Exploring Community Challenges: From Blame to Understanding

Pre-Work: Framing the Activity (5-10 minutes)

• Introduce the distinction between:
  • Blame (focusing on individuals)
  • Understanding (examining patterns and systems)
• Say: “Today we are practicing how to understand community challenges more deeply.”
• Establish norms:
  • Examples might include:
    • Focus on systems and patterns
    • Speak from experience, not stereotypes
    • Avoid naming specific individuals

Warm-Up: Naming Community Challenges (10 minutes)

• Invite students to brainstorm examples of community-level challenges.
  • These may include:
    • School safety
    • Bullying
    • Mental health 
    • Social media pressure
    • Weapons and threats
• Write ideas on the board.
• Students vote or select 1-2 to explore more deeply.

Core Activity: From Symptoms to Systems (25 minutes)

• Divide students into small groups.
• Each group completes three steps:
  • Step 1: Identify the Surface Problem
    • Write a clear statement: “The challenge we are exploring is…”
      • Example: “Students feel disconnected at school.”

• Step 2: Ask “What Might Be Contributing?”
  • Groups identify:
    • Policies
    • Pracitces
    • Resource flows
    • Relationships and connections
    • Power dynamics
    • Mental models
  • Encourage them to ask:
    • What patterns do we see?
    • Who benefits?
    • Who is impacted?
    • What assumptions are operating?
  • Students may use sticky notes and cluster related causes.

• Step 3: Identify Leverage Points
  • Ask: “Where could change begin?”
  • Students identify:
    • Small changes (within reach)
    • Larger structural shifts (long-term)
  • Stress: “We are identifying possibilities, not assigning responsibility”

Whole-Class Reflection (10 minutes)

• Invite each group to share:
  • One insight about root causes
  • One possible leverage point
• Facilitate reflection:
  • How did looking at systems change your thinking?
  • What happens when we move beyond individual blame?
• Reinforce: Understanding systems can reduce oversimplification and increase thoughtful action.

Reflection & Closing (5-10 minutes)

• Invite students to complete an exit reflection:
  • “One thing I understand differently about community problems now is…”
  • “One change that feels realistic is…”
• Optional: Where do I see my own role? Where do I see collective responsibility?

Educator Support

• Facilitation Tips
  • Keep examples developmentally appropriate
  • Redirect personal blame toward structural inquiry
  • Encourage curiosity over certainty

• Differentiation
  • Provide guiding questions in written form
  • Offer a partially completed example for modeling
  • Allow visual mapping instead of written paragraphs

• Assessment
  • Depth of systems analysis
  • Ability to distinguish symptoms from root causes
  • Reflection quality
• School Support
  • If exploring sensitive community issues, consult school leadership for guidance on framing