523. How to Use Storytelling, Data, Partnerships, and Advocacy to Drive Systems Change - Sixto Cancel

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Overview

Meet Sixto. He’s a nationally recognized leader in driving systems change in child welfare to improve outcomes for youth and families. As the founder and CEO of Think of Us, he spearheads fundamental change in child welfare systems nationwide. He’s sharing how Think of Us secured a groundbreaking $47.5 million investment from the Audacious Project, which convenes funders and social entrepreneurs to support bold solutions to the world’s most urgent challenges. This investment is set to transform support for families and children in need🫶 Everything about Think of Us is innovative and Sixto shares the ins and outs so we can all grow with these same mindsets🌱

💡Learn

How to lean into new mindsets + innovation
The impact of research, tech, storytelling, and advocacy on child welfare
Strategies for creating impact at a systemic level

Today’s Guest

Sixto Cancel, Founder + CEO, Think of Us

“When do you say we should change something? Not because one person said so but because we actually see a collective experience of something that’s broken.”

— Founder + CEO, Think of Us

Episode Transcript

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Episode Highlights

Sixto’s story and an overview of Think of Us (4:30)
The mindsets Think of Us approaches their work with (8:00)
Leveraging the power of media and storytelling to grow the impact of Think of Us (10:00)
The Audacious Project (14:00)
How Think of Us creates change at the systemic level (22:00)
Different types of advocacy and why your voice matters (26:00)
A powerful moment of philanthropy in Sixto’s life (27:00)
Sixto’s One Good Thing: How should we be thinking about applying all this inertia and tools to solving some of society’s craziest problems? (29:00)
Connect with Sixto and Think of Us (32:00)

Impactful Quotes

“We have to get up close and personal to the suffering that people go through because when you have that level of proximity, that is what shifts people's thinking. “ -Sixto

“For most of those children, they actually are not cases that end up coming into the system, and then they're screened out. But what we've started to learn through research is that two, three years down the line, you see those same families who needed help, actually now having their children removed, because they don't have a stable place to live, because their child is going to school without proper nutrition and food and their clothes may not have been washed.” -Sixto
“People's thinking, their belief, their mindsets, their attitude, their mental models, are what drives behavior.” -Sixto

“Where I would start is truly understanding the nuance of the problem.” Sixto

“We will ask people what they need all the time and that is an extremely important question and we have not done enough as a sector to be able to lean into that. But as our recent work is revealing to us that we need to ask people, what are they going through.” -Sixto
“For me, it wasn't about creating a perfect strategy. The way we ended up here was that we realized there had to be multiple different competencies at the organizational level, in order to say how do we solve problems that are systemic?” -Sixto
“When do you say we should change something? Not because one person said so but because we actually see a collective experience of something that's broken.” -Sixto
“How do you advocate by co-doing?” -Sixto