golden is where it gets proven.
In Golden, the model unfolds in steps. It was prototyped in a two-week design sprint with students and mayors, the Systems Change Council convened April 6, and this summer a One-Day L.A.B. on August 7 runs the full method in a single day on a real community wellness challenge, ending with a community pitch. Next summer, the full ten-week program delivers a Local Action Blueprint to city leadership.
Golden is the founding pilot city, the first to prove the model works. What gets proven here becomes the blueprint for cities everywhere that want to design their future with their youngest citizens.
Golden Pilot at a Glance
HEAL · DREAM · BUILD · LAUNCH
Trauma-informed spaces where young people and adults feel safe, heard, and whole. Youth start from their own joy and gifts, never from pressure. Healing comes first, because we cannot build the future from overwhelm.
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 city leadership in the full program, and the work is shared with global viewers through the DREAMCAST broadcast.
The first time we ran it.
The method was prototyped over two weeks at Brown University, with students who came from South Korea, Rwanda, Tanzania, China, California, and Georgia. Most were in their first year. One was a senior. Alongside Heidi, Rebecca Irby, and Mayor Weinberg, they wove decades of tested models into a single framework, prototyped it on real problems, and presented it to Laura and to mayors from other towns and cities.
As the sprint was about to begin, news broke of a mass shooting. The team set the agenda down and made space to grieve and to listen before anything else. That is why HEAL comes first in this method, and why it runs through everything Dream Tank does. You cannot design a future from overwhelm. You begin by tending to the people in the room.
That sprint became the DREAMCAST, the first global airing of this work, and the foundation for what Golden builds now.
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.
How Golden builds it
Sprint
Heidi Cuppari, Rebecca Irby, and Mayor Weinberg brought decades of proven models together. Over two weeks, students prototyped the framework and presented it to Laura and to mayors from other towns and cities. The session was captured in the DREAMCAST, our first global airing of this work.
2026
The cross-sector Systems Change Council launched in Golden, organized and sponsored locally. Educators, entrepreneurs, civic leaders, and community builders committed to backing the youth and carrying the work forward.
2026
At Colorado School of Mines, a one-day run of the full HEAL · DREAM · BUILD method on a real community wellness challenge: the mental health toll of recent years. Dream Tank alumni youth, Mines students, Academy at Riverside youth leaders, high school mentors, and council elders work the problem together, facilitated by Heidi Cuppari, Rebecca Irby, and Dr. Sophia Boyer. The day ends with a community pitch, the room opened to Golden.
2027
The full ten-week program: 24+ Golden youth ages 8 to 14, 6 Colorado School of Mines fellows, 6 Golden High School peer interns, and cross-sector mentors. A multi-week innovation sprint, a public youth pitch, and a build phase ending in a Local Action Blueprint delivered to city leadership, and a global broadcast carrying Golden's proof to cities everywhere.
"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 global educator who has carried this work across fifteen countries. A Nobel Peace Prize-connected systems change researcher on the UN board. A former Golden city council member who knows the town by heart. 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 genuine civic 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.
A doctorate in education, Boston and Harvard-affiliated work, and program experience across fifteen Global South countries. Sophia helped develop and validate these models before the Brown design sprint, and she co-facilitates the One-Day L.A.B. As funding comes together, she steps into global leadership of Dream Tank, carrying the work into schools and ministries around the world.
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.
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 work forward. The council launched April 6, 2026, and there is room for aligned partners to join what is next. Become a founding partner →
A cross-sector council convened in Golden at our April 6 launch: leaders across finance, clean energy, network science, engineering, education, sustainability, food security, and civic life, who back the youth and carry the work forward. Become a founding partner →
Real deliverables.
Real civic impact.
A structured civic proposal, youth-generated and stakeholder-validated, delivered to Mayor Weinberg and Golden city leadership in the full summer program. Not a report. A document the city can act on.
A multi-day innovation sprint with 24 Golden youth ages 8 to 14, facilitated by Mines fellows and high school planning interns. It culminates in a public youth pitch to 100+ community members in the full summer program.
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.
Dream Tank's DREAMCAST has already aired this work to a global audience, and the full summer program carries Golden's proof outward to an international network of cities. This is the founding story of a movement.
Become part of
the Golden Thread
This isn't a gift to a summer program. It's a stake in a model: proof that a city can put its youngest citizens at the center of its future. Golden is where it gets proven. From here, it travels.
A small circle of founding partners is forming around it. Alex Johnston is already in, because he wants this model out in the world. There is room for one or two more aligned with this work. Founding partners aren't backing a season. They are the reason this model exists, and the reason it reaches the next city.
Or start a conversation with Heidi · heidi@dreamtank.co
